To ask how long you should spend in a job?

[whatareyoudoinghere]

I’ve had a lot of changes in my working life and currently am doing my longest stint, which is three and a half years. Before that I only managed a maximum of two years.

I am wondering whether to apply for another role but on balance wondering if it’s better to stay longer. Or if it really doesn’t matter. I am a teacher.

@ComtesseDeSpair i think most people have unless you’ve been in the same job for a very long period which brings with it its own problems. (I’m not trying to be difficult but people insisting I’ll end up in the reject pile is nonsense in its own right, if only because I’ve never not been employed so I’m clearly being successful somewhere!)

Being berated for things that happened twenty odd years ago is daft as well. Like most people I’m a very different person at 44/45 than I was at 24/25. If someone seriously wouldn’t want me to work for them because aged 24 I moved to Southampton on admittedly a bit of a whim and spent a couple of years there and moved back ‘home’ age 26 - seriously!?

I would stay a bit longer. Something like 5, or maybe even 6, years. And then only make really intentional moves in the future.

If there's nothing pressing you to move it's probably best to stay put. Partly because you're often better off with the devil you know, but also longevity in your current job will help to balance the rest of your career and should stand you in better stead when you're next applying.

Have you ever felt attached to a school? Mine feels like home. I have a huge history with it and relationships with parents and children in all year groups - it's the investment in the community that is powerful. It's not perfect - it never will be - but the satisfaction comes from being part of something.

On paper, somebody who is 45 and has never stayed longer than 2 years with any one employer would concern me. If you were in your late twenties, not so much: most people do take some time to get into their stride as youngsters and work out where they fit and what they want to do. But you aren’t in your late twenties. You’ve asked for advice and several people have said the same thing. The people who read your CV don’t know you or your background or have anything to base their decisions on but what they’re reading and their instincts - it’s hard, but it’s the reality. You can absolutely start to turn things around, by sticking where you are for a couple more years, to show you can commit.

I can quite see that, I’ve never had it but I imagine it is very special

But yes it would be nice to do between 5-7 years so I’ve seen one cohort go through in it’s entirety.

@ComtesseDeSpair i know but (and this will sound horrible) I’m not asking for your personal view. And I have been in my current role three and a half years; go me. It took until I was forty but I did get there!

What I am wondering is whether to stick at current job longer even though it is pretty rubbish or whether to look elsewhere. I know you probably don’t mean it to but I do feel a bit like I’m having to justify myself.

Someone in their late 20s/early 30s who'd had a clutch of short term jobs followed by 3-4 years = fine, they were finding out what they wanted to do and are now settled.

Someone who got to 41 before settling, I'd want to explore a bit further. And if I had several alternative good candidates, why would I bother?

if I had several alternative good candidates, why would I bother

There probably aren’t several alternative good candidates then …

I’m not sure why you started a thread asking how long you should stay in a job, when you don’t appear to want to hear the views of people who recruit and make decisions about who they hire based on stuff like this. I wish you well, and hope you eventually find somewhere you do fit in and feel you can stay.

No longer are people judged on the longevity of their 'careers'. Portfolio working, changing jobs (even skills) regularly gives you life, management and people skills.
Who wants a teasmade upon retiring after 40 years in the same job??
Life if far too short to be chained to one job/profession/place

Which is fine in OT jobs, big city finance etc. Not however in teaching.

I think it's special - it's what's kept me there for 20 years!

I think the key is finding the right school so, if you decide to move on, be really discerning about what you apply for. Don't just move on for the sake of it. You're not going to find the perfect school so you need to decide what is really important to you. And if you get an interview, bring up your history and be very open about what you're looking for - don't wait for them to ask.

I've only ever moved when I felt unfulfilled.

First job after uni (not ever) I was in for 18 months until I left. I realised you could only progress if the person above you left and it wasn't challenging me/I wasn't learning.

Second job I was in for 2.5 years. I loved the people and firm I worked for, but once again, I was stagnating in my learning. So I changed roles and firm.

Been in my current job for over 6 years and have no desire to leave (despite recruiters calling me!). My team are lovely, the firm culture is brilliant and I am learning something new every day. My work keeps me mentally challenged and satisfied.

If you are no enjoying your job, then look for something else. We spend so much time at work that ideally it needs to be bearable.

Because as I tried to politely explain, you’ve been (probably unintentionally) making me justify things that happened literally decades ago.

It is fine to say ‘if I were you I’d stick it out longer where you are as it would look a lot better,’ I’ve no issue with that at all. I am feeling a tiny bit needled by ‘huh I’d definitely put someone who followed their boyfriend around on the reject pile.’

