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Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping

thebalancecareers.com

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Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping

#51
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Depends on the market. 1 year stints in SV don't even register on the radar but in some European countries it could be a red flag.

I've interviewed many candidates in SV and many of them have strings of 6-18 month stints on their LinkedIn. It's extremely common; I'd almost even say it's the norm.

Before SV I lived in Denver and any job tenure less than 2 years was a huge red flag, and even less than 3 would raise an eye brow.

Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping

#52

The article asks the question "So how long do workers stay with their employers nowadays?", but that question isn't answered by the cited data source. The data are based on 'how long have you been with your current employer?', which of course underestimates the time you will actually stay with that employer (it's unlikely today is your last day). Imagine a world in which every employee stays at each job for exactly 2…

Good point, but your question also has an issue:

If my answer is "2", you have no idea if it's almost 1, or almost 3, which is a huge span.

I think a better question would be "how long did you stay with your previous employer".

Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping

#53
post #13

I’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.

A 1.5 to 2 year stints seem totally fair to me. A number of 6-month stints would raise questions from me, personally. I still wouldn't rule out such a candidate, but would proceed with caution.

Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few hundred years ago, indentured servitude and slavery were the norm.

Yeah true. So I guess we just have replaced slaves with employees?

You can go back if you like but I think being an employee suits me better ...

Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping

#55
What I truly wonder is, does hopping between positions within one employer count as job hopping? If I stay with company X for 5 years, but every year, I have switched a position ( e.g. tech support engineer -> QE -> software engineer -> Evangelist -> manager), would that disadvantage me on the job market?

Or would I get bonus points for wanting to stick with the company X?

Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is.. where is that ceiling? I'm thinking about next steps in my career and wondering if I've already hit that ceiling, or at least a local maximum (barring a switch to FAANG). Perhaps the best way to know is spend the time talking to potential employers?

> The question is.. where is that ceiling? There isn't one. It's all about what you can contribute to the company's bottom line. It's very unusual, but not impossible to get $1m. You just gotta be able to show the company how much money they can make by hiring you. For example, can you make their server farm 1% more efficient? That's worth a great deal of money.

That number is the ceiling. The floor is what someone else with the skills to make those particular changes will accept as a wage. Do you think a toll booth operator can say 'I do 10k in revenue a day, pay me half of that and we'll call it good'? Please.

Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The existence of job hopping does not negate existence of abuse It (at least to some extent) negates your assertion that employers can get away with it. Employee churn is literally employers failing to get away with it. If a bad employer cares about employee churn, then it’s something they’ll have to address eventually by solving the problems they’ve created that led to employee churn in the first place. That doesn…

Yeah but they don't care about employee churn at all. That's the whole point. There is almost an infinite supply of replacements. Did you not read my post?

The only way for a company to not care about churn is if they literally don’t care about the quality of their product or services. There are very few businesses where this is the case (in software engineering at least), so if you’re trying to suggest that such businesses are a common problem, then you’re delusional.

Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few hundred years ago, indentured servitude and slavery were the norm.

Yeah true. So I guess we just have replaced slaves with employees?

Other than the relation that both are norms, how did you come to the conclusion that they are the same things?

Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is.. where is that ceiling? I'm thinking about next steps in my career and wondering if I've already hit that ceiling, or at least a local maximum (barring a switch to FAANG). Perhaps the best way to know is spend the time talking to potential employers?

> The question is.. where is that ceiling? There isn't one. It's all about what you can contribute to the company's bottom line. It's very unusual, but not impossible to get $1m. You just gotta be able to show the company how much money they can make by hiring you. For example, can you make their server farm 1% more efficient? That's worth a great deal of money.

The ceiling is actually the minimum of what you contribute and the wage of the person they can replace you with.

Re: Job Tenure and the Myth of Job Hopping

#60
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then we should all start our own business, right?

Everybody should have enough money not to have to work and live off the interest.

If everybody has enough money, who pays that interest and why?
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