Since graduating from undergrad almost five years ago, I have had classmates that have switched jobs at least three times. Changing jobs every year or every few years is the norm now. While job hopping used to look really bad on a resume, career experts are entertaining the idea that it isn't as bad as it seems.
As millennials are rising in the workplace and craving immediate gratification, development, and advancement, the idea of staying with the same company for years until retirement is pretty obsolete.
Older generations have argued that staying in a job for less than a couple of years showed disloyalty or a lack of commitment. While personally, I have never been eager to job hop (the job hunt isn't fun), after reading the quotes from the career experts below, I began to think otherwise.
Patty McCord, former Chief Talent Officer for Netflix says job hopping isn't a bad thing and employees should consider doing so every three to four years. "I think that the most important, critical change in people's mental outlook is to view employees as smart contributors from the beginning," says McCord.
In a Fast Company article, Vivian Gang argues that job hoppers get paid more and are more loyal: “Workers who stay with a company longer than two years are said to get paid 50% less, and job hoppers are believed to have a higher learning curve, be higher performers, and even to be more loyal, because they care about making a good impression in the short amount of time they know they'll stay with each employer."
Penelope Trunk, entrepreneur and writer said in an interview, “I've read a lot of research about what makes a good employee and people used to think that the longer you kept an employee, the more worth they are to you, because you train them and they get used to their job and then they do it. But, in fact, an employee who stays on the job and isn't learning at a really high rate is not as engaged, so they're not doing as good work. So it turns out, the employee who stays longest, you get the least work out of, and the employees that job hunt are the most receptive of becoming extremely useful, very fast."
Before you jump on the bandwagon of anti-job hoppers and preach that they are not loyal, can't keep a job, or get along with team members, consider the benefits below of job hoppers.
1. It's an opportunity to network and meet new people.
It's not what you know, it's who you know. We have all heard this saying and I honestly believe that it has some truths in it. When you are looking for a new opportunity or need assistance from someone, often the people in your network are able to help (or know someone that can).
If done tastefully, job hopping can help you achieve a powerful network. If you decide to leave your job, be sure to keep a healthy and balanced relationship with those people. Take advantage of your powerful network and nurture those relationships.
2. It's an opportunity to renegotiate your salary.
Job hopping can also get you the salary increase that you have been wanting. At most companies, the salary increase percentage is pretty low so even if you are at a job for years and have done an amazing job, your pay will probably not jump as high as you would like.
When you are interviewing for a job, you can easily communicate your salary demands and if they want you, chances are they will pay you that if not more. Every time you switch jobs, there is a new opportunity to re-negotiate your salary, sometimes even doubling what you make at your current employer.
3. It provides you with diverse experience.
If you job hop between different industries or companies, your skill set and experience will become more diverse and you will be more marketable. Someone who has a diverse background will often be very attractive to hire because they can bring new ideas and a fresh perspective.
4. It's an opportunity to figure out what's best for you.
When you job-hop, you experience different people and companies and you are able to figure out what you like versus what you don't like. You are able to learn different management styles and figure out what you like in a company. If you are a budding entrepreneur, this is valuable knowledge and experience. Even if you are not an aspiring business owner, it is still important just in case you ever did want to settle down with a company longer than usual.
What are your thoughts on job hopping? Drop a comment below and let us know!
Featured image by Shutterstock
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Skylar sees things differently. At the time, she was shooting content on her iPhone. Temi came into the picture with a new perspective, an understanding of tech, and, eventually, a camera. “He doesn't give himself enough credit,” Skylar says. “He wasn't just my tripod. He wasn't just standing behind the camera and going ‘click.’ He was giving advice. He was giving me insight to how I could look at things from a different perspective. And I was like, 'Oh, he’s an artist.' I think it was maybe a heartbeat of that kind of energy of like, ‘Baby, can you take this picture?’ And it turned so quickly into, we're partners. We can work together in a way where we're advancing each other's creative thinking.”
