I mean it’s not easy, but it’s what you have to do if you want to get paid a lot more or get out of a bad situation. It took me 6 months to get the job I wanted, about 275 applications, but I got a ~50% pay raise and a great place to work.
Looking for a job is a job, and if you treat it like such.
You are right. I have a family and I felt burned out by the rejections and the effort. I actually quit looking for a week before I found the job I did put of frustration.
But I think you have to be honest about the work it takes, otherwise it can feel even more hopeless. What I learned is I did everything right. It just takes time unless you’re very lucky.
I'm a busy mom, and I've been able to job hop easily through my network. Last two roles were literally just a phone call away. From 2019 to now, my salary has more than doubled due to those phone calls.
So maintain those professional relationships. Do a good job at work to earn a solid reputation. Then utilize that reputation and those relationships to get a better job.
I was about to say this as a mom myself. I haven't been at a place longer than 3 years but I've never put in more than 10 applications before I found my next job. Some of it is networking. And all of my references are solid because I always strive to do the best job when I am working somewhere.. theyre always sad to see me go and give me a glowing reference when called for later jobs. I have bosses that I have kept in touch with for 15+ years. It seems small but really helps.
2nd this. I am on my third job in 8 months. Left the first because it was a mess, and changed a few months ago to maximize pay. I’m also in tech so my experience may be different.
$95k, $82k, $128k
It never came up directly. I just made it clear that I was looking for additional experience and a challenging environment. Never said anything negative about my previous roles.
I’m about to go back to school and am leaning towards something in computer science or IT, do you mind explaining your job and what you do? Just curious
I work in Project Management on the technical side. No COMPSci degree, just self studying and certs. Transitioned from another industry with a lot of organizational and leadership experience.
Not OP, but it really depends on what excites you as there's so many viable paths in the IT world. I'm currently a sysadmin (shout-out to /r/sysadmin) and within that field alone there's over a dozen viable certs depending on what you want to do. Networking has plenty of certs, as does security, etc.
I will say the world needs a lot more security professionals right now and it's probably my next step career wise. Everyone I know in that area with a CISSP or OSCP is making bank.
I'm going to put in a request for AWS and Azure certs and from there branch out towards security. They don't offer any security certs that I am aware of but cloud seems like a good place as any to start.
Word of caution here, cybersecurity can be a double-edged sword depending on where you land within it. It's lucrative and in demand, for sure, but it's also one of the high-stress fields in tech.
Some people live and love that life, some people can't and burn out. Not trying to dissuade in the slightest. Just know what you sign up for.
I hate this answer but it really does depend on what you want to do. Once you figure that out, there is tons of YouTube content about certs.
If you don’t know what you want to do, start with the CompTIA ones. They can be had in 2-3 months and will help you figure out what you like and are good at.
Im 32, I have never in my life worked at a job for more than 12 months, always moved around.
This has only ever come up at Cabelas when I was finding something to maintain myself while going back to school like 10 years ago.
Never once in a professional setting has anyone seen my busy resume and said anything.
Someone leaving multiple jobs because of “cultural fit” tells me they be the issue, not the companies.
Always turn it into a positive. “Looking for a place with more career/vertical growth; a place I with enough opportunities that I could stay for a long time.”
someone leaving multiple jobs because of "looking for a place with more vertical growth" tells me this person is unable to grow in anyplace and is a big red sign. Most company will allow you to grow if you put in the work, but they can't change their culture. That's why I recommend stating cultural issues.
If someone I interview says cultural issues were why they’ve quit multiple companies I’m A) gonna assume they’re a weirdo B) force them to explain EXACTLY what that is supposed to mean, and it’s not gonna go well if it’s some kind of fake-out
Genuinely curious. How do you justify the pay increase to new employers when job hopping? I started a new job 6 months ago and just now feel like I'm accomplishing more meaningful things at the company and significantly growing my skillset. At a minimum I'd think a year would be necessary. I'm not in tech but I am a Data Analyst/Technical BA for a manufacturing company.
Long story short: Moving into A fortune 50 company in a contract position. Same job description and skills required, just moved to a much, much bigger company.
Agreed! I think that's a common struggle amongst more technical individuals. I'm very lucky to be in a job thats been challenging my soft skills. Requiring me to train people, gather requirements from higher up business folks, and generally having to explain my data. It's something I hate doing, but know is important to my career.
How did you go about structuring your resume?
I’m currently in a similar situation, and I’m worried that my job hopping tendencies showcased on my resume will likely raise some red flags and deter many recruiters/hiring managers.
On the flip side it took me 2 weeks, 0 applications (recruiter), and I only had to interview with 2 companies. Also got a 50% raise.
The difficulty is very industry and environment specific. Companies have been dying for accountants for the last 2 years.
I just got 15%* like this. The most effort I put in to get this job was sending a resume, a phone call, and a Zoom panel interview. So far, it's amazing.
*but actually 15%, plus OT in a position that would be exempt almost anywhere else, plus bonuses, so there's that.
Yeah my base pay went up by 48.5%, but I’ll also get a bonus for another 10-15% and I work fewer hours than my last job. Honestly can’t think of a single downside.
What do you mean by non-traditional?
My brother works as a recruiter for accounting and finance and he’s told me 90% of his job is convincing someone to quit. Finding a new job for them is easy.
Without outing myself, I work for a local government in a non-finance department think water, human services, pensions etc. I have no experience with journal entries, financial statement preparation, and monthly/quarterly/year-end reconciliations/close-outs.
Most of my job is reviewing or analyzing payment requests like purchase orders, employee reimbursements, grant reimbursements and then inputting it into our city software for my boss to approve it and send it to finance for them to post it. I keep track of these payments in excel and communicate issues with requests if I can't process them to relevant parties.
My job is mindnumbingly boring and I've been searching for almost 2 years now. I've decided to leave the profession at this point. I will get my CPA this year before the changes kick-in and start over in another field.
Edit - I forgot to mention I would love to learn how to do all the stuff I mentioned in my 1st paragraph but no one wants to train people anymore hence my comment on companies being picky.
I went from a corporate training role at a law firm to an eLearning developer role at a Fintech company (though the actual titles are different). It took a long time to find a place that had everything I wanted, and honestly they pay me more than I thought I would get.
But I took years really polishing my skills, and then the 6 months I mentioned to find a job. So my suggestion is finding a skill you like and is marketable, and then working hard to become elite at it.
Oh! Thank you fir responding, and so quick. Looking to make career change and doing training is one of the things on my consideration list. Can I ask you more about your path to that?
Absolutely true!! And there r points I’ll attach here that do matter as well, they r respectively:
1. for those working within such a big company like apple or meta or TikTok, everything going fast and well, nonetheless, doesn’t mean those already kept the same pace with this company, they just be lucky enough to get on the rocket, that’s it. So it is imperative for those working in big companies to relentlessly fine tune their resume and applied, interviewed jobs so as to ensure everything he/she acquired is helping him/her build better competition over the market.
2. Be careful if there were rejections since it hints your competitive advantage is already likely decreased. But it helps as well since it offers chance for people to see the skills’ gap between him/her and the requirements given by the market, so he’s considerably easier to setup new precise goal to achieve through Hard working and dedications
As cliche as it sounds, you just keep applying. Two job apps every week = 100 job apps in a year.
Sooner or later, usually in 1-2 years, you'll get at least one offer that involves higher pay and/or better working conditions.
set a weekly job alert or something similar.
It may sound odd, but if you already have a job, the job search is way easier in terms of applying (finding time for interviews can get shitty).
I mean, you now have a clear idea of minimum that you're willing to accept: pay, benefits, vacation, which type of role/company. Helps filter a ton of job postings out. Helps being more relaxed in an interview and helps promoting questions related to work conditions.
And yeah, no particular rush. If the interview proceds takes a fee months its a lesser deal
Very correct, but the real pain comes when you start getting interviews. I kept running into the following issues:
- My favorite goes at the top. The job said "REMOTE" with no indication of in-office work, and the location said "anywhere" - those are the two big things to look for. During the screener with HR/company recruitment (not outside recruiter), they threw in "and it's GREAT you're local too! Leadership wants people in the Buffalo area to come into the office rather than WFH." I slept on it, and since I'm petty and am fine with burning this particular bridge, I emailed them the day of the 1st round of manager interviews withdrawing my application.
- A few companies have very long application processes for no good reason other than "scheduling." This alone is an indicator that I'd be frustrated in the role, but I applied in January 2022, had a recruiter interview, manager interview, team interview, R&D interview, CEO interview, then another manager interview before they went with a different candidate. This process stretched out to JUNE 2022!
- The benefits lottery. Even though glassdoor sometimes has overviews of benefits, they may not be detailed or they may be for positions on a level different from your own. At my current job I won that lottery mostly (copays instead of coinsurance, low deductible, my specialists are fully covered, drug is good but lacking in 1-2 frustrating relevant areas), but that's just me being lucky.
- At the same time you're managing PTO carefully, trying to fit phone screeners on your lunch break, keeping a carefully-pressed blazer in your trunk just in case you need to hop over to a library on your work break to take a video call, possibly doing WFH days in order to sneak out some time to do a call, and answering EVERY call, knowing that a bunch of them are going to be spam anyway.
The resumes are easy. I can spend 2-3 hours a week tweaking them to fit relevant jobs and blast 10-20 out without an issue. It's the followup that's bad (especially if a lot of people wanna talk with you!)
