Job Hopping Defined, and How it Reflects Negatively on You

“Job Hopping,” or the perception that you’ve changed jobs too often, can really hurt your chances of being selected for an interview or receiving a job offer. When a prospective employer sees that you have worked in a lot of positions during a short period of time, he or she may come to the following conclusions:

1)      You are a person who is unable to make a long-term commitment to an organization.

2)      Elements in your personal life are unstable, and they are having a negative impact on your employment.

3)      You do not perform up to expectations, and are therefore being let go from jobs.

4)      You are unable to weather periods of increased challenge, activity, or stress in your work and instead leave for another position.

5)      You do not have well defined career goals.

Why Employers Are Afraid to Hire Job Hoppers

From an employer’s point of view, a job hopper is extremely undesirable as an employee for many reasons, such as the following:

1)      Hiring someone with a history of job hopping means risking that the employee will leave with little or no notice, creating a backload of work for the company.

2)      A job hopper will likely leave his or her position before the company can profit from investing time and money spent in employee orientation and training.

3)      Having an employee of questionable loyalty can undermine the morale and team mentality of other staff.

How to Help Yourself From Looking Like a Job Hopper

Many job seekers in today’s marketplace have periods of short employment on their resumes. (“Short” employment may be defined as less than two years in a single position.) Often, changes in employment are actually the result of factors other than job hopping, including

            -company mergers, acquisitions, or relocations
            -layoffs
            -the completion of a project or contract

In her article, “Hopping: Great for rabbits, bad for candidates,” Beth Gilfeather recommends including brief explanations (in parenthesis) on your resume of why certain positions were short-term. In doing so, you are giving context as to the reasons you changed jobs, and thereby you will protect yourself against being perceived as a job hopper. Ms. Gilfeather’s article shows examples of how to accomplish this.

For further information on topics of job search, resumes, and employment, please contact the Hallmark Personnel recruiters.