To ask if anyone else is/has been a job hopper?

[Sishirunak40]

How often do you change jobs and why?
Do you get judgmental/negative comments from other people?
How do you feel about it?

I went through a spare of changng my career every few years. I've now been in my current career for about 15 years but have changed my role a few times within that career. I get bored easily and need a new challenge.

I've not had any negative comments or judgement.

Im 36 and my longest stay in one workplace was 6 years with 2 promotions in that time. Other than that its been 3 years max in a workplace.

For me, it just gets to the point that I feel its the end of the road there.

I have only ever had one person comment on the number of times I move.

Aa a hiring manager, im a bit wary of people who have routinely job hopped every 18mths - 2years. Generally people who have done this have sort of outrun the processes that pick up problems and find errors and its easy to get away with burying some problem/challenging work before skipping on to the next role without ever dealing with it.
So yeah for me its a red flag on a cv if someone has several jobs where they've done 18-24mths then moved.

Interesting @pragmatismuniversalsentimentalist - I used to work with someone who did this, moved jobs after 2 years on principle. He was decent though so I doubt it was to outrun any issues, he just got bored easily. I wonder if he settled a bit more after getting older.

I usually do 4-5 years in a role before moving on. Coming up for 8 years in my current job but I’ve done 2 long secondments and had a maternity leave within the 8 years so it doesn’t feel that long!

For the first decade of my career I job-hopped quite a bit. I think the longest I stayed anywhere during that time was about three years. But then in the last 17 years I've only had two jobs, and I've been in my current one 10 years.

I think it's a lot more common to move around a lot at the beginning of a career when you're trying to take a step up or find your niche.

I just think your first few months in a role you are the 'new' person so people often dont expect as much right away, theres an understanding that you may take a bit of time to get up to speed getting to grips with projects and building relationships etc. Then often you can tread water for like a year before people start sniffing around wanting to see objectives met and projects delivered and the pressure starts to build with expectations someone will deliver... If you apply for new jobs, secure one and then spend a 3 month notice period not doing a lot (pretty standard once peoples head is out the door) lo and behold you can do 18mths without doing a lot. You cant get away with not doing much for 3-5 years, it catches up with you

I'm not a journalist or anything, but I'm asking as it's happened to me. I'm mid 30s and haven't stayed anywhere more than 2.5 years. A couple were agency/temp jobs, about to leave my current role after a year but it's for better pay/progression to leadership so hopefully it's worth it. I do feel ashamed all the time about my work situation and judged.

I worked with a man once. Nice bloke, really had the gift of the gab, but really shocking a his job. He's made a career out of staying in a job until he's about to be sacked then using the "experience" gained to get the next one.

He's about to retire as Area Director in a commercial bank having never worked for one organisation for more than 3 years.

Even if you're competent, moving regularly is the way to maximise your potential and earnings. No company gives opportunities to their long standing loyal employees the way they do when they're recruiting.

Best way to get a pay rise. Stay at the same place and get 1 or 2% pay rise but change company I've always increased my wages by about 30-40% each time.

Women don’t tend to get promoted so move jobs for more money or progression. I have been made redundant seven times which meant even when I did want to stay I didn’t have a choice.

I would now love to get a job where I can just sit there for 15 years, do my job well (my performance has never been in question) then retire.

My husband has changed jobs every 2-3 years since he started working. He’s 40 now. It’s been extremely positive for his salary and career progression – I don’t think he’s ever noticed or cared what other people think about it. He’ll be leaving his current role of 3 years in September.

Not me but my SIL. She is nearly 40 and I don't think she has held the same job for more than 6mths! She is ND and/or has a metal health disorder- her diagnosis has also changed several times since I've known her.

I think she has had 5 different 'professions' from retail, beauty, carework, teaching and within those roles, multiple different jobs. She always found errors/blamed the management or her colleagues for any issues and left. Strangely, we worked in the very same team- but 2yrs apart. I have life long friends from my time there, but she can't stand any of them! Most of her jobs have been in demand, so I can only think that is the reason they take her on- given her CV must have 20+ jobs on there from the last few years!

I think at the start of your career job-hopping is not only normal it's actually healthy. I'd be a bit wary of someone who had stayed in the same job for ten years from their early 20s: it shows a lack of ambition and a tendency to coast. Before my early 30s I don't think I'd been in any job more than 2.5 years.

If you're still doing it a lot in your 40s/50s it's more problematic as it suggests you lack the consistency to see something through and are getting passed over for top jobs a lot.

It's definitely industry-specific too though. In the creative industries or tech it's very unusual to stay somewhere on a fixed contract for many years. In a senior legal job it would be odd to move around that much.

I became a contractor as job hopping is then par for the course

I'm a bit of a job hopper (usually stay around 2 years, sometimes more sometimes less) but since 2020 i've been able to over double my salary. There's very little reward staying with a company these days. You'll get a 2-5% pay increase if that.

As long as you can explain the reasons clearly for the move i've never had an issue.

It is quite common in the sector I work in (charities) to leave after 2 years or even less.

Often because it is the only way to get a promotion and/or a better salary.

Also there are a lot of projects and roles in the third sector that are dependant on a pot of funding being renewed or that are only funded for a specific amount of time so it is completely normal for people to move on.