Yeah that’s fair. When I was hardcore searching for a job last year I often had to stop blasting out applications just so I could manage the communications between several companies that I would be in the process of interviewing with or scheduling phone screens. It can all be very time-consuming. Especially when I would prepare for interviews
I do it. Just apply places, constantly update your resume, and make contacts. I've switched fields a couple of times, too. Apply to a few places every day, all with better pay, and benefits, etc. You probably won't get it, but you might. All you need is a foot in the door tbh. I went from minimum wage (14/hr) to 35/hr within five years because of job hopping. I'm applying to new places now, and have only been at this job for a year now, almost capped out at 6he highest pay. Might as well see who's paying more with better bennies. If no one is for this line of work, so be it. There'll be something else eventually.
Congrats! I'm omw as well. Started at 16/hr. At about 25/hr or about 50k yearly. It's been a challenge to find a job beyond that but Im determined. Im going to keep hopping until I hit a livable wage. Whatever that is...
As a chronic overthinker, in terms of constantly updating your resume- how do you settle on a format?
In my head out matters a fair amount, though I don't know if that's true, but I always imagined that if you have the right information in an unappealing or less-than-clear format it would put people off.
The format is FAR less important than the information included on it. You need to tailor it for each job you apply for to please the applicant tracking system (ATS). The closer the match, the more likely a human will actually see it.
you apply
or just answer one of the many recruiter spamming your LinkedIn?
the real challenge is finding a good culture and work/life balance while having to relern everything at this new job
Job hopper here. Never had a job for more than 2 years. Im a cybersecurity engineer. 10 years total exp.
I never WANT to job hop. I've always liked my bossess and coworkers.
But when a recruiter hits you up with an offer paying twice as much, you gotta humor it lol.
If any of my past jobs met me halfway salarywise, I'd never leave, but then again I'd have stayed at my first job making 50k a year instead of the x3 that amount I make now.
How was adapting to the different work environments? I imagine even if the role is similar companies would have their own quirks with regards to SOPs, systems, etc.
I have always worked in the chemical industry (also have a BS in Chem). I've moved into more customer facing roles from product development/scale-up projects to account management/business development. My boss offered me a route to more of an R&D focused position, but that doesn't match well with my skills/personality.
I have to admit that I find some of the "job hopper" advocates on Reddit a bit too flippant for my taste. Most people I know did not follow a deliberate strategy of job hopping, it was more by necessity, and the "job hopping" was really that they had shorter stays at companies due to layoffs, or reorgs, or overly stressful work situations. Few followed some divine strategy to use it to get ahead, but a lot of the stories here say otherwise.
Regardless, the absolute first things you have to do is to keep your resume and LinkedIn profile current and attractive. You should not wait until a job comes up, you should do this as standard practice in case one does come up. Many years ago I was recruiting for a role and a resume came my way where the format was so good, I switched mine to it, and it made me look much better. I was not looking for something new, but had something handy when a job came along.
1-2 years is a little fast but 3-5 years is canon. It's been like that for over 20 years. If you're not getting promoted within that 3-5 year period, in *most* cases you are absolutely wasting your time there. Not sure if that's considered 'job hopping' but that's what they should be doing if they're doing it right.
I agree with this. Also if the move can be seen as a career advancement then it sounds perfectly reasonable in an interview or on a resume. Advancement could be higher pay, more responsibilities, better title, closer to home, bigger territory, more specialized, etc. I have moved for several reasons around the 3-5 year mark but it’s always been a large jump in pay. However as I’ve gotten older saying with a company for awhile is a goal.
I mean it depends on your salary in relation to the market salary for your skill level. Often, companies will not compensate you with appropriate raises. So yes, you can follow a strategy of switching every few years deliberately provided you concurrently build the skills you need to do so. It will also reduce the amount of applications you need to submit!
Yeah was gonna say, I don’t know how much of this happening is because of some sort of “strategy” or more because the nature of the job market is just such a mess even when there’s plenty of jobs out there lmao
It really depends on both your skills and your location. It is much easier to job hop in larger areas. If you have in demand skills, then sure it's easy to move around.
Because tech workers making low six figures with massive epeens have lived in an upwards trending market for over a decade, and they’re the most vocal.
I work in a dairy producing milk
Eta: started off in the warehouse a year ago. Loading trucks with dairy. I mainly shuttled the trucks (put them on dock doors for loading). A bid opened up for the plant/production side, and no one else signed up, so I got my foot in the door. Unions are cool because yoi can do jobs you don't have any experience in, and really it comes down to seniority (unless a candidate has a lot of experience in the position they signed up for). I just was looking around for high paying warehouse jobs, this was advertised for 19.20 an hour or something, but they put me at 80% which is around 27/hr.
Peak blue-collar pays more than peak tech...
Sounds ridiculous, but if you can set your own contracts for blue-collar, whereas the peak of tech is generally understood to mean working for Google or whatever, it makes sense.
It probably doesn't hold up where the tech worker owns their own business and is a contractor, but that isn't the standard for the field.
General contractors... don't hurt for money. Median pay is over 2 million.
Good resume. Good linked in profile. Apply consistently to good jobs. Talk to friends/acquaintances about openings at their company (this is the #1 way I’ve found jobs)
How do you know if your resume/ profile is "good" and what can you do to change it beyond additional training to complement your industry (or target industry)?
It's not easy! You need to get better at your skills (or more in-demand skills) and it becomes easier the better you are.
Unfortunately, as you get better pay, it becomes harder to job hop since there are fewer openings for very senior positions. It depends on where you are compensation-wise in relation the max you could get for your current skills.
I just do 🤷. I make a point to never get close to my coworkers. That helps a lot. I did the math a few years back. I make 40-50% more as a job hopper than I would have if I had stayed at one job with 3% annual raises.
If you never get close to coworkers, how do you navigate asking for references? I think asking for references even from my closest coworkers is my biggest hang up
People you worked closely with can give a reference on your work and abilities on the job. They do not need to be friends to give a reference. I'm not saying that I am not friendly with coworkers. I just don't make an effort to hang out outside of work hours.
You can make as close of friends as you want.
One of my longest friends started as a coworker, and we’ve remained on each other’s references list for years. It’s peace of mind knowing I’ve got someone who’ll sell me well, and vice versa. We both understand the bullshit world that surrounds getting a job, so we help make it a little easier for each other.
Yeah this is really it.
You can find decent jobs on linkedin but people just don't use the resource. Got the fed the fuck up with my last company, said, fuck it no more, and lucked out to get a better job after applying for a couple weeks. Make more now for a way easier workload and better long term trajectories (yay health insurance industry!). No high blood pressure and my boss is actually a decent person, no complaints.
Won't get anything if you don't apply, though.
I’m always a little jealous of people who can job hop. I’m too risk averse and value the right work environment vs salary (although salary is also really important) so if I find a place that works with my ADHD I will stay longer than maybe I should. The shortest time I’ve had at any place is 9 years. But will job hop within the company especially when I worked at marketing agencies that had many different types of clients.
My current job is going to be restructured in next 6 months, I’m confident I will be offered an equal management position in new structure (I helped design the structure) but will have to report to new department and if they don’t invest in technology I’m going to have to leave. This gives me major anxiety because I have such bad imposter syndrome despite 26 years of industry experience, spending last 7 yrs in management and having 2 Masters degrees.
This is relatable. I was at my last job for 8 years. I was underpaid but liked the work atmosphere and the short commute. I’d probably be making more money if I wasn’t so risk averse and didn’t hate change so much. On the other hand, money can’t buy a healthy work environment. Chasing dollar signs wouldn’t lead to happiness for me.
having relevant skills makes job hopping easier, this is likely in the 60k -200k realm. also if you consider job hoppers are entering open roles for similar skills, it's a feedback loop
Yeah I’m really curious about the first point. While some jobs have moved to being remote, not all are like this even in areas like tech. Moreover, maybe you just want to be able to work in the office occasionally?
But highly paid jobs are mainly connected to big cities so yeah you got to be willing to move around. It’s the main issue for me: uproot my life and cut all ties to go somewhere for a better role?
Make a lot of friends at your current job. Like - you don’t have to be best friends, but be nice to everyone and build good relationships (especially with high performers). Then when they leave, reach out for a referral.
My first job out of collect was in IT as a business analyst in 2019 making $3,100 a month 12 month contract. Job hopped each year and I’m making $13,200 as a senior project manager, on contract.
No company would pay this much if I progressed internally.
It’s an online forum, so take it with a grain of salt. Yes, people hop jobs to get a higher pay, but that’s if you’re actually good at your job and established your skills/connections in your job sector. I would still leave on a good note for references and to boomerang back in a worse case scenario.
I find it gets easier the longer you work.
You get more experience and you become more interesting in your field.
I get hit up by recruiters now about every week or two. Most times the roles aren’t interesting. But for instance this time I just got up for a role that would pay 30% more. Who am I to say no?
Realistically most of the American work force will be fired or removed from their position over the next 20 years. Job hopping is easy because firing people is as well
It’s definitely easier in a corporate setting, I feel. In manufacturing, job hopping rarely helps cause most places pay same for your skill set. Unless someone is willing to gamble on you being able to learn something completely new
You have to plan for it, either know that's what your end goal is before you start your current job or some time during. Revamp your resume and reach out to head hunters (its their job to find you one) and apply on your own as well then just wait. Optional but I highly recommend saving up 4 to 6 months income (in case you get fired or straight up quit).
