I was at my friends workplace the other day and he was looking at some interviews that he received for a new position. A lot of the resumes were from people who moved around a LOT, I mean their last 3-4 jobs were only for 1-2 years tops! No matter how much experience the candidate may have had, he or she automatically moved to the bottom of the pile.

So why do people move around so much? I understand that there are special cases when it's a must, but I'm guessing most of the time it's because these people want to move. Not only does it look bad on a resume, but it must be expensive to move around that much. Not to mention they probably loose a lot of money in closing costs/broker fees when buying houses.

 

Early on in your career, you can get significant raises by making a move to another company. So, if they're less than 35 years old, that's probably why they've done it.

Otherwise, I have no idea. A lot of senior people get laid off regularly at large companies, so that's another possibility.

 

+!, and you're also trying to find out where you want to be for a good part of your career. Although I would say under 30 it's not a big deal. I would think a lot of people are trenched in around 35.

 

+1 I was mercenary and earned far more by moving about every three years (never for less than a 30% increase) than I would have staying. But my conscious reason was disagreement with management. I didn't like something they did in each case.

 

one summer I had 7 jobs..

I found out what I didn't like doing..

 

Wow - seven jobs in one summer? Were these "career" jobs or just work that you only intended to do for the summer anyways? In other words, were they jobs that you would have stuck with (full time) for years to come if they were enjoyable?

I have no idea how old you are, either, or whether you're a student. In college, I worked anyplace I could and had no problems changing jobs as needed. Now that I'm a full time employee, I would be loathe to change jobs unless it was a significantly better opportunity.

 

carrer jobs... not hardly.. (pumping gas, flipping burgers, washing dishes..etc) pretty much my first time in the work force.. 16 years old then..

last two jobs.. 31 years, 4 years into the second.. both - same line of work..


love my job.. it's the best..

cheers

 

what industry are we talking about? From about 1997-98 to perhaps 2001 or 2002, there were tech companies starting up and closing down every week it seemed. After about 2001, it was mainly closing down. Job security was something your father or grandfather had, not something you were ever likely to see. If you ever took a job as a software QA engineer, you saw more turnover than most - last to be hired and only then at the insistence of investors, and first to be fired.

And as has been said, in many cases the only way to get a raise is to change jobs. But at some point, a person finds a position they like in a culture they like, and is looking to stay put.

Not looking seriously at a person because they have experience in a number of different environments is foolish, in my opinion. They have industry perspective your company men will never have. A person that has stayed with a job for five or ten years through their 20's and into their 30's has very little experience in how their industry works outside of their cubicle. You can argue the point, but unless you've got a similar history, you cannot possibly understand the kind of knowledge that a person accumulates from learning from numerous mentors and company cultures.

 

[quote name='GT_2003' date='Mar 22 2007, 02:32 PM'] what industry are we talking about?

 

His thinking is this: Why should we hire this person, when he's only going to stick around at our company for 1-2 years? I guess they're looking for someone for a longer period of time. My friend works in IT.