- Landing several full-time jobs, in a short amount of time, may not necessarily be a bad thing, these days...
“Job hopping,” or the habit of changing jobs frequently, is often seen in a negative light. When employers see employees with a multitude of short-term jobs on a resume, they sometimes think the worst – that this employee is lazy, uncommitted, or incompetent. You may even have those perceptions yourself.
These assumptions can be true on occasion. There are people who job hop only because they refuse to show up for work and get fired, or because they consistently quit after a week when expectations of them begin to rise.
But for most people with a responsible, professional approach, job hopping can actually be a good thing.
The Benefits of Job Hopping
These are some of the best benefits of job hopping:
- Consistent pay increases. Studies show that job hopping may be the best way to increase your salary; each year you stay at your job, you can expect a 4 percent salary increase on average. Jumping to a new job will give you a 5.3 percent salary increase on average. That may not seem like much initially, but if you keep transitioning to new jobs over the course of your career, it can eventually add up. Obviously, this isn’t a guarantee. You’ll need to be discerning about the jobs you take on and cautious in your approach if you want to be successful.
- New skills and new knowledge. Jumping between jobs is also a quick and relatively approachable way to build new skills and new knowledge in a variety of different areas. With all your new experience, you can fill your resume with a list of more impressive skills, making you look more attractive to employers and helping you earn a higher salary. You can also use some of these skills and knowledge for your own personal benefit. For example, you can get your real estate license online and use your new knowledge to invest in real estate. If you’re adept at real estate investing, you can turn this into a secondary passive income stream to multiply your earnings and set you up for retirement.
- Better communication and adaptability. Soft skills are important in any career, and jumping between jobs is a great way to build those soft skills. Two of the most important are communication and adaptability. Because you’ll be interacting with a variety of different people and different teams in different environments, you’ll become a much better communicator transitioning between different jobs. Adaptability is also part of the terrain, since you’ll be forced to change your working style, learn new skills, and adapt to others on an ongoing basis.
- An expanded network. Each new job you take on is going to introduce you to new coworkers, new managers, new clients, and other contacts. Given enough time, this can greatly expand your network and introduce you to a host of new opportunities.
- Novelty and personal wellbeing. Most people begin to experience career burnout when they feel like they’re doing the same thing every day. Eventually, the days blur into each other and it becomes difficult to tell if anything has changed in the past several years. But if you’re regularly changing jobs and switching up your responsibilities, you’re going to have much more novelty in your life. As a result, burnout is less common and you may feel a better sense of wellbeing.
Job Hopping the Right Way
So what steps can you take to job hop the “right” way?
- Stay at each new job for a while. Don’t use the benefits of job hopping as an excuse to quit a job after only a few days of work. Instead, you should aim to stay at your job for a year, or at least several months.
- Build good rapport with your teammates. Always take the time to build good rapport with your teammates. Not only is it going to help you get more value out of your job, but it’s also going to leave you with a warmer network of contacts that you can tap into in the future.
- Leave on a good note. Always leave on a good note. Some people use job hopping as an excuse to storm out in a huff or call off unnecessarily, putting an additional burden on the team. Instead, give your two weeks’ notice, help to find your replacement, and offer everything you can to make the transition smoother.
- Be prepared to justify your transitions. Employers are going to ask about your job hopping if they see it represented on your resume. Be prepared to justify your choices in an interview.
It’s possible to jump between jobs frequently and actively benefit from the transitions, rather than being met with criticism or discrimination because of your choices. As long as you’re job hopping with deliberateness and good intentions, you can spin this career strategy to work for you.