What Job Hopping Means To Hiring Managers

Job hopping is extremely common in the IT industry due to the vast number of available job offers. Skilled engineers could step up within a company or get a decent raise every 1.5 – 2 years.

While job-hopping presents various perks in terms of salary growth, it causes some major drawbacks when looking for a job as a tech leader or in senior management.

What does job-hopping imply to your hiring managers or future employees? Find out in this video!

Highlights

00:22 – Common Job Hopping Scenarios
01:38 – Common Excuses For Job Hopping
02:21 – Understanding What Job Hopping Means To Hiring Managers
04:21 – Possible Reasons Why Job Hopping Happens
05:37 – Sometimes, There Are Good Reasons
06:45 – Tips On Preventing Job Hopping

Transcript

Hey guys, Mario Peshev here from DevriX, and this is Mara, our community manager. 

So the topic I’d like to discuss today is, what are the negative consequences of job-hopping and what does it look like when a hiring manager or a future employer sees that you’ve hopped between three different jobs over the course of the past year?

Common Job Hopping Scenarios

First off, that stuff is quite common, especially among entry-level people, interns and everything else. Especially for internships, it’s very common to see that a lot of people have switched between several different internship programs primarily because internships often tend to last for about three months, give or take. So that’s fine. Right?

That’s something that’s totally okay. The only acceptable one so far. But we are talking about real jobs here, right?

You’ve actually signed the contract, you were supposed to work for that company for a few years, or at least the industry average tends to be between a year-and-a-half and two-years-and-a-half, depending on what industry research do you read at. 

But anyway, you apply for an employer or you see an application by someone who has worked for three different companies. Again, full-time employment over the course of the past year.

Or on average, about four months at a place, which to be honest often tends to be even lower because you have time to prep your documents and apply for the new job, not to mention onboarding and training and all that stuff.

So again, sometimes, aside from internships, sometimes it’s normal. There are good excuses for that, right?

Common Excuses For Job Hopping

Your boss is not a kind person. Your manager used to be an unqualified person. You were promised something that wasn’t really delivered at the end and so on and so on.

Sometimes, those kinds of things happen and they may happen once, it’s a statistical probability, something that you may have actually felt at that point in time. 

But, it looks weird if it happens three times in a row, because from a hiring manager’s perspective or from a CEO’s perspective or employer’s perspective, regardless.

Understanding What Job Hopping Means To Hiring Managers

When you look at that CV, let’s say someone refers you to someone else and say, “You really need to hire this guy.” And you see that CV, a hiring manager, and employer, and she will say, “Oh, okay. You’re vouching for them and so on, but you see those three jobs over the past year.”

You try to analyze what that means. And you say, “okay, I’m going to try to think of it positively,” but eventually, you can’t, right? You might say, okay, that person is probably someone who’s not really a good culture fit because he tried to adjust to three different companies that didn’t really accept him.

Let’s hope it’s not this. 

“Okay, that person is probably just a job hopper that is always looking for the best possible offer. So if I hire her, then maybe she would keep looking for another job over the next two, three months. “

Or, that person may be someone who can go through the trial phase and can be taught new things or can get acquainted with our processes and workloads. That might be someone who has been reported or fired or something else. You start working on different theories and there aren’t many positive ones.

And even if you think about it, at some point in time, you may say, okay, that’s someone who is applying for every other job out there without even considering what the company is or what the job is about. Or, that might be someone who’s overselling themselves and don’t really possess that skillset.

Or, that someone may be too harsh on their managers and expects a lot from them without giving too much effort or with poor job hobbies or being late to work or just not delivering quality on time. 

Possible Reasons Why Job Hopping Happens

Let’s just think of it in a very objective manner. A lot of people work a specific job for several years at a time. Or at least about, on average, a couple of years. Right? And then you see someone who has switched to 3 different places over the past year.

If you look at that specific person in a pile of different applications, it’s very likely that this CV is going to be thrown in the bin. Simply because it seems risky. Most of the possible alternatives for what would be the reason for that are negative. 

Most of the reasons why someone would switch between three different jobs means that this person isn’t a good culture fit, is always looking for a higher salary, can’t bond with the team. Can’t be taught.

Or, even if we say that everyone else is wrong all the time, this means that this person isn’t able to tell good from the bad. Or it is very subjective to believe the lies of a hiring manager, or can’t really understand what their management asks from them and so on.

Sometimes, There Are Good Reasons

Again, sometimes there are good reasons. Could be some form of an internship, could be a company shrinking down, could be a sick relative or something else. Or could be traveling abroad or something else.

But, it’s very rare, to be honest, and it’s very hard to convince someone that you have a good reason and that’s why many employers wouldn’t give that person a chance in the first place because it looks too shady.

The risk is too high, there isn’t enough time to figure out what sort of person they are and what they’re looking for and so on. 

So if you are looking for your next job or essentially, if you are looking for a good type of job and so on, make sure that your past experience doesn’t include that many occurrences, especially in sequential order of jobs that you have spent… The time you’ve spent at work in different jobs for just a few months at a time and, or in this case, switching three jobs over the course of a year.

Tips On Preventing Job Hopping

Make sure that you’re smart enough and look for the right companies. Do your due diligence. I have another video on researching a company before applying. Work hard.

Make sure you go through onboarding training and so on. Work hard to become a good team player and adjust to the company and so forth. 

Research again that company upfront in order to make sure that you know what you’re getting involved with. Make sure that your role doesn’t ask for too much from you so that there’s a high chance for you to essentially burnout or just not be able to deal with everything. And yeah, just try to be a great fit for that company. If it’s not a great fit, don’t apply. 

I know that for the first time hires or even in the second time hires, it may be hard to find a job. But once you find one, just just stick with it. At least spend some time. Try to give it a shot, try to work hard, try to prove yourself, try to get some positive experience.

Try to, again, learn the office environment and office culture and meet some people, satisfy some of your managers. Get some good referrals and testimonials from them because that’s going to be important. And that’s also going to increase the duration of your, essentially, career due to being persistent and smart about picking your job.

The Bottom Line

But again, if you fall into that case of just switching between jobs every three or four months, don’t be surprised if you don’t get invited to interviews.

It makes a lot of sense for various reasons, especially if you have 200 interviews, 200 CVs to go through, and most of them don’t really fall in that criteria. It’s just not worth it most of the time. 

And if it’s worth it, and if you have a really solid reason, make sure you write a cover letter and explain what exactly led to those three occurrences.

Be proactive and explain it very carefully. Don’t blame your managers for that. Just explain the situation and explain if you had a very good reason to switch three jobs over the course of the past year. 

Good luck.