At the risk of sounding a bit boastful I’ve never not been shortlisted. I don’t think that’s because I’m amazing - probably more because there’s a dire shortage! - and I haven’t always been offered the position but in that time I have gained promotions and been second and HOD, so I’m not that dire!

At the moment I am a mere teacher and not wanting to be anything else, and part time too. But it isn’t a very nice place to work and I was just idly wondering about moving on. For me, four years feels like a long time but of course I recognise it isn’t really.

I've been in my current job almost 12 years, and as long as the management team continues with the same outlook as it does currently, I don't see me leaving anytime soon.

I do think if at 45 the longest you have been in any job is 3.5 years that puts you at a disadvantage. And if you are then the best candidate for the job it maybe says something about the school about struggling to recruit which then might just be a self fulfilling prophecy.

How many jobs have you had?
Have they all been in primary schools?
I think I'd be thinking that you haven't found whatever it is that you're looking for in any of the primary schools you have worked in to date so it is unlikely that you would do in your next school. With the attrition rate of teachers in primary over the past few years, I wouldn't expect you to have to necessarily move for promotion so I would also be wondering why your previous headteachers hadn't wanted to promote you.
What are your reasons for looking again? I would have thought that things like workload, behaviour management and quite a few other things would get better the more time you spend in a school as you build up an understanding of the school community and what drives the individuals within it.

It honestly depends what you're looking for. I.e. I work in the NHS, I am not looking to rapidly go up the ladder. I am very happy to stay at band six. I do however every few years change my job, just because I like the new learning opportunities and get bored very, very easily.

I would usually say every three years. It has never ever stopped getting another job.

I have noticed time and time again that people who have been in the same job for too long are often cynical and stuck in their ways totally resistant to change and make everyone else miserable. This is absolutely chronic in the NHS.

I'm a teacher the same age as you. In terms of years per job I've done 1/ 2/ 2/ 6/ 2/ 10. The short posts reflect both the process of working out what I wanted (moved into special needs) and relocating with DH's job. I do not really have any intentions of ever leaving my current school.

My general advice for surviving teaching is find a school that fits, where you are getting paid enough, and bed in. It is so much easier once you are the one who knows the school inside out.

I am involved in appointing staff and would be very wary of a teacher who had only ever done short posts, unless they were a trailing forces spouse or similar.

A constantly short history always rang alarm bells for me when recruiting.

Not least because it's a huge time and cost drain recruiting so recruiting someone who will inevitably move on fast is a waste. Plus it does raise question marks about whether there were issues.

That said, I would expect a bit of movement early career and also at key points eg to get a promotion
(Although it's always even better to see that someone was valued enough to get an internal promotion)

Why? Nursing used to be the same - stay in a job, become a ward sister for 30 years in same place.
Teaching is no different unless you make it so.

It completely depend on the industry, the job and the organisation...

I have worked for charities for a long time and they tend to have high staff turnover because often the pay is low and opportunities for pay rises/promotion are limited.

My current charity has the worst staff turnover I have ever seen!

I have been there for two years and I want to move on.

In that sector it is completely normal for people to move on after 1 or 2 years. Front-line staff especially have case loads that are way to high and end up burning out.

In the end you have to do what is best for you and your career, if a job does not pay well or give opportunities for promotion or offer something specific like flexible hours/remote working as a perk, I can completely understand why someone would leave.

As a hiring manager myself, it would not bother me.

Many employers have little long term commitment to employees these days, and would make you redundant without a second thought if they needed to, so I don't see why employees should not take the same approach.

If you are not happy in your job, then start looking for another job.

Has there been a change of management? Is that why the workload/behaviour has changed?

I'm a teacher and have been in my school for about 30 years. I have never been interested in moving onto management and there have been enough changes over that time to mean that I have never been bored. Moving schools for the sake of it has always seemed pointless.

At my school, there are other teachers who have also been here for many years. Those who move on are most often moving for promotion, sometimes because of relocation, or - less often - because the school doesn't suit them.

I don't think there's anything wrong with occasionally only staying in a school for a couple of years but if it becomes a pattern, it would raise alarm bells.

I remember you from TES, I think, when cariadlet was a toddler!

I think being in a teaching job for such a short time is odd, but maybe that's because it's not my experience.
The shortest time for me in one job was 3 years. I've been teaching for almost 30 years and am used to staying in a job long enough that I see children go right through school!
One HT said to me that it takes 3 years in one year group to become good at it. First year everything's new and tricky, 2nd year you sort the mistakes, 3rd year you enjoy it. I think that's true for being in a new school too.
As a panel member, I'd be wanting to know why you'd moved so frequently (it's not unusual for forces spouses to move every 2-3 years, for example).
Yes, it costs a lot to recruit but if I'm going to get 2 years of fabulousness then it's worth it.