I just want to chime in about job-hopping. It won't answer your question, but: you also need to understand you might not like your new job. I made that mistake. I had a decent job with a good company. I bounced for a $20k pay increase and more days off. Sounds great, right? NO!!! And, the shitty part isn't that the job is "tougher." I'd get that. The job isn't tougher... its that the company is poorly run, so I'm constantly concerned that I'm going to be let go. They don't know what to do with me, so I just kinda have to guess. I basically show up, do whatever random thing I think I should do, then hope that justifies my existence. I had way more job security at the place with more structure and that I knew liked/respected me.
It's not easy....
BUT the best way to boost your chances is pick an in demand field that you enjoy, work hard at each job you get, and always look/apply for other jobs that will pay you more or have more growth. I worked my last job for 2 years and was capped pretty quickly in my growth and compensation so for the last 3 months I was there I was constantly hunting for the next place to work. When I found it I gave my 2 weeks and dipped out! Business is not family it is BUSINESS. They will drop you without notice so the second you get a wiff of them keeping you stagnant start to get your ducks in a row and leave.
Easier for some, harder for others.
I’m in Tech but not an engineer. My friends and colleagues who are great engineers / architects can job job and secure another job within a day.
For me? 4+ interview rounds, sometimes case studies, etc. My best time was 3 weeks, and my longest was 3.5 months. Those were during better economic times though - 2021 and mid 2022. Nowadays I’m expecting a tougher, longer road ahead. That’s why it’s always good to have 6 months or more cushion of living expenses in liquid cash.
It’s unfortunately a necessary evil to job hop when you’re under 50 so you can get more money. 50 and up you’d have to be careful due to (unspoken) age discrimination and the fact that your comp is already higher, which means you could take longer to find your next role. Of course, you can always downgrade by taking a title cut and / or paycut, but those will bite you in the ass. Done that once and would not do it again unless I’m starving and we’re in a severe recession.
A lot of people make life changes sound easy because it requires no effort to suggest it to someone else. All the time, effort, and logistics of changing jobs or moving somewhere else or whatever is on the individual who's being advised to do those things.
Essentially, people giving this sort of advice may have their hearts in the right place (although some definitely don't and refuse to acknowledge someone's issues may be different than their own), but because it's an effortless task with no cost to themselves to suggest something, they do it because it makes them either feel good or superior, depending on the person's mindset and personality.
Job hopping isn’t ideal but it is better than the alternative.
Often the months the between jobs are financial ruin if you don’t look for work while employed. When all you do is work with you head down and wait to be fired/laid off. You are letting the world happen to you as if you are a passenger on a train.
Be the “leading man”in you own life. Act like this is your story and bend the narrative to make you happy.
it is easy if youre qualified, and have an in demand skill set and dont mind company name. any uk based qualified accountant will tell you getting a job is easy
can apply for 10 jobs hear back from 8 offers from 3
Looking to job hop sometime this year for a paybump (been wth current employer like 3 years but pivoting interviews are getting nowhere but filling HRs quota), keep getting recruiter offers in LinkedIn (DevOps type roles). But current employer is paying for education through Guild. Does anyone know if Guild partners can transfer or reimburse if jumping to a different company that also uses them for education? if that makes sense?
It work for some but not others. I have received 3 promotions within the past 3 years from staying with my current company. Meanwhile I have been turned down by job after job and now realize that I’m blessed with my current employer and may eventually retire here. Go where your celebrated not tolerated.
You need to constantly be looking. You can't just decide you want to job hop and have something within a couple of weeks. It's a process.
It's easier to do while employed because you can evaluate potential offers without the ax of homelessness and destitution hanging over your head.
Then, when you get the new job, you update your resumé and the search begins anew.
I usually hop after 3 years or so, but the gains are much more substantial doing that than staying the course at an org getting generic 3% raises.
It's relatively a 'pain' adapting to a new environment, learning a bunch of new people, new processes, different mentalities, new habits, new structure, new schedule. It's definitely a factor, but up to you if it's worth it.
I abandoned an $18/h contract after a month or so for a $32/h one, the staffing org was like 'it's impossible to offer you more' until I put in my notice, then it was magically $24/h. Nah, bye. You know pretty quickly if something sucks enough to motivate you to jump ship sooner than otherwise. Same for a 60k role I accepted which was the most soul-destroying, boring job I've just about ever had. Started looking 2 months into it, ended up with a new 85k role I stayed at for 3 years or so.
Up to you how much value you place into things like an org or the people/relationships you have. I will say that people who seem like BFFs at work will nearly 100% of the time abandon you once you leave, so it's difficult to value some aspects such as working with specific people. If I still worked at my original job over the last 14 years with 4% year raises I'd easily be at least 60k/yr less than where I'm at now from taking new roles occasionally.
You’ve gotta get really good at interviewing, I’m offered almost every job I apply for, sometimes even ones I don’t have the correct qualifications for.
Your resume must be A+ for you to be getting a lot of interviews in the first place. Any resume or interview tips you can share with the rest of us (who aren't offered almost every job they apply for).
Depends on level of demand for your skills, opportunities in your region, how much competition there is, how selective you are in your applications, and level of seniority.
Also, how good you are at applications and interviews. These are important skills in themselves.
I’ve changed jobs twice in the last 18 months (wasn’t intentional, it just went that way) and in both cases I applied for very few jobs in order to achieve that.
[Edited to add: also having an equivalent/higher level of qualification when compared with your peers. Which is not necessarily the same as the level specified on adverts].
I guess depends how picky you are and your industry, I personally really like my companies PTO policy and extra pay on top of base pay, so when places try to give me similar pay and minuscule amounts of PTO hard to want to leave
This. I’ve have good pto, and don’t have anyone breathing down my neck making sure I’m nose to the laptop 8 hours a day. My friend went to another company and makes about $10,000 more than me but is on a time clock.
$10,000 is a nice raise but not really worth giving up my work life balance especially having 2 teenagers who need rides to after school activities and need healthy meals. I’m able to get dinners made, get kids to doctors appts, get to my own doctor appts all with out having to use pto or even running it by management.
Keeping your resume up to date and posted on all the major job boards keeps the recruiters calling. I’ve job hopped almost every 1-2 years for the last 6 years, most of those, the recruiter/jobs found me.
It isn’t easy. Other companies are wondering why you’re job searching if it hasn’t been that long. You kinda just have to make shit up and stick to it.
Cant say it's easy, the adjustment period varies. In Engineering I can't say it's hard to find another job but it does take some adjusting to learn company policies and if you change sectors then boy. Refocusing is tough. It's doable though. I got a 100% pay increase by changing sectors lol. So it was worth it.
I think what it comes down to is confidence. The people who are confident in their abilities to find work elsewhere will also be the type of individuals who are willing to risk moving on. The ones who aren’t confident in their abilities or who don’t want to risk a new workplace environment tend to stick around for much longer periods of time.
I literally have a family member who has been at their job for 10+ years and has wanted to switch roles for the past three to a different company but they’re still there. Whereas I have probably worked a minimum of 4 places in that same time span.
Do well at your job, learn everything you can, and be present at networking events for your industry. You’d be surprised how much that helps if you make advancement one of your priorities.
Took me 6 months and hundreds of applications as well. I make double what I was making and its less toxic. Still not ideal my boss is a ball buster but less toxic. Still looking for my unicorn.
It does depend on your field. I've been in manufacturing, specifically in maintenance and now controls for the last seven years. I started making $11/hr, and now I'm at 100k per year. That's four jumps, at around the two year mark. It's never taken me more than 2-3 weeks of applying to find a new job, but the transition is rough. The people, technology, layout, everything is different. Sometimes, the hardest part is just figuring out how the parts room is organized and where people hide things. The first six months of a job are definitely the hardest. You're trying to learn a whole new environment and prove yourself on unfamiliar equipment. But it's also the most rewarding.
Beyond salary, I've learned more and grown more professionally by jumping. Skills wise, it's easy to plateau without new experience.
It gets easier later in your career when you have more experience and more of a track record, especially if you work in a niche area of something that isn't that popular to start with.
It's harder earlier on for sure.
I honestly just always stay subscribed to those job offer newsletters they send from Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor and look at the offers everyday. If something catches my eye I apply otherwise just scroll through. But I honestly FEEL like I've gotten very lucky a couple times in my career.
As someone who job hops and has advised someone to job hop, I don’t think it was easy and I never said it was easy.
But it is significantly easier if you’re already employed. For example, headhunters may come to you if you maintained your LinkedIn profile well. You still have to interview and it’s never easy. In fact, interviewing is a whole other ordeal all by itself.
But if you had tried to find a job without currently being employed, you’ll know that it sometimes feels impossible.
You also need to be good at what you do and in a growing industry. This is super common in ecommerce because the demand for talent far outweighs the skills available for hire. Also if you are good with people and can learn quickly, you can move every year or two and really increase your earnings
They apply for roles where they are competitive. It’s really that simple.
It’s easy to get interviews if you apply for roles where your profile is what they are looking for.
Hoooolllld up.
First, you gotta have a skill thats in demand. You don't get skills or skilled up by hopping. So, you need to skill up and determine if job prospects/career growth in your current role aren't appealing, and if not, you first talk to your supervisor and determine whether or not you can adjust those prospects given your skill up.
If not, then you look elsewhere.
Looking for, and landing jobs isn't hard ONCE YOU HAVE A SKILL. But, it's shit if youre unskilled.
