Job Hopping (#235)

In this podcast episode, we discuss the pluses and minuses of job hopping. Key points made are noted below.

Definition of Job Hopping

Job hopping means switching employers of your own volition within one or two years of being hired. Which is to say, you weren’t forced to leave because of a layoff or something similar.

Benefits of Job Hopping

Let’s look at this from several perspectives. One view is that you go into a company already assuming that you’re going to vacuum up a specific type of experience, and then job hop into something else that offers a different type of experience. This could make sense, for example, if your ultimate target is to be a chief financial officer, and you want to do a stint in cash management, just to pick up the basics, and then spend some time in risk management, and maybe another job in currency trading. Theoretically, this approach could accelerate the time it takes to be hired into a targeted job.

Under this line of reasoning, it’s not about getting a pay raise just for the sake of the extra money. Instead, it’s about achieving a specific position, so you’re trying to advance your career as quickly as possible. I don’t really have a problem with this, since the focus is on career building. However, if you hop through all of those intervening jobs too fast, it would be reasonable to expect that no one is going to give you a favorable job recommendation, because you didn’t stick around long enough to make a favorable impression.

The Pay Raise Conundrum

Another perspective on job hopping is that you’re pursuing the same job at different organizations in search of progressively higher rates of pay. Employers really don’t like this, because it’s a mercenary approach to your career. Shifting jobs for a bit more money can alienate your employer. It can make more sense to stick around in one position for an extra year or two, just to build up some goodwill with whoever might be writing your next recommendation letter.

The decision to switch jobs can be more difficult when the amount of the pay being offered by the next employer is a lot more than what you’re making now. Depending on your financial circumstances, the offer may be too good to resist, even if you know you’re going to tick off your current boss.

When to Leave Right Away

Another situation involving job hopping is when you’re not enjoying yourself in the current job. The required skill level may be too high or too low, or perhaps you don’t get along with a co-worker, or the commute is too long, or the job environment isn’t healthy – from any number of perspectives. In this case, why prolong the agony? Being unhappy at work can trigger all kinds of health problems, so my advice here is to leave as soon as possible, as long as the replacement job is a clear improvement. Otherwise, you’ll end up hopping from one job to the next in quick succession, and being dissatisfied in each one.

There may be another reason for the job hopping, which is that accounting is not a good fit for you. Maybe you don’t like the attention to detail, or the need to minimize mistakes, or maybe you’re not good with numbers. That last one would be tough. Whatever the reasons may be, you’re not going to do well in any accounting position, so stop job hopping within the accounting field and try something different.

As an example, I once ran into someone who had been admitted into one of the best dentistry schools in the world. He spent part of his first day poking around inside someone’s mouth, decided that he did not want to do that anymore, quit school and joined an amusement park. And no, I’m not kidding. That does not mean you should join an amusement park.

Downsides of Job Hopping

Now let’s look at some downsides to job hopping. One I’ve already noted is that you’ll have a hard time getting any decent references from past employers. If anything, you may have pissed them off. Another problem is that prospective employers are really concerned when they see a series of short-term jobs on your resume. In fact, the first thing I did when reviewing resumes for a job opening was to look for job hoppers, and immediately ignore those resumes. It takes too long to train someone into a position, just to have them leave a few months later, so that was a huge black mark. That does not mean that you can’t have one or two short-term positions on your resume. As far as I’m concerned, everyone gets a free pass on a few jobs in a career, because shit happens - a job doesn’t work out, and you need to move on. Even so, think carefully before switching jobs, because you may find that the new job environment is not as good as what you just left, which could trigger yet another job hop, and so on.

Summary

I’m not entirely against an occasional job hop, as long as you have a good reason for doing so. However, I’m also not a fan of people who persistently do it. If you’re in a job that’s pretty good, with reasonable prospects for advancement, and decent co-workers, it might be worthwhile to stick around for a few years. Chances are, you won’t be able to match that experience somewhere else.

And a final thought is to be wary of that new job prospect that a recruiter is telling you about. If someone occupied that position before and it’s now vacant, I’d be concerned about why your predecessor left. It’s entirely possible that the job you’re heading for has some real problems with it, and you’ll be blindsided by those issues when you show up. Which will trigger further job hopping.