Job hopping, how much is too much?

How long you have to stay in jobs to make you not a job hopper? If you change jobs every year or so, does that mean you are not going to be a candidate for good jobs?

this is all situational. some people might change jobs because of new opportunities that keep getting better. others may have issues with bosses, location…etc. some may be unlucky. I would only be worried about job hopping having a negative impact on you if the only reason you kept changing jobs was because you just did it out of boredom or kept getting fired. In an interview you should have a good reason as to why this happened.

I would try to go in to a new job with at least a 2 year commitment. I also think as long as you have a good reason for moving to another position (opportunity/vertical move/money) and this reason is tactfully communicated to the hiring manager, you will be fine with a string of ‘shorter’ tenures on your resume.

i’m moving onto my 6th “role” in my 6th year here. each has been an internal move, though, with the same company.

A little about me. Left my IB in September and switched to a new one, leaving current IB now for another that offered me last week, may be leaving this newer IB for a likely offer. So that is a total of 4 banks in a 9 month span for better offers. Is that too much?

yes way too much…

I’d say spending two years at a position mitigates some concerns about job hopping; any shorter, and people want to know your reasons for moving. With that said, I’ve never been with a company for more than two years. I’d say that for every 20 companies I’ve interviewed with, maybe one or two have expressed any curiosity or concerns for my job transitions. I saw more questions when I was interviewing for MBA internships at Fortune 100 companies, because most people tend to stay in those roles longer. However, for consulting or finance roles, people seem less concerned about transitions and care more about what I can do for them. Basically, if I were to self-diagnose my situation, I think some people really are concerned about the fact that I’ve switched roles every couple years, but I think they believe my transitions are credible and also my work experience at every junction reflected top performance. I think if you can position yourself in a similar way, you’ll be fine. It’s not uncommon these days; in fact, I have a number of clients that have been in roles for just a year and they end up doing fine in the end. It all comes down to how convincing your story or pitch are, and how well they think you can do the job you’re interviewing for.

Flux Capacitor Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > A little about me. Left my IB in September and > switched to a new one, leaving current IB now for > another that offered me last week, may be leaving > this newer IB for a likely offer. So that is a > total of 4 banks in a 9 month span for better > offers. Is that too much? In theory I agree with Numi’s well-written post. In practice, I think that 4 in 9 months is too damn many. That many switches presents a lot of possible explanations, none of them good.

I would never hire someone who switched 4 jobs in 9 months. And I would make sure to blacklist them.

Who cares as long as the next company is willing to hire you.

i think it depends what the basis for the moves was. bo -> makes sense. also, 2008 wasn’t all that great of a year so moves could have been warranted. make that case that you’re sick of jumping around and want to find a firm to grow with.

One hop (maybe two) is fine, assuming you have a good reason when asked. If you seem to hop every year or two though, a lot of employers won’t be interested in you even if you had good reasons. In fact, you might never get the opportunity to offer your reasons because they might just chuck your resume. Bringing on new employees can be very expensive, so employers like to be as certain as possible that you will hang around for at least a few years.

It also depends on what sort of jobs you hopped between. If you’re getting better and better job titles, then that might be justifiable. If you’re hopping between similar jobs, I would be a bit concerned about working with you.

I dont see an issue if you get solid pay bumps each time you hop.

General rule is two years minimum. But there are other factors. An occasional few months gig is nothing to be ashamed of in my book: you try something new and you don’t like it, just bail out and move on. I’d rather hire someone who has had 3 jobs in the last 10 years than someone who stayed in the same job in the last 10 years. Changing jobs every 3 years or so shows that your are curious, flexible and ambitious. Plus having been in different organisations brings much in terms of experience. EDIT: oh I forgot : that is under the assumption that the decision was yours everytime and that you changed for something that makes sense.