Promoting Yourself by Hal Lancaster

Author:Hal Lancaster
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2002-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

26

JOB-HOPPING: ROAD TO RICHES OR RUIN?

Julia Hartman insists that the stigma attached to job-hopping has vanished. Ms. Hartman had better hope so; at last count, the marketing executive had held ten jobs in fifteen years.

Rick Abraham begs to differ. The business development executive found that the five jobs he held in five years quickly became a major sticking point in job interviews. “They say, ‘Why should we hire you? How do we know you’ll be committed to the job?’”

And so the debate rages on. The answer, as always, is: It depends. Repeat after me, for the umpteenth time:There are no hard-and-fast golden rules to live by in the career game. What is meaningless to one hiring manager is a major red flag to another.

Certainly, in recent years, some managers have become more accepting of candidates whose résumés read like a rock group’s world tour. Of course, they haven’t had much choice. In a golden age of start-ups and economic expansion, there are just too many jobs and not enough talented managers to go around. To fill a major job, companies often have to raid the managerial ranks of rivals, tossing around bonuses and perks like confetti. And because of that, job-hopping has become an epidemic.

The unprecedented wave of mergers, downsizings, outsourcing, and temping has also served to add multiple lines to managers’ résumés in recent years.

At the same time, many companies became enthralled with the idea of pushing broad change in their ranks. That usually meant bringing in someone from outside with a fresh perspective. Suddenly, hiring managers became suspicious of people who stayed in the same organization for too long. What was wrong with them? Why weren’t they in demand? Would they be too set in their ways to adapt to our incredibly vital, fast-changing culture? (Corporate self-delusion knows no bounds.)

But the management ranks teem with people from different generations, with different concepts about job-hopping. To some, it remains a sign of lack of commitment and loyalty, an indication that the candidate cares more for money and perks than anything else.

So let’s assume for a moment that in the current climate, a certain amount of job-hopping is inevitable and perhaps even desirable. It shows that you’re adaptable and have been exposed to a wide variety of management styles and corporate cultures.

But how do you counter the perception that you’re a corporate mercenary?

It’s important, for example, to develop reasons behind your moves. Show that you weren’t just moving around laterally for a bump in salary but were making reasoned decisions to better yourself. Explain what new skills and knowledge you were aiming to pick up with each move; indicate how you took on more responsibility with each move.

You can also turn a possible negative into a positive by describing the differences between the various companies and how you’ve distilled the best ideas into your own style. “You can show how you did well in this culture and that culture and how adaptable you are,” says Mr. Abraham, vice president of business development for Locus Direct Marketing Group, which manages corporate marketing campaigns.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.