The pair often says they’re two sides of the same coin. Skylar is an Aquarius. She attended art school, paints, and loves poetry. She’s more than happy to let the couple’s management firm and agency, Kensington Grey, handle their admin work. And, she loves to sleep in. Temi, on the other hand, wakes up early. He’s a Virgo. He loves a to-do list and regularly checks in on the couple’s brand partnerships spreadsheet to make sure everything is on track.
Because his storytelling was steeped in his love of technology, he didn’t always think of himself as a creative person. “Where I [am] the dreamer who wants to pluck things out of the sky and spend all day with my head in the clouds, Temi [is] so good at grounding me and helping me figure out how to make things make sense on paper. We just work together in such a complimentary way,” Skylar says.
It’s been more than six years since Brooklyn-based couple Temi and Skylar started dating, and nearly four since they cemented their working relationship. On TikTok and Instagram, the couple’s travel, fashion, and home content regularly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. They’ve worked with brands such as Coach, Aesop, Away, and Liquid IV, bringing their vibrant perspectives to every campaign they execute. Still, nearly two years since both Temi and Skylar committed to full-time content creation and creative directing, the couple says their romantic connection remains their priority.
“We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting,” Skylar says.
Working from home can make it hard to separate work from personal life for any entrepreneur. It can be even more challenging when your business partner is also your lover. Temi and Skylar had already used couples therapy as a tool to help them effectively communicate with one another. When they ran into challenges while working together, their therapist helped them set physical boundaries to help combat the issues.
"We told each other we would much rather go back to full-time jobs and preserve our relationship than to be full-time freelancers, barely getting a night's rest [and] barely kissing each other because we're so busy shooting."
“It actually took us doing very specific physical things to create boundaries between work and play in our relationship,” Skylar says. “So, for instance, we will only have conversations about work when we're out of bed or we're at the table or in the office. Initially, when we started, we had to light a candle to say that, 'Okay, this is a space where we're connecting, we’re not talking about work.' We needed really hard boundaries at the top. And then it became a little bit more organic.”
The boundaries have been crucial to implement, especially because the couple began working together so naturally. When the pair first met, Skylar was NY-based a social strategist for BuzzFeed and was using content creation to drive business to her lingerie company. She was shooting her own content. Temi was working for Microsoft in D.C. He’d recently traded in his DJing equipment for a camera. “I've always loved taking pictures,” he says. “Even when I was a kid, my African mother would wake me up at 3:00 a.m. [during a] party, and be like, 'Come take the family picture.'”
Growing up, Temi says he watched his parents support each other and be the true definition of partners. He knew he wanted the same for his own relationship. But, the couple also wanted to make sure they were being financially responsible. The pair didn’t quit their traditional jobs until they’d saved up two years' worth of their cost of living. And, Temi received his Master of Business Administration from New York University with the knowledge that it could either help him advance in his corporate career or be applicable to his business with Skylar.
Temi and SkylarCj Hart @hartbreakToday, they say their working relationship is more of a “quiet dance.” They still implement some of the boundaries they learned in therapy, but they also lean into their natural strengths and deep love for one another. When we speak, Temi has planned a date for the couple to see Princess Mononoke in 4K IMAX and added it to their Notion so they can factor it into their busy schedules. “I fully plan to date for the rest of my life,” he says.
Skylar says the couple doesn’t just wait for date nights to check in with one another, though. This often happens in the mornings, after Temi has made her peppermint tea and poured himself a cup of coffee. When they ask each other how they slept, she says, it’s not just a “nicety.” It’s a genuine question meant to foster connection.
“A lot of it happens during the day in the midst of work. We'll stop and we'll hug. Or we’ll slow dance in the kitchen,” she says. “Sometimes it's hard to set a whole date night when you have 7,000 things going on. So, we must grasp these moments and check in when we can. And I think it's become so organic to us that I actually didn't even realize how often we do it. But all day long, we're like, 'Are you good? I felt like your energy shifted,' because we're best friends, we just know. We just feel it happen.”
What’s better than being in love? Building wealth while doing it. Watch Making Cents here for real stories of couples who make money moves together.
Featured image by Cj Hart @hartbreak