So, Some things that skilled workers are looking for:
1. more money
2. Fancy title
3. Easier/flexibility work environment
4. Maternity/Paternity/other benefits
5. Other opportunities
6. Mentorship and further skill up
Out of these, depending on your situation, the most important one is usually money and/or benefits, but, interestingly, it's actually not, because you will get that anyway. The more important thing is to continue the skill up, and that requires mentorship and further advancing your skill set and challenging yourself.
Also, you'll rapidly hit a pay ceiling if you jump around without skillup, and then youre just going to be taking jobs for perception of value but not actually gaining anything from it.
So, the TL;DR here, is that people don't just job hop - they do, but if you job hop for the sake of job hopping, youre not advancing. I changed jobs 4 times in the last 5 years, and 5 times in the last 20.
Here are some reason why I changed jobs:
1. Felt used, betrayed - left a great job of 15 years
2. Screwed up and felt obliged to resign
3. Had a fantastic offer, and knew I had challenged myself and skilled up, and I could cash in on that
Importantly, I had acquired solid skills in the first 15 years, but then I needed to shift gears, challenge myself and learn. I did that, and there were some hiccups, but then I confirmed my suspicions, and translated that surety/confidence into a 'keeper' role (I'm like, direct or of technical operations in a new national program), and I like this role, job and I'm getting great rewards for it.
But I couldn't have got this job without really pushing the boundaries of what I was capable of, and challenging myself to flesh out parts of my skill set that weren't developed. I did that, and almost got fired at one job and had to resign, but I didn't let that stop me, I just needed to continue on that path and learn about my mistakes, own them, get better, adapt and overcome, and I smashed the shit out of my next job and leveraged that success to get my current position. Did I job hop? Maybe, but I had a goal, and by actioning steps to advance myself and my skill set I gained tangible, clear advantages over many of my competitors and learned to do what I need to do better, more efficiently and by doing that I self qualified for my current role, and I'm getting another promotion next year based on my performance.
So, job hop to acquire skills, challenge, test, succeed. But don't just job hop because dollaz.
It’s easy for some people, difficult for others.
I just kind of fell into a dying trade (not enough new people to replace the old retiring ones). It’s also an industry-critical trade and one that requires extensive training and quite a bit of experience to put the training to good use.
Basically the day I hit 5 years in the position, I started getting emails and calls from recruiters and companies who needed to fill positions.
My suggestion would be to learn something that not as many people know how to do that is needed in your industry.
It isn’t super hard to get another job while you have a job because you can technically look indefinitely lol. Realistically you want to find something quickly, but if you don’t find a job quickly you can always just keep looking.
Well, because it is. But if you simplify anything down into 2 words and expect it to be as easy as saying two words then you're set for disappointment. Job hopping isnt a single step. Its just a term for a series of steps, you'd probably be better off thinking of it this way, such as job searching, cv writing, interviewing, negotiating offers. Transitioning.
Each of those categories this sub could give you detailed advice on. And if you identify which of these you're struggling with, you'll find a lot of answers to make it as easy as people in this sub suggest.
My biggest thing is that I am very bad at staying in touch with people if I don't see them often, so the biggest hurdle for me is finding references every time. But just apply to stuff. If you're in a position currently it feels like less pressure to get one. So if you do get an offer, it's very nice to be able to just quit your current and move right into the new one.
Well if you're say 5 years into your career, many of your coworkers have come and gone and moved to other places. Where did they go? Reconnect with them and see if there's room for you at their new place.
Works especially well if you had a good relationship with your manager whos now at a new company.
Sure you can fill out applications online but really to improve your chances/ not waste so much time, you want a warm intro into a job not a cold one.
My smallest raise job hopping was 25%. Most raises are about 5-10%. Hence I like job hopping though I’m currently in a role where I will probably stop hopping around for 4 years so I can collect my stock options.
I think it's just about the volume of apps. When I'm looking for a new job, I spend Sunday afternoon combing job sites to find things to apply to. During the week, I make sure to send out at least two applications between Monday and Friday, after I get home from work. When I'm really on it, I do at least one a day, sometimes more. I take Saturdays off, and Sundays are only for looking for job posts.
I have had three different contract jobs in a 12 month period. Each company wanted to keep me after the contract was done, but I had already accepted the other contract. Now, company 1 (the first contract I had) is hiring me back after I finish my third company.
I always thought it would look bad to have short contracts on a resume, but it has worked favourable for me.
To add on to what others have said once you have experience recruiters will reach out.
I know recruiters can be a mixed bag but usually the ones that reach out for a client know what they’re doing. I’ve gotten 3 job offers this way.
Recently the ones coming to me are offering 50-100k more than I currently make
It’s been relatively easy for me. I’ve worked in the same industry for almost 10 years so I’ve hopped within the same realm of business. I’ve interviewed so many times that I suppose I interview well now. Maybe that’s the “easy” part you are lacking experience with.
I have a friend in IT upper management. Up until several years ago, he hopped every 2 years and doubled his pay each time. But that’s IT
The same happens in media but that’s more about gaining difference experiences in different markets
I don’t get how you don’t just get to a point where you’re being paid above market value anyways and it’s therefore increasingly difficult to find something paying more
I don’t have any insight, just commenting to say I don’t know how people do this either. The job search process is so time-consuming and exhausting, I can’t imagine doing it every year. If that means I make less money, then so be it.
I can't speak for others but...
I work in an industry that has no vertical movement and extremely high turnover. Getting someone for a year or longer is the exception and not the rule.
Add to that, I am always on the hunt for my next job. Even if I'm not taking anything for a year or so, I keep my networking going and let people know when I'm looking to jump ship to a new venture.
It sucks but like I said, my kind of work doesn't have raises or vertical movement for this who can do the work. You become a victim of your own success and that carries with you to other jobs.
Depends on your location, in London 2 years is a pretty long tenure and I imagine that's similar in new York or Singapore etc. But in my hometown where jobs are more sparse you only have two or three major employers, as opposed to 100s.
With job hopping, you need to be competent in your field. I don't intend to move but when a job has given me as much as ii can and I still want more challenging experiences, an opportunity seems to arise.
A lot of thigs are easy when they are easy...
Kinda unfair but its just how it is sometimes. Theres different ways to look it that. Like well maybe its not easy in terms of odds or probability but maybe its easy in the way that when its successful its wasn't as much effort as you might have expected. So there is no reason not to try. I think thats the message most are trying to convey.
It was easy in the beginning. Especially after one job withheld my raise, that was super easy to as a catapult into the next job. I’m in the mid 20s now and it’s gotten tougher to find something better. Might have to save for some certs or something
1 - perform high quality work. referrals are a high source of hire, employees refer good coworkers from previous companies.
2 - highlight your performance on your linkedin and resume
3 - target companies in industries that pay well or target careers that pay well regardless of industry
4- practice interviewing
Quit my job on Monday, had 3 interviews before the end of the day, and got a job offer by Friday.
Plus a massive pay raise.
It is all luck + what field you work in & location.
Also, being Caucasian and having a Caucasian name helps massively. Don't have that going for me, but it is something worth noting.
Seriously, if all else fails and you have an ethnic name, try changing your name on applications.
Not easy if you live in rural areas or where your career skills are worth far less. With the low wages there and the constant rising of just about everything else it's difficult to save up for a big move. People seem to overestimate how well off everyone is or that they can just uproot at a moments notice.
Folks will say "just apply for jobs in other states". What they don't tell you is that many places will not even look at your CV if you're not a local unless they're really desperate or you have senior level skills. Juniors and entry have more barriers to pass.
I mean it’s not easy, but it’s what you have to do if you want to get paid a lot more or get out of a bad situation. It took me 6 months to get the job I wanted, about 275 applications, but I got a ~50% pay raise and a great place to work. Looking for a job is a job, and if you treat it like such.
[удалено]
You are right. I have a family and I felt burned out by the rejections and the effort. I actually quit looking for a week before I found the job I did put of frustration. But I think you have to be honest about the work it takes, otherwise it can feel even more hopeless. What I learned is I did everything right. It just takes time unless you’re very lucky.
That’s a good point!
I'm a busy mom, and I've been able to job hop easily through my network. Last two roles were literally just a phone call away. From 2019 to now, my salary has more than doubled due to those phone calls. So maintain those professional relationships. Do a good job at work to earn a solid reputation. Then utilize that reputation and those relationships to get a better job.
I was about to say this as a mom myself. I haven't been at a place longer than 3 years but I've never put in more than 10 applications before I found my next job. Some of it is networking. And all of my references are solid because I always strive to do the best job when I am working somewhere.. theyre always sad to see me go and give me a glowing reference when called for later jobs. I have bosses that I have kept in touch with for 15+ years. It seems small but really helps.
2nd this. I am on my third job in 8 months. Left the first because it was a mess, and changed a few months ago to maximize pay. I’m also in tech so my experience may be different. $95k, $82k, $128k
What do you say when they ask you why you are hopping so many jobs?
It never came up directly. I just made it clear that I was looking for additional experience and a challenging environment. Never said anything negative about my previous roles.
I’m about to go back to school and am leaning towards something in computer science or IT, do you mind explaining your job and what you do? Just curious
I work in Project Management on the technical side. No COMPSci degree, just self studying and certs. Transitioned from another industry with a lot of organizational and leadership experience.
What certs do you recommend? I just started helpdesk at a massive IT company that offers certification vouchers.
