Chronic job hoppers: Would you hire one?
December 18, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Assessing the right candidate, In This Week's E-Newsletter, Latest News & Views, References
Used to be, a resume listing several different jobs in the past few years would have been a red flag for HR. But as job hopping becomes more common, should candidates who’ve shown loyalty still get the edge?
On one hand, many companies are wary of investing any time and money to train someone who may only stick around for a year or two — especially since it might mean the person will leave at the drop of a hat to get more money somewhere else.
But on the other hand, moving from job to job is becoming the norm, especially for younger workers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American now holds 10 different jobs between the ages of 18 and 38 — or one job every other year.
Also, a long list of positions could just mean the candidate is in high demand because of valuable talents and skills.
The best answer: Judge each situation individually by –
- using the interview to find out why the candidate left each job, and
- asking the candidate’s references why he or she left.
For example, you might find that the candidate left those companies because there was no room to advance. That might show you’ve got a successful employee you can hold on to if the right promotional opportunities are provided.
Or, the references may tell you the person wasn’t worth hanging on to. Ask them if their companies would hire the candidate again if they had the chance.
What do you think? Does your organization veer toward employees with a track record of loyalty? Is job hopping OK in some cases? Let us know your opinion in the comments section below.
Tags: job hopping, loyalty, resumes
December 19th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
It really depends on the position and the skills the person has – if a person has highly specialized skills that are hard to find or great experience in our industry, we’re willing to look past the job hopping. Of course we do thorough reference checks and really grill them about the reasons they left each job.
December 20th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Interviewers who summarily dismiss a resume as a job hopper can be short-sighted and possibly cheating their organization out of contributing talent by not taking the time to learn more about the motivation to exit and if new and higher-level skills desired for the position in question were learned from the applicants job changes. The worthiness of the knowledge, skills and abilities for the job are usually fairly well assessed and judged prior to granting the interview. What is being assumed here is that during the face-to-face interview process the employer is trying to discover the “true” self of the applicant and if s/he is a fit to the organization. What is known is that all organizations are not as ethical and/or viable as they claim. The employer, too, is often guilty of offering a sales job and not giving a realistic appraisal or revelation of itself. For example, how many employers proclaim “People are our most valued asset.”, and may not be walking a straight line in that “talk”? How many employers are less ethical than they present? The question “Why did you leave this employer?” can be a double-edged sword for the applicant as well as the prospective employer. How many career-advancing articles have you read that advise putting a positive spin on each former employer? What’s the answer? As talent becomes more and more scarce and steady streams of business closures result in a prevalence of individuals with “shorter” employment terms, the burden of spending more time and becoming more skilled in interviewing will become the desired knowledge, skill and ability of interviewers.
December 21st, 2008 at 4:07 pm
I am a job hopper because I have been a career temp by both choice and default during college and after Peace Corps. After moving to DC to find a job in International Human Resources, I am pursueing my HR Certificate at CUA. In the meantime, I temp. Most of my clients judge the candidates if there was too much job hopping. I have to do the same when interviewing and screening. It depends on the company and position. In hospitality, we want a can do attitude. Government and private practice have higher standards – stability. Non profits vary on the positions. Nobody usually wants a hopper, but the reality is too many managers have personal agendas instead of the company vision and they lack leadership. Micromanagers turn good talent away. I job / client hop now is becuase I am looking for a great corporate culture with similar values that I have about business and relationships – building relationships is number 1, then the profits come.
October 5th, 2009 at 9:31 am
“Micromanagers turn good talent away.” – That is absolutely right, and it makes it difficult for some good people qualified as job hoppers.
Also, concerning reference checks: some Managers are so bad that they don’t even deserve that someone trusts their opinion, asking for a reference about a previous employee. Not ALL Directors arrived at that level because they were worth it, let’s be honest. You have talented and less talented people everywhere, and at all levels.
Furthermore, I think there are 2 kinds of job hoppers:
1) those who don’t know what they want, and
2) those who are too ambitious – and thus know too well what they want…
Usually this last kind of job hopper isn’t patient enough, they want to develop their career at a high speed and are often quick learners. It is difficult for them to go through the “mandatory” phase where they have to start at the bottom and gradually work their way up, proving that they deserve the higher level positions. E.g., starting as a Commercial Assistant and over a period of 10 years or more, work their way up the ladder to a Sales Director position. No: they would want the Sales Director position after 5 years, and maybe indeed they will have to change companies several times before they reach this goal.
This second kind of job hopper might eventually find stability as an independant consultant or as an entrepreneur – or either in a very autonomous and respected position as an employee in an entrepreneur kind of working environment.
These 2 types of job hopper profiles should actually be very easy to recognize: the ambitious job hopper will usually go each time for higher positions and increased responsibilities (not necessarily increased salary) – eventually in the same kind of job (for instance Sales) or even industry.
The second kind of job hopper can actually be a true high flyer and talent. Those can be very dynamic people and also self confident, but unfortunately they don’t fit the job market – even if changing jobs has become more frequent than before.