Are you a job-hopper?

• Kristine Penning
• April 07, 2017
• Newsletter Article

ob-hopping allows an individual to be exposed to multiple opportunities but it can also create headaches for your employer left to pick up the pieces once you’ve left. Find out more about job-hopping.

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If you are not familiar with the term “job-hopping,” it is best defined as spending a short amount of time in one position before taking a new one. Often, those who are considered serial job-hoppers will take more than four different jobs in ten years. While this trend has been around for decades, neither Jennifer Struck with DuPont Ag & Nutrition nor Tomesah Harrison with Bayer are concerned by it.
 

“I think we’ve instead tried to focus on creating the right experiences and opportunities that stimulate this desire to do something different more frequently while contributing in a meaningful way,” Harrison said. “When you are able to do this well, you satisfy the desire for a job change within your own four walls.”

Job-hopping allows an individual to be exposed to multiple opportunities but it can also create headaches for your employer left to pick up the pieces once you’ve left. More so, you could be cheating yourself out of learning all that you could from a short employment.

“The bigger challenge is when a person hops from job to job with no semblance of reason,” Struck said. “It could be company to company, or into various areas. This can have a negative impact on the candidate as companies may think they are not going to be dedicated to the organization or role long term.”

Both Harrison and Struck agreed that between two and three years is a good time-frame to experience a career before considering a change. The first year is a learning experience in which you are able to fully understand your role.
 

 

But the decision to make the most of it—to learn, to grow and to experience—is entirely up to you. Make the choice to never limit yourself no matter where you may find yourself and to accept every opportunity as a new adventure.

 

This is a portion of the article "Your First Job: Making the Right Choice" featured in the 2016-2017 U.S. Ag & Food Employer Guide.