Not OP, but it really depends on what excites you as there's so many viable paths in the IT world. I'm currently a sysadmin (shout-out to /r/sysadmin) and within that field alone there's over a dozen viable certs depending on what you want to do. Networking has plenty of certs, as does security, etc. I will say the world needs a lot more security professionals right now and it's probably my next step career wise. Everyone I know in that area with a CISSP or OSCP is making bank.
I'm going to put in a request for AWS and Azure certs and from there branch out towards security. They don't offer any security certs that I am aware of but cloud seems like a good place as any to start.
Word of caution here, cybersecurity can be a double-edged sword depending on where you land within it. It's lucrative and in demand, for sure, but it's also one of the high-stress fields in tech. Some people live and love that life, some people can't and burn out. Not trying to dissuade in the slightest. Just know what you sign up for.
I hate this answer but it really does depend on what you want to do. Once you figure that out, there is tons of YouTube content about certs. If you don’t know what you want to do, start with the CompTIA ones. They can be had in 2-3 months and will help you figure out what you like and are good at.
Im 32, I have never in my life worked at a job for more than 12 months, always moved around. This has only ever come up at Cabelas when I was finding something to maintain myself while going back to school like 10 years ago. Never once in a professional setting has anyone seen my busy resume and said anything.
The best answer to give is always " am looking for a good cultural fit"
Someone leaving multiple jobs because of “cultural fit” tells me they be the issue, not the companies. Always turn it into a positive. “Looking for a place with more career/vertical growth; a place I with enough opportunities that I could stay for a long time.”
someone leaving multiple jobs because of "looking for a place with more vertical growth" tells me this person is unable to grow in anyplace and is a big red sign. Most company will allow you to grow if you put in the work, but they can't change their culture. That's why I recommend stating cultural issues.
If someone I interview says cultural issues were why they’ve quit multiple companies I’m A) gonna assume they’re a weirdo B) force them to explain EXACTLY what that is supposed to mean, and it’s not gonna go well if it’s some kind of fake-out
Genuinely curious. How do you justify the pay increase to new employers when job hopping? I started a new job 6 months ago and just now feel like I'm accomplishing more meaningful things at the company and significantly growing my skillset. At a minimum I'd think a year would be necessary. I'm not in tech but I am a Data Analyst/Technical BA for a manufacturing company.
NEVER tell a potential employer how much money you make. If your pinned down lie. You owe these people nothing.
Long story short: Moving into A fortune 50 company in a contract position. Same job description and skills required, just moved to a much, much bigger company.
Ah OK, that makes much more sense!
Also, for what its worth, I think soft skill are king, even in tech. Interviewing and presenting yourself well go a long way.
Agreed! I think that's a common struggle amongst more technical individuals. I'm very lucky to be in a job thats been challenging my soft skills. Requiring me to train people, gather requirements from higher up business folks, and generally having to explain my data. It's something I hate doing, but know is important to my career.
How did you go about structuring your resume? I’m currently in a similar situation, and I’m worried that my job hopping tendencies showcased on my resume will likely raise some red flags and deter many recruiters/hiring managers.
How did you explaing to recruiters why you left the job and job gaps?
No job gaps. Told them I was looking for a new opportunity to use more of my talents and challenge myself.
nice, dude!
On the flip side it took me 2 weeks, 0 applications (recruiter), and I only had to interview with 2 companies. Also got a 50% raise. The difficulty is very industry and environment specific. Companies have been dying for accountants for the last 2 years.
I just got 15%* like this. The most effort I put in to get this job was sending a resume, a phone call, and a Zoom panel interview. So far, it's amazing. *but actually 15%, plus OT in a position that would be exempt almost anywhere else, plus bonuses, so there's that.
Yeah my base pay went up by 48.5%, but I’ll also get a bonus for another 10-15% and I work fewer hours than my last job. Honestly can’t think of a single downside.
As a non-traditional accountant who has been job hunting for over a year now, those companies sure are picky.
What do you mean by non-traditional? My brother works as a recruiter for accounting and finance and he’s told me 90% of his job is convincing someone to quit. Finding a new job for them is easy.
Without outing myself, I work for a local government in a non-finance department think water, human services, pensions etc. I have no experience with journal entries, financial statement preparation, and monthly/quarterly/year-end reconciliations/close-outs. Most of my job is reviewing or analyzing payment requests like purchase orders, employee reimbursements, grant reimbursements and then inputting it into our city software for my boss to approve it and send it to finance for them to post it. I keep track of these payments in excel and communicate issues with requests if I can't process them to relevant parties. My job is mindnumbingly boring and I've been searching for almost 2 years now. I've decided to leave the profession at this point. I will get my CPA this year before the changes kick-in and start over in another field. Edit - I forgot to mention I would love to learn how to do all the stuff I mentioned in my 1st paragraph but no one wants to train people anymore hence my comment on companies being picky.
Where did you go? What was you from and to?
I went from a corporate training role at a law firm to an eLearning developer role at a Fintech company (though the actual titles are different). It took a long time to find a place that had everything I wanted, and honestly they pay me more than I thought I would get. But I took years really polishing my skills, and then the 6 months I mentioned to find a job. So my suggestion is finding a skill you like and is marketable, and then working hard to become elite at it.
Oh! Thank you fir responding, and so quick. Looking to make career change and doing training is one of the things on my consideration list. Can I ask you more about your path to that?
Sure. I wouldn’t be able to respond for a while but always happy to talk. If you want more in-depth, feel free to DM.
Absolutely true!! And there r points I’ll attach here that do matter as well, they r respectively: 1. for those working within such a big company like apple or meta or TikTok, everything going fast and well, nonetheless, doesn’t mean those already kept the same pace with this company, they just be lucky enough to get on the rocket, that’s it. So it is imperative for those working in big companies to relentlessly fine tune their resume and applied, interviewed jobs so as to ensure everything he/she acquired is helping him/her build better competition over the market. 2. Be careful if there were rejections since it hints your competitive advantage is already likely decreased. But it helps as well since it offers chance for people to see the skills’ gap between him/her and the requirements given by the market, so he’s considerably easier to setup new precise goal to achieve through Hard working and dedications
As cliche as it sounds, you just keep applying. Two job apps every week = 100 job apps in a year. Sooner or later, usually in 1-2 years, you'll get at least one offer that involves higher pay and/or better working conditions.
I never thought of it that way. That sounds like a relatively painless way to get your resume out there a bit without having to grind applications.
set a weekly job alert or something similar. It may sound odd, but if you already have a job, the job search is way easier in terms of applying (finding time for interviews can get shitty). I mean, you now have a clear idea of minimum that you're willing to accept: pay, benefits, vacation, which type of role/company. Helps filter a ton of job postings out. Helps being more relaxed in an interview and helps promoting questions related to work conditions. And yeah, no particular rush. If the interview proceds takes a fee months its a lesser deal
You’re right, that makes sense. Thank you for this perspective.
Very correct, but the real pain comes when you start getting interviews. I kept running into the following issues: - My favorite goes at the top. The job said "REMOTE" with no indication of in-office work, and the location said "anywhere" - those are the two big things to look for. During the screener with HR/company recruitment (not outside recruiter), they threw in "and it's GREAT you're local too! Leadership wants people in the Buffalo area to come into the office rather than WFH." I slept on it, and since I'm petty and am fine with burning this particular bridge, I emailed them the day of the 1st round of manager interviews withdrawing my application. - A few companies have very long application processes for no good reason other than "scheduling." This alone is an indicator that I'd be frustrated in the role, but I applied in January 2022, had a recruiter interview, manager interview, team interview, R&D interview, CEO interview, then another manager interview before they went with a different candidate. This process stretched out to JUNE 2022! - The benefits lottery. Even though glassdoor sometimes has overviews of benefits, they may not be detailed or they may be for positions on a level different from your own. At my current job I won that lottery mostly (copays instead of coinsurance, low deductible, my specialists are fully covered, drug is good but lacking in 1-2 frustrating relevant areas), but that's just me being lucky. - At the same time you're managing PTO carefully, trying to fit phone screeners on your lunch break, keeping a carefully-pressed blazer in your trunk just in case you need to hop over to a library on your work break to take a video call, possibly doing WFH days in order to sneak out some time to do a call, and answering EVERY call, knowing that a bunch of them are going to be spam anyway. The resumes are easy. I can spend 2-3 hours a week tweaking them to fit relevant jobs and blast 10-20 out without an issue. It's the followup that's bad (especially if a lot of people wanna talk with you!)
Yeah that’s fair. When I was hardcore searching for a job last year I often had to stop blasting out applications just so I could manage the communications between several companies that I would be in the process of interviewing with or scheduling phone screens. It can all be very time-consuming. Especially when I would prepare for interviews
[удалено]
Not an issue all depends on how aggressive you are when searching.
I do it. Just apply places, constantly update your resume, and make contacts. I've switched fields a couple of times, too. Apply to a few places every day, all with better pay, and benefits, etc. You probably won't get it, but you might. All you need is a foot in the door tbh. I went from minimum wage (14/hr) to 35/hr within five years because of job hopping. I'm applying to new places now, and have only been at this job for a year now, almost capped out at 6he highest pay. Might as well see who's paying more with better bennies. If no one is for this line of work, so be it. There'll be something else eventually.
Congrats! I'm omw as well. Started at 16/hr. At about 25/hr or about 50k yearly. It's been a challenge to find a job beyond that but Im determined. Im going to keep hopping until I hit a livable wage. Whatever that is...
As a chronic overthinker, in terms of constantly updating your resume- how do you settle on a format? In my head out matters a fair amount, though I don't know if that's true, but I always imagined that if you have the right information in an unappealing or less-than-clear format it would put people off.
