Another thread got me thinking about job-hopping. ((http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/enough-with-this-'millenial'-bullshit!/?topicseen))
Wondering what others think.
1. What is the minimum amount of time you should stay with a company before hopping to the next opportunity (assume there is nothing horrible about the job, other than greener pastures elsewhere)
2. What is the maximum number of times you should job-hop in a career?
3. When does leaving one company to work for another become classified as "job-hopping"? (time in place? Total # of jobs/years in labor force?)
4. What is the maximum number of times you would recommend switching jobs in a 12-month period?
5. Is there an age limit, after which you should "settle down" with a career? Or is it an income reached?
6. Is there a maximum number of years that you should stay with a company/position so you aren't pigeon-holed or deemed obsolete for other jobs?
7. When giving career advice, do you have different advice regarding length of service for different audiences? (young vs. old, friend vs. frenemy, colleague vs. subordinate)?
Thank you.
Below are my responses. I'm in executive recruiting, so work more with upper level management (c-suite, evp, etc). This advice might be geared towards the 40-year career than the super early-retirees because you don't get to the c-suite until your 30's-40's anyways...I'm in financial services, so the answers would probably be very different for someone in tech - they seem to jump around a lot more often.
As a general response, age is a big factor. Early in your career (20-30), it's fine to job hop a bit while you decide on your profession, maybe every 1.5-3 years. Once you hit the 30 year mark, you'd ideally have an industry in mind that you want to develop into. At this point, you don't want to switch companies more than every 3 years or so. Preferably 3-5.
Another thing that's really important is that you show an upward sloping career trajectory. You want to show that you're getting increasing greater responsibilities: either through promotions within company, promotion with a new company, or same job with a larger company. For example, my boss will pass on profiles where someone is stagnant (same role, same company for too many years), or if the person is doing the exact same role at progressively smaller firms.
To the questions:
1. Refer to age point above.
2. Unlimited.
3. Refer to age point above. Also, if a firm put significant effort into training you, you should stay until you "pay back" the training.
4. Once. But in a 24-month period, also once...
5. Probably 30. But this is industry specific.
6. Max number of years in a company? No. Max number of years in a position? No. Max number of years in a position at one company? 3-5 probably.
7.
- As I noted above, people want to see that you're still going uphill in your career. If it looks like you're past your peak and going downhill, it'll be hard to be recruited.
- We do our checking - education, criminal, negative press, etc.
- Be a good person. We don't just use the references you give to us - of course they're gonna be amazing references...We talk to other people at your company and people in your past. For more senior roles, we do anywhere from 3-5 additional references. If we get 1 bad one, we're going to do 5-10 more.