A recent debate has sprung up in the blogosphere concerning job hopping—changing jobs even more than the norm which is about every three years. We’re talking people who jump ship every year to year and a half. Job hoppers.
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The discussion was sparked by a Tweet from Internet entrepreneur and blogger, Jason Calacanis, saying that job-hoppers end up looking like flakes. And shortly after, the blogosphere erupts in this giant discussion on the sins or merits of job-hopping. If you look really hard through all the dust that’s settling you see that there are really two camps: those that view job-hopping as career suicide for Gen Y employees, and those that see it as more of a necessary evil of the times.
Both sides of the divide have sound arguments. Calacanis’ diatribe, originally appearing in an email newsletter, can be found on his site here. In it he decries the job-hopper’s lack of loyalty and long term vision, stating they’re only in the game for more money, now. Entrepreneur Mark Suster posted a well written piece defending Calacanis and explaining his own negative view of job-hopping. Lack of loyalty, integrity, commitment: three qualities that are unarguably sought after in job candidates across the board.
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In a more traditional job seeking setting (i.e. not the whirling world of startups or venture funded endeavors) having several jobs within a relatively short period of time can raise some eyebrows. This excellent article lays out a fairly balanced look at job hopping and what it can or cannot do for you. If you find yourself thrown into the job hopper camp, one of the suggestions is to make sure you can show results in your short stints at companies you’ve previously worked for. At the very least you should be prepared to answer some questions about the issue in an interview.
Job Hopping and the Role of Companies
It is interesting to point out that job hoppers might not inherently want to be job hoppers. Few people really want the stress of leaving a job and constantly being in the cycle of finding new jobs.
I’m not convinced that employees started the fire here. Another way of looking at the job hopping problem is that employees perceive companies differently than they used to. Perception has gone from a career for life to just a job, a concept that is supported by companies slashing their workforce, cutting benefits, and as a result have high turnover – sometimes in the name of trying to increase the bottom line. Companies as a whole aren’t showing the same level of commitment to their employees as in years past. What’s interesting about companies creating the “no job is secure” mindset is that this in turn leads employees and job seekers to maintain tighter connections to their network, hence the promulgation of networking sites as LinkedIn and crowdsourced job sites as our own ChumBonus.
Then you have companies that choose to be great – to their employees and the communities around them. While they obviously are also trying to make money like any other company, they are motivated to create extraordinary working environments where people don’t want to leave. If you’re a job hopper, you need to think about the team. Eventually, self-serving habits will give you a poor reputation and make it harder for you to find work. Stay tuned to the blog for our next post, where we’ll be reviewing Small Giants, by Bo Burlingham of Inc. Magazine. It’s good to see there are still companies out there that choose to be great – we should all take a lesson from them and feel invited to stay instead of hopping to the next opportunity.
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