Personally I find it harder to switch jobs often as I go up the ladder. There are just fewer positions and it gets more difficult to go directly into a high level position at a new company. This applies to both ICs and management. E.g most VPs and distinguished engineers stick around pretty long.
Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping
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Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping
#12I don’t think this article makes the right comparison to determine whether people switch jobs more often “these days”. They only go back to the mid 2000s. When I hear or talk about the idea that people change jobs more frequently now, I definitely include people who started working then, and I don’t think a decade is sufficient time to see a trend in tenure. I’d be more interested in a comparison between the 00s/10s…
I'm a Gen X "slacker." In my 20s I lived in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era of the late 1990s.
It was a widely held belief that you needed to move jobs every year or two, because in-house wage increases weren't following the market demand.
Personally, I despise "millennial" characterizations like 'lazy' and 'self-entitled'. All they've done is file off the slurs toward Gen X kids and re-used them for the next wave of young people.
Oh, scratch that - Gen X and hippies. And beatniks. (Shout out to Maynard G. Krebs!)
Why, it's like old people forget what it was like when they were young.
Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping
#13I’ve had a few 1.5 to 2 year stints and I get asked about it all the time. Certainly there are employers that don’t want to see that, though I’m sort of at a crossroads after 6 years in tech where I’ve realized part of the itch to move was less about money and a general dissatisfaction with a traditional 9-5, so I’ve since moved on from it and working on my own projects at the moment.
Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping
#14In Silicon Valley, until maybe 5 years ago, I would say that 2 years per job was about the average. My average is about 2.5 years, and I've had many jobs. I've found that recently, many people, especially young people early in their careers, have been switching jobs after 1-1.5 years. When I compare with my non-tech friends in other parts of the country, I have one friend who has been at the same job for 13 years, an…
The quick early career switch makes perfect sense since market value of a dev rises so quickly after gaining even a little experience.
Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping
#15Personally I find it harder to switch jobs often as I go up the ladder. There are just fewer positions and it gets more difficult to go directly into a high level position at a new company. This applies to both ICs and management. E.g most VPs and distinguished engineers stick around pretty long.
I feel like when you're outside of let's say a Fortune 500-ish type of company, there are no 'levels' and a manager will always attempt to minimise pay/budget and absolutely will not bring up promotion. The structure of the company isn't there unless there is decent turnover and there is rarely the growth needed to create new positions. Promotion / pay is most likely initiated on the employee end. It's easier just to take a few interviews than try to haggle with current management and budgets.
Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping
#16I’ve had a few 1.5 to 2 year stints and I get asked about it all the time. Certainly there are employers that don’t want to see that, though I’m sort of at a crossroads after 6 years in tech where I’ve realized part of the itch to move was less about money and a general dissatisfaction with a traditional 9-5, so I’ve since moved on from it and working on my own projects at the moment.
You get asked about those? I've had a bunch of 1 years (or less) stints plus a 1 year sabbatical and I don't think I ever got asked about them, even though I expected I would.
Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping
#17Personally I find it harder to switch jobs often as I go up the ladder. There are just fewer positions and it gets more difficult to go directly into a high level position at a new company. This applies to both ICs and management. E.g most VPs and distinguished engineers stick around pretty long.
I feel like when you're outside of let's say a Fortune 500-ish type of company, there are no 'levels' and a manager will always attempt to minimise pay/budget and absolutely will not bring up promotion. The structure of the company isn't there unless there is decent turnover and there is rarely the growth needed to create new positions. Promotion / pay is most likely initiated on the employee end. It's easier just to…
My experience, at least in the valley has been there gets to a point where it’s easier to get internal promotion than hired in at that level. For example it’s easier to go from L6 to L7 than to get hired as L7.
EDIT: You can take a quick skim through the FAANG VPE's on LinkedIn. Most were:
1) Promoted internally to VPE vs hired in at that level
2) At the company for a significant amount of time.
Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping
#18Personally I find it harder to switch jobs often as I go up the ladder. There are just fewer positions and it gets more difficult to go directly into a high level position at a new company. This applies to both ICs and management. E.g most VPs and distinguished engineers stick around pretty long.
Seconded. As a “core influencer” my contract gives me legal protection and severance. Not to mention a healthy salary and bonus.
It’s very difficult to find the same comp package elsewhere. I basically need to be invited to similar jobs.
Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping
#19I think the article is looking too broadly at the market. Job hopping is most prevalent in high demand sectors (like web development for instance), and then it’s only really done by the people with at least above average talent/skills. I had the displeasure of working in a startup that ultimately folded once, all of the teammates I considered to be competent got new jobs within a week or so, all of the stragglers str…
> I had the displeasure of working in a startup that ultimately folded once, all of the teammates I considered to be competent got new jobs within a week or so, all of the stragglers struggled immensely. This says good things about the industry's collective ability in evaluating job-seekers. A breath of fresh air amidst the weekly thinkpieces on how hiring is broken.
So instead of training up people with weaker skills we are just happy to see them out on the kerb?
They had jobs already, so how bad could they really have been?
Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping
#20> Millennials are labeled lazy, self-entitled, and, therefore, responsible for high turnover rates in the labor market.
Who are they supposed to be loyal to? Certainly not their employer, who is squeezing every cent of labor value from their work. I'd understand this attitude if companies took care of their people or if the person was part of a worker's coop.
Also, anecdotally, job hopping has been incredibly lucrative for me. My first hop, from Boeing to Amazon literally doubled my income. I highly encourage devs to get out there and see what they are worth, especially if they are happy at their current place. Get an offer in hand and negotiate hard. Who knows, maybe you'll land an amazing bump.