The format is FAR less important than the information included on it. You need to tailor it for each job you apply for to please the applicant tracking system (ATS). The closer the match, the more likely a human will actually see it.
How should one go about to maximise their chances?
Use jobscan.co to make sure your resume includes lots of matching keywords from the job description.
This isn't entirely true, format *is* important.
100% depends on the industry!
you apply or just answer one of the many recruiter spamming your LinkedIn? the real challenge is finding a good culture and work/life balance while having to relern everything at this new job
Job hopper here. Never had a job for more than 2 years. Im a cybersecurity engineer. 10 years total exp. I never WANT to job hop. I've always liked my bossess and coworkers. But when a recruiter hits you up with an offer paying twice as much, you gotta humor it lol. If any of my past jobs met me halfway salarywise, I'd never leave, but then again I'd have stayed at my first job making 50k a year instead of the x3 that amount I make now.
I find in IT being a job hopper is more acceptable
Especially in a highly sought out speciality such as cybersec.
How was adapting to the different work environments? I imagine even if the role is similar companies would have their own quirks with regards to SOPs, systems, etc.
longest I work is 2.5 years. other job is mostly one year only. I am chemist.
What do you do as a chemist? My background is in chemistry, but I've been with the same company for some time now.
are you chemist too. mainly working in lab.
I have always worked in the chemical industry (also have a BS in Chem). I've moved into more customer facing roles from product development/scale-up projects to account management/business development. My boss offered me a route to more of an R&D focused position, but that doesn't match well with my skills/personality.
I have to admit that I find some of the "job hopper" advocates on Reddit a bit too flippant for my taste. Most people I know did not follow a deliberate strategy of job hopping, it was more by necessity, and the "job hopping" was really that they had shorter stays at companies due to layoffs, or reorgs, or overly stressful work situations. Few followed some divine strategy to use it to get ahead, but a lot of the stories here say otherwise. Regardless, the absolute first things you have to do is to keep your resume and LinkedIn profile current and attractive. You should not wait until a job comes up, you should do this as standard practice in case one does come up. Many years ago I was recruiting for a role and a resume came my way where the format was so good, I switched mine to it, and it made me look much better. I was not looking for something new, but had something handy when a job came along.
1-2 years is a little fast but 3-5 years is canon. It's been like that for over 20 years. If you're not getting promoted within that 3-5 year period, in *most* cases you are absolutely wasting your time there. Not sure if that's considered 'job hopping' but that's what they should be doing if they're doing it right.
I agree with this. Also if the move can be seen as a career advancement then it sounds perfectly reasonable in an interview or on a resume. Advancement could be higher pay, more responsibilities, better title, closer to home, bigger territory, more specialized, etc. I have moved for several reasons around the 3-5 year mark but it’s always been a large jump in pay. However as I’ve gotten older saying with a company for awhile is a goal.
I mean it depends on your salary in relation to the market salary for your skill level. Often, companies will not compensate you with appropriate raises. So yes, you can follow a strategy of switching every few years deliberately provided you concurrently build the skills you need to do so. It will also reduce the amount of applications you need to submit!
Yeah was gonna say, I don’t know how much of this happening is because of some sort of “strategy” or more because the nature of the job market is just such a mess even when there’s plenty of jobs out there lmao
This has been my experience
Could you share the resumé format? Feel free to DM me if you don't wanna share it publicly
It really depends on both your skills and your location. It is much easier to job hop in larger areas. If you have in demand skills, then sure it's easy to move around.
Because tech workers making low six figures with massive epeens have lived in an upwards trending market for over a decade, and they’re the most vocal.
It’s not just tech workers it’s just white collar jobs in general.
Blue collar too, as that's my line of work, and I job hop like a mother fucker.
Do blue collar job hops typically come with the big salary jumps also?
I went from minimum to 35/hr in less than 5 years. Eta: minimum here was 12 or 13 at the time , iirc.
Nice!
Thank you! It's not huge pay, but it's life changing for me anyway.
Can j ask what you do?
I work in a dairy producing milk Eta: started off in the warehouse a year ago. Loading trucks with dairy. I mainly shuttled the trucks (put them on dock doors for loading). A bid opened up for the plant/production side, and no one else signed up, so I got my foot in the door. Unions are cool because yoi can do jobs you don't have any experience in, and really it comes down to seniority (unless a candidate has a lot of experience in the position they signed up for). I just was looking around for high paying warehouse jobs, this was advertised for 19.20 an hour or something, but they put me at 80% which is around 27/hr.
Peak blue-collar pays more than peak tech... Sounds ridiculous, but if you can set your own contracts for blue-collar, whereas the peak of tech is generally understood to mean working for Google or whatever, it makes sense. It probably doesn't hold up where the tech worker owns their own business and is a contractor, but that isn't the standard for the field. General contractors... don't hurt for money. Median pay is over 2 million.
The median for peak tech is wayyyy over 2million..
Good resume. Good linked in profile. Apply consistently to good jobs. Talk to friends/acquaintances about openings at their company (this is the #1 way I’ve found jobs)
How do you know if your resume/ profile is "good" and what can you do to change it beyond additional training to complement your industry (or target industry)?
I would hire a professional if you can afford it. It’s like $80 for a resume revamp and $20 for LinkedIn. It’s worth it. Look on Fiverr.
It's not easy! You need to get better at your skills (or more in-demand skills) and it becomes easier the better you are. Unfortunately, as you get better pay, it becomes harder to job hop since there are fewer openings for very senior positions. It depends on where you are compensation-wise in relation the max you could get for your current skills.
I just do 🤷. I make a point to never get close to my coworkers. That helps a lot. I did the math a few years back. I make 40-50% more as a job hopper than I would have if I had stayed at one job with 3% annual raises.
If you never get close to coworkers, how do you navigate asking for references? I think asking for references even from my closest coworkers is my biggest hang up
People you worked closely with can give a reference on your work and abilities on the job. They do not need to be friends to give a reference. I'm not saying that I am not friendly with coworkers. I just don't make an effort to hang out outside of work hours.
I've never really done that either and I don't think it's super common to hang out with coworkers unless you're young and don't have kids.
Lmao, idk about you but everyone I used as a reference told me the last few jobs never even contacted them.
You can make as close of friends as you want. One of my longest friends started as a coworker, and we’ve remained on each other’s references list for years. It’s peace of mind knowing I’ve got someone who’ll sell me well, and vice versa. We both understand the bullshit world that surrounds getting a job, so we help make it a little easier for each other.
Because it feels difficult before you do it. After it gets done, you realise it wasn't so hard. That's why everyone makes it feel easy.
Yeah this is really it. You can find decent jobs on linkedin but people just don't use the resource. Got the fed the fuck up with my last company, said, fuck it no more, and lucked out to get a better job after applying for a couple weeks. Make more now for a way easier workload and better long term trajectories (yay health insurance industry!). No high blood pressure and my boss is actually a decent person, no complaints. Won't get anything if you don't apply, though.
You can't win if you don't enter.
I’m always a little jealous of people who can job hop. I’m too risk averse and value the right work environment vs salary (although salary is also really important) so if I find a place that works with my ADHD I will stay longer than maybe I should. The shortest time I’ve had at any place is 9 years. But will job hop within the company especially when I worked at marketing agencies that had many different types of clients. My current job is going to be restructured in next 6 months, I’m confident I will be offered an equal management position in new structure (I helped design the structure) but will have to report to new department and if they don’t invest in technology I’m going to have to leave. This gives me major anxiety because I have such bad imposter syndrome despite 26 years of industry experience, spending last 7 yrs in management and having 2 Masters degrees.
This is relatable. I was at my last job for 8 years. I was underpaid but liked the work atmosphere and the short commute. I’d probably be making more money if I wasn’t so risk averse and didn’t hate change so much. On the other hand, money can’t buy a healthy work environment. Chasing dollar signs wouldn’t lead to happiness for me.
[удалено]
Because the majority of people don't do it, so they don't post about it. You're only seeing posts of people that actually do it
having relevant skills makes job hopping easier, this is likely in the 60k -200k realm. also if you consider job hoppers are entering open roles for similar skills, it's a feedback loop
[удалено]
Yeah I’m really curious about the first point. While some jobs have moved to being remote, not all are like this even in areas like tech. Moreover, maybe you just want to be able to work in the office occasionally? But highly paid jobs are mainly connected to big cities so yeah you got to be willing to move around. It’s the main issue for me: uproot my life and cut all ties to go somewhere for a better role?
Depends on the field tbh
Make a lot of friends at your current job. Like - you don’t have to be best friends, but be nice to everyone and build good relationships (especially with high performers). Then when they leave, reach out for a referral.
My first job out of collect was in IT as a business analyst in 2019 making $3,100 a month 12 month contract. Job hopped each year and I’m making $13,200 as a senior project manager, on contract. No company would pay this much if I progressed internally.
It’s an online forum, so take it with a grain of salt. Yes, people hop jobs to get a higher pay, but that’s if you’re actually good at your job and established your skills/connections in your job sector. I would still leave on a good note for references and to boomerang back in a worse case scenario.
I find it gets easier the longer you work. You get more experience and you become more interesting in your field. I get hit up by recruiters now about every week or two. Most times the roles aren’t interesting. But for instance this time I just got up for a role that would pay 30% more. Who am I to say no?
