Is job hopping considered bad in the industry?

After leaving college the expectation is that, while one may not spend his/her entire career in one company but would certainly spend a good number of years in a place before jumping ship. Now with reasons like unsatisfying work, lower salary, slow growth, no new learning experiences occurring etc., new joiners tend to consider leaving their current job prematurely and move on to a new one which he feels will offer him better opportunities.
So, here comes the question, whether job hopping is considered bad in the industry or is acceptable in the current scenario.

Until recently irrespective of the type of industry, job hopping was considered as a career suicide. There was a time when the hiring managers would rate company loyalty much higher than the other things while deciding a good fit for the position. But recent Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that the average number of years an American worker stay with their current employer is 4.6 and that reduces to half (2.3 years) when it comes to the tenure of young employees aged between 20-34 years. It shows that with the tech explosion the old notions are changing. Hiring managers have started valuing skills and quality more than the company loyalty. A person who has worked in different places will bring with him a diverse background knowledge, more information, and resources, a large resourceful network of different businesses and people etc.

But again, the acceptability of job hoppers varies by industry or the role one is applying for. There are some industries where it’s okay to move around every 1-2 years and there are others especially in the core engineering fields, where you are expected to stick long enough to pick up the depth of experience and sharper insights.

So, what do you guys think about the pros and cons of job hopping? Do voice your opinions in the comments below.

Replies

  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    Job hopping is okay as long as the candidate can offer proper justification to it. It's going to be difficult for a job hopper to convince the employer that they're going to be a valuable asset to the company and reliable.

    I personally would be against hiring a job hopper ( 1 job switch every year ). The only exception would be that the person is actually a proven expert in the field and can add value to the company immediately.
  • Satya Swaroop Dash
    Satya Swaroop Dash
    Job hopping is actually a double edged sword. If you change jobs then there has to be a really good reason to do so otherwise you can find yourself in a lot of trouble explaining yourself to your new employer. If you do switch jobs, chances of getting a better remuneration are also dicey at best. You may have switched from one job to another in the hopes that you would get better salary and career growth but that may not be true. You may not find the same joy as you expected. Plus if you change jobs rather than the company you work with it shows your fickle nature.

You are reading an archived discussion.

Related Posts

Hello CEans, It has been a while that I have posted something here on CE and yet it feels like it was only yesterday. Back then, I used to look...
Motorola's latest flagship device - Moto X4 is all set to be unveiled today. The device which is the first Moto phone compatible with Google's Project Fi Carrier services is...
Researchers from University at Albany (SUNY Albany), USA have come up with quite a sweaty analysis, which proposes a new biometric-based authentication approach for unlocking mobile and wearable devices, such...
Researchers at Vietnam based Bkav Corporation have created a 3D printed mask which can trick the Face ID feature in Apple's new premium smartphone, iPhone X. The Face ID is...
Our neighboring Red planet Mars is never out of the news. After India successfully deployed Mangalyaan in Mars orbit on 24 September 2014, United Arab Emirates (UAE) is set to...