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‘I’m proud of being a job hopper’: Seattle engineer’s post about company loyalty goes viral
(www.geekwire.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I've averaged ~12 job hops in the last 6 years and I wouldn't change a thing. Compensation growth has been roughly 6.05x. The previous 6 years was...maybe 3? And maybe 2x.
I owe the big corps nothing. I meet expectations and deliverables and I support my team however I can, but that's about it.
But eventually don’t you risk being unhireable with this sort of work history? We recently hired someone who had a similar work history and I remember that being very much a red flag when we hired them. Turns out the red flag should have been payed attention too since history is a good predictor of future behaviors.
As a hiring manager I would think twice about investing anything in an employee who jumps around THAT much. I mean I don’t blame you, I’ve had the same job for 23 years and I could be making a lot more money. But salary is not everything and I love my job. My mental health is very much an extra benefit.
Even assuming that it's all W2, it's a self-resolving problem- if no one will hire you because you're unstable, you stay at the existing job. That works until either you've been there long enough to appear stable, or you find an employer that's not concerned about it.
That's assuming you don't get laid off, sadly. Ask me how I know.
Being laid off may be seen as a mitigating factor. It's a no-fault termination and can easily be explained to the next hiring manager.
Even if I got laid off twice in a row in six months though? In this market? Both times it was with around half the company as well. One was an acquisition with the new US owner preferring people in India, the other one was a "pivot" after sales sold something that they themselves couldn't really describe.
I didn't get to hiring managers and explanations in the first place. I got told at one point by a hiring manager that they would rather hire some Googler who recently got laid off, since the pipeline is full of those. The fact that six months later they laid said hiring manager off with his team as well does not really make me feel vindicated either.
No worries though, I got my plans sorted out, no better time to get more specialized, go back to uni and get into a niche but growing field I like.