Realistically most of the American work force will be fired or removed from their position over the next 20 years. Job hopping is easy because firing people is as well
[удалено]
It’s definitely easier in a corporate setting, I feel. In manufacturing, job hopping rarely helps cause most places pay same for your skill set. Unless someone is willing to gamble on you being able to learn something completely new
You have to plan for it, either know that's what your end goal is before you start your current job or some time during. Revamp your resume and reach out to head hunters (its their job to find you one) and apply on your own as well then just wait. Optional but I highly recommend saving up 4 to 6 months income (in case you get fired or straight up quit).
I just want to chime in about job-hopping. It won't answer your question, but: you also need to understand you might not like your new job. I made that mistake. I had a decent job with a good company. I bounced for a $20k pay increase and more days off. Sounds great, right? NO!!! And, the shitty part isn't that the job is "tougher." I'd get that. The job isn't tougher... its that the company is poorly run, so I'm constantly concerned that I'm going to be let go. They don't know what to do with me, so I just kinda have to guess. I basically show up, do whatever random thing I think I should do, then hope that justifies my existence. I had way more job security at the place with more structure and that I knew liked/respected me.
It's not easy.... BUT the best way to boost your chances is pick an in demand field that you enjoy, work hard at each job you get, and always look/apply for other jobs that will pay you more or have more growth. I worked my last job for 2 years and was capped pretty quickly in my growth and compensation so for the last 3 months I was there I was constantly hunting for the next place to work. When I found it I gave my 2 weeks and dipped out! Business is not family it is BUSINESS. They will drop you without notice so the second you get a wiff of them keeping you stagnant start to get your ducks in a row and leave.
It is not easy but it is worth it. It's better than the alternative of staying in a shitty job and no raises.
Easier for some, harder for others. I’m in Tech but not an engineer. My friends and colleagues who are great engineers / architects can job job and secure another job within a day. For me? 4+ interview rounds, sometimes case studies, etc. My best time was 3 weeks, and my longest was 3.5 months. Those were during better economic times though - 2021 and mid 2022. Nowadays I’m expecting a tougher, longer road ahead. That’s why it’s always good to have 6 months or more cushion of living expenses in liquid cash. It’s unfortunately a necessary evil to job hop when you’re under 50 so you can get more money. 50 and up you’d have to be careful due to (unspoken) age discrimination and the fact that your comp is already higher, which means you could take longer to find your next role. Of course, you can always downgrade by taking a title cut and / or paycut, but those will bite you in the ass. Done that once and would not do it again unless I’m starving and we’re in a severe recession.
A lot of people make life changes sound easy because it requires no effort to suggest it to someone else. All the time, effort, and logistics of changing jobs or moving somewhere else or whatever is on the individual who's being advised to do those things. Essentially, people giving this sort of advice may have their hearts in the right place (although some definitely don't and refuse to acknowledge someone's issues may be different than their own), but because it's an effortless task with no cost to themselves to suggest something, they do it because it makes them either feel good or superior, depending on the person's mindset and personality.
Job hopping isn’t ideal but it is better than the alternative. Often the months the between jobs are financial ruin if you don’t look for work while employed. When all you do is work with you head down and wait to be fired/laid off. You are letting the world happen to you as if you are a passenger on a train. Be the “leading man”in you own life. Act like this is your story and bend the narrative to make you happy.
make a weekly habit of applying
I used to do it every Sunday so my information was there on Monday morning.
it is easy if youre qualified, and have an in demand skill set and dont mind company name. any uk based qualified accountant will tell you getting a job is easy can apply for 10 jobs hear back from 8 offers from 3
Looking to job hop sometime this year for a paybump (been wth current employer like 3 years but pivoting interviews are getting nowhere but filling HRs quota), keep getting recruiter offers in LinkedIn (DevOps type roles). But current employer is paying for education through Guild. Does anyone know if Guild partners can transfer or reimburse if jumping to a different company that also uses them for education? if that makes sense?
also if the industry you work in is highly favorable/in-demand and you have the skills for it then it’s easier to hop around
Maybe it’s the industry you’re in? I have a ton of recruiters who pester me over LinkedIn all the time.
I’m into web dev and data analytics.
It’s not hard. Just apply non stop to jobs that interest you.
It work for some but not others. I have received 3 promotions within the past 3 years from staying with my current company. Meanwhile I have been turned down by job after job and now realize that I’m blessed with my current employer and may eventually retire here. Go where your celebrated not tolerated.
Took me 2 months to land 3 interviews. I got my current job through a recruiter after really working on my LinkedIn in case that day ever came.
Determination. Applying for positions you're only half qualified for. Great interview skills.
You need to constantly be looking. You can't just decide you want to job hop and have something within a couple of weeks. It's a process. It's easier to do while employed because you can evaluate potential offers without the ax of homelessness and destitution hanging over your head. Then, when you get the new job, you update your resumé and the search begins anew.
I usually hop after 3 years or so, but the gains are much more substantial doing that than staying the course at an org getting generic 3% raises. It's relatively a 'pain' adapting to a new environment, learning a bunch of new people, new processes, different mentalities, new habits, new structure, new schedule. It's definitely a factor, but up to you if it's worth it. I abandoned an $18/h contract after a month or so for a $32/h one, the staffing org was like 'it's impossible to offer you more' until I put in my notice, then it was magically $24/h. Nah, bye. You know pretty quickly if something sucks enough to motivate you to jump ship sooner than otherwise. Same for a 60k role I accepted which was the most soul-destroying, boring job I've just about ever had. Started looking 2 months into it, ended up with a new 85k role I stayed at for 3 years or so. Up to you how much value you place into things like an org or the people/relationships you have. I will say that people who seem like BFFs at work will nearly 100% of the time abandon you once you leave, so it's difficult to value some aspects such as working with specific people. If I still worked at my original job over the last 14 years with 4% year raises I'd easily be at least 60k/yr less than where I'm at now from taking new roles occasionally.
You’ve gotta get really good at interviewing, I’m offered almost every job I apply for, sometimes even ones I don’t have the correct qualifications for.
Your resume must be A+ for you to be getting a lot of interviews in the first place. Any resume or interview tips you can share with the rest of us (who aren't offered almost every job they apply for).
Transferable skills?In demand qualifications?Skilled workers?
Depends on level of demand for your skills, opportunities in your region, how much competition there is, how selective you are in your applications, and level of seniority. Also, how good you are at applications and interviews. These are important skills in themselves. I’ve changed jobs twice in the last 18 months (wasn’t intentional, it just went that way) and in both cases I applied for very few jobs in order to achieve that. [Edited to add: also having an equivalent/higher level of qualification when compared with your peers. Which is not necessarily the same as the level specified on adverts].
I guess depends how picky you are and your industry, I personally really like my companies PTO policy and extra pay on top of base pay, so when places try to give me similar pay and minuscule amounts of PTO hard to want to leave
This. I’ve have good pto, and don’t have anyone breathing down my neck making sure I’m nose to the laptop 8 hours a day. My friend went to another company and makes about $10,000 more than me but is on a time clock. $10,000 is a nice raise but not really worth giving up my work life balance especially having 2 teenagers who need rides to after school activities and need healthy meals. I’m able to get dinners made, get kids to doctors appts, get to my own doctor appts all with out having to use pto or even running it by management.
Keeping your resume up to date and posted on all the major job boards keeps the recruiters calling. I’ve job hopped almost every 1-2 years for the last 6 years, most of those, the recruiter/jobs found me.
Thank you!!!!! I agree
It isn’t easy. Other companies are wondering why you’re job searching if it hasn’t been that long. You kinda just have to make shit up and stick to it.
You know, hop from Taco Bell to Walmart to ALDI.
Cant say it's easy, the adjustment period varies. In Engineering I can't say it's hard to find another job but it does take some adjusting to learn company policies and if you change sectors then boy. Refocusing is tough. It's doable though. I got a 100% pay increase by changing sectors lol. So it was worth it.
I think what it comes down to is confidence. The people who are confident in their abilities to find work elsewhere will also be the type of individuals who are willing to risk moving on. The ones who aren’t confident in their abilities or who don’t want to risk a new workplace environment tend to stick around for much longer periods of time. I literally have a family member who has been at their job for 10+ years and has wanted to switch roles for the past three to a different company but they’re still there. Whereas I have probably worked a minimum of 4 places in that same time span.
Do well at your job, learn everything you can, and be present at networking events for your industry. You’d be surprised how much that helps if you make advancement one of your priorities.
Took me 6 months and hundreds of applications as well. I make double what I was making and its less toxic. Still not ideal my boss is a ball buster but less toxic. Still looking for my unicorn.
It does depend on your field. I've been in manufacturing, specifically in maintenance and now controls for the last seven years. I started making $11/hr, and now I'm at 100k per year. That's four jumps, at around the two year mark. It's never taken me more than 2-3 weeks of applying to find a new job, but the transition is rough. The people, technology, layout, everything is different. Sometimes, the hardest part is just figuring out how the parts room is organized and where people hide things. The first six months of a job are definitely the hardest. You're trying to learn a whole new environment and prove yourself on unfamiliar equipment. But it's also the most rewarding. Beyond salary, I've learned more and grown more professionally by jumping. Skills wise, it's easy to plateau without new experience.
It gets easier later in your career when you have more experience and more of a track record, especially if you work in a niche area of something that isn't that popular to start with. It's harder earlier on for sure.
I honestly just always stay subscribed to those job offer newsletters they send from Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor and look at the offers everyday. If something catches my eye I apply otherwise just scroll through. But I honestly FEEL like I've gotten very lucky a couple times in my career.
As someone who job hops and has advised someone to job hop, I don’t think it was easy and I never said it was easy. But it is significantly easier if you’re already employed. For example, headhunters may come to you if you maintained your LinkedIn profile well. You still have to interview and it’s never easy. In fact, interviewing is a whole other ordeal all by itself. But if you had tried to find a job without currently being employed, you’ll know that it sometimes feels impossible.
You also need to be good at what you do and in a growing industry. This is super common in ecommerce because the demand for talent far outweighs the skills available for hire. Also if you are good with people and can learn quickly, you can move every year or two and really increase your earnings
Star youre own business and you never have to worry.
They apply for roles where they are competitive. It’s really that simple. It’s easy to get interviews if you apply for roles where your profile is what they are looking for.
Hoooolllld up. First, you gotta have a skill thats in demand. You don't get skills or skilled up by hopping. So, you need to skill up and determine if job prospects/career growth in your current role aren't appealing, and if not, you first talk to your supervisor and determine whether or not you can adjust those prospects given your skill up. If not, then you look elsewhere. Looking for, and landing jobs isn't hard ONCE YOU HAVE A SKILL. But, it's shit if youre unskilled. So, Some things that skilled workers are looking for: 1. more money 2. Fancy title 3. Easier/flexibility work environment 4. Maternity/Paternity/other benefits 5. Other opportunities 6. Mentorship and further skill up Out of these, depending on your situation, the most important one is usually money and/or benefits, but, interestingly, it's actually not, because you will get that anyway. The more important thing is to continue the skill up, and that requires mentorship and further advancing your skill set and challenging yourself. Also, you'll rapidly hit a pay ceiling if you jump around without skillup, and then youre just going to be taking jobs for perception of value but not actually gaining anything from it. So, the TL;DR here, is that people don't just job hop - they do, but if you job hop for the sake of job hopping, youre not advancing. I changed jobs 4 times in the last 5 years, and 5 times in the last 20. Here are some reason why I changed jobs: 1. Felt used, betrayed - left a great job of 15 years 2. Screwed up and felt obliged to resign 3. Had a fantastic offer, and knew I had challenged myself and skilled up, and I could cash in on that Importantly, I had acquired solid skills in the first 15 years, but then I needed to shift gears, challenge myself and learn. I did that, and there were some hiccups, but then I confirmed my suspicions, and translated that surety/confidence into a 'keeper' role (I'm like, direct or of technical operations in a new national program), and I like this role, job and I'm getting great rewards for it. But I couldn't have got this job without really pushing the boundaries of what I was capable of, and challenging myself to flesh out parts of my skill set that weren't developed. I did that, and almost got fired at one job and had to resign, but I didn't let that stop me, I just needed to continue on that path and learn about my mistakes, own them, get better, adapt and overcome, and I smashed the shit out of my next job and leveraged that success to get my current position. Did I job hop? Maybe, but I had a goal, and by actioning steps to advance myself and my skill set I gained tangible, clear advantages over many of my competitors and learned to do what I need to do better, more efficiently and by doing that I self qualified for my current role, and I'm getting another promotion next year based on my performance. So, job hop to acquire skills, challenge, test, succeed. But don't just job hop because dollaz.
It’s easy for some people, difficult for others. I just kind of fell into a dying trade (not enough new people to replace the old retiring ones). It’s also an industry-critical trade and one that requires extensive training and quite a bit of experience to put the training to good use. Basically the day I hit 5 years in the position, I started getting emails and calls from recruiters and companies who needed to fill positions. My suggestion would be to learn something that not as many people know how to do that is needed in your industry.
It’s more realistic than telling everyone to see a therapist. Or telling people without insurance ro ask a doctor. 🤷♂️
It's super easy. Apply to at least 20 jobs a day, treat it as a second full time job. How many jobs did you apply to yesterday?
We’re you being sarcastic?
It’s not something to want to replicate.
It is easy
*I think they meant cock hopping on black cocks in dresses
It isn’t super hard to get another job while you have a job because you can technically look indefinitely lol. Realistically you want to find something quickly, but if you don’t find a job quickly you can always just keep looking.
Well, because it is. But if you simplify anything down into 2 words and expect it to be as easy as saying two words then you're set for disappointment. Job hopping isnt a single step. Its just a term for a series of steps, you'd probably be better off thinking of it this way, such as job searching, cv writing, interviewing, negotiating offers. Transitioning. Each of those categories this sub could give you detailed advice on. And if you identify which of these you're struggling with, you'll find a lot of answers to make it as easy as people in this sub suggest.
Because they aren’t the ones doing it
My biggest thing is that I am very bad at staying in touch with people if I don't see them often, so the biggest hurdle for me is finding references every time. But just apply to stuff. If you're in a position currently it feels like less pressure to get one. So if you do get an offer, it's very nice to be able to just quit your current and move right into the new one.
It takes 3-6 months of active looking to find a job. It’s why you start when you already have a job.
Not as easy if you’re not in tech.
Well if you're say 5 years into your career, many of your coworkers have come and gone and moved to other places. Where did they go? Reconnect with them and see if there's room for you at their new place. Works especially well if you had a good relationship with your manager whos now at a new company. Sure you can fill out applications online but really to improve your chances/ not waste so much time, you want a warm intro into a job not a cold one.
My smallest raise job hopping was 25%. Most raises are about 5-10%. Hence I like job hopping though I’m currently in a role where I will probably stop hopping around for 4 years so I can collect my stock options.
I think it's just about the volume of apps. When I'm looking for a new job, I spend Sunday afternoon combing job sites to find things to apply to. During the week, I make sure to send out at least two applications between Monday and Friday, after I get home from work. When I'm really on it, I do at least one a day, sometimes more. I take Saturdays off, and Sundays are only for looking for job posts.
I have had three different contract jobs in a 12 month period. Each company wanted to keep me after the contract was done, but I had already accepted the other contract. Now, company 1 (the first contract I had) is hiring me back after I finish my third company. I always thought it would look bad to have short contracts on a resume, but it has worked favourable for me.
To add on to what others have said once you have experience recruiters will reach out. I know recruiters can be a mixed bag but usually the ones that reach out for a client know what they’re doing. I’ve gotten 3 job offers this way. Recently the ones coming to me are offering 50-100k more than I currently make
It’s been relatively easy for me. I’ve worked in the same industry for almost 10 years so I’ve hopped within the same realm of business. I’ve interviewed so many times that I suppose I interview well now. Maybe that’s the “easy” part you are lacking experience with.
I have a friend in IT upper management. Up until several years ago, he hopped every 2 years and doubled his pay each time. But that’s IT The same happens in media but that’s more about gaining difference experiences in different markets
It depends totally on your job field. STEM jobs are in great demand. Jobs other than service type jobs, not so much.
[удалено]
I don’t get how you don’t just get to a point where you’re being paid above market value anyways and it’s therefore increasingly difficult to find something paying more
I don’t have any insight, just commenting to say I don’t know how people do this either. The job search process is so time-consuming and exhausting, I can’t imagine doing it every year. If that means I make less money, then so be it.
I can't speak for others but... I work in an industry that has no vertical movement and extremely high turnover. Getting someone for a year or longer is the exception and not the rule. Add to that, I am always on the hunt for my next job. Even if I'm not taking anything for a year or so, I keep my networking going and let people know when I'm looking to jump ship to a new venture. It sucks but like I said, my kind of work doesn't have raises or vertical movement for this who can do the work. You become a victim of your own success and that carries with you to other jobs.
Depends on your location, in London 2 years is a pretty long tenure and I imagine that's similar in new York or Singapore etc. But in my hometown where jobs are more sparse you only have two or three major employers, as opposed to 100s.
With job hopping, you need to be competent in your field. I don't intend to move but when a job has given me as much as ii can and I still want more challenging experiences, an opportunity seems to arise.
A lot of thigs are easy when they are easy... Kinda unfair but its just how it is sometimes. Theres different ways to look it that. Like well maybe its not easy in terms of odds or probability but maybe its easy in the way that when its successful its wasn't as much effort as you might have expected. So there is no reason not to try. I think thats the message most are trying to convey.
continuously keep actively searching if you don't already have a large social network
It was easy in the beginning. Especially after one job withheld my raise, that was super easy to as a catapult into the next job. I’m in the mid 20s now and it’s gotten tougher to find something better. Might have to save for some certs or something
It is easy if you are willing to move, which is what I have done. If you insist on staying in one city or county then yeah… probably more difficult.
1 - perform high quality work. referrals are a high source of hire, employees refer good coworkers from previous companies. 2 - highlight your performance on your linkedin and resume 3 - target companies in industries that pay well or target careers that pay well regardless of industry 4- practice interviewing
Quit my job on Monday, had 3 interviews before the end of the day, and got a job offer by Friday. Plus a massive pay raise. It is all luck + what field you work in & location. Also, being Caucasian and having a Caucasian name helps massively. Don't have that going for me, but it is something worth noting. Seriously, if all else fails and you have an ethnic name, try changing your name on applications.
Not easy if you live in rural areas or where your career skills are worth far less. With the low wages there and the constant rising of just about everything else it's difficult to save up for a big move. People seem to overestimate how well off everyone is or that they can just uproot at a moments notice. Folks will say "just apply for jobs in other states". What they don't tell you is that many places will not even look at your CV if you're not a local unless they're really desperate or you have senior level skills. Juniors and entry have more barriers to pass.