Back when I worked in video game design, I remember one of my mentors telling me that you learn much more by making several smaller games with shorter production cycles, rather than by making one longer game that takes many years to create.
In other words, a game designer who creates 3 new games in a year will have learned much more than a game designer who creates just 1 new game. The reason for this is that there’s so much to be learned from going through the full cycle of game production, and the lessons you learn from one game can then be brought with you to the next game you create.
I took this wisdom to heart, and it has served me well, not only in game design but also in my uncareer path in general.
You see, in the 10 years following college, I held 9 different jobs. I am the quintessential millennial job hopper.
That means that I updated my resume, went through interviews, negotiated my salary, and learned new processes and work cultures 9 different times in those 10 years.
So with that in mind, here’s the question we’ll explore in this article – is job hopping necessarily as harmful as many people make it out to be? Or are there hidden advantages that job hoppers have, perhaps advantages that allow you to reach success faster than climbing a traditional career ladder, while also contributing more to each role you hold?
What Is Job Hopping?
Job hopping is generally defined as spending less than two years in a given position. Now, while two years can seem like a very short amount of time when listed in a resume, a lot can happen in two years.
You could birth two children in that time, get a master’s degree, or complete an entire term as a member of the House of Representatives.
On average, it takes about 6 months to get fully onboarded and ramped up for a new position. In other words, by month 7, you will have been introduced to all your team members, as well as the various processes and tools needed to successfully do your job.
That also means that, by month 7, you should have a pretty good idea of what your new role is all about, whether it’s in line with what you love to do, and the skills and experience you’ll acquire through the role that will help you on your overall career journey.
Job Hopping And Self-Discovery
In other words, by the second half of that first year, you can transition from learning about your role to learning about yourself, and that’s what most people misunderstand about job hopping.
Most people think that job hopping is about a lack of loyalty to the company you’re working for, but they fail to see the value of job hopping as a critical component to self-discovery.
In today’s world, school days are filled with standardized testing and test prep, so we rarely have an opportunity to learn what our true passions are. That leads many of us to choose a college major based on what we think we might like, what others have told us to do, or what might lead to stable or high income producing jobs.
Rather than locking yourself in to a career path you chose when you were barely old enough to vote, free yourself of those constraints, and leverage job hopping as a tool and an opportunity to help you discover your true passions.
Advantages Of Job Hopping
In addition to helping you learn more about yourself and what you love to do, job hopping can give you certain advantages that may help you achieve greater success than you could have imagined.
Salary Increases
One of the main benefits many people point to when it comes to job hopping is the opportunity to boost your salary with each new position.
When you stay in a single role for a long period of time, you might only get a nominal year-over-year salary increase, to keep up with the cost of living, or perhaps an occasional promotion with a salary bump.
However, when you move to an entirely new role, you have the opportunity to negotiate a new salary and benefits package each time, potentially leading to exponential growth.
This is exactly what I saw as I moved from job to job. I started out making $45k per year, then went down to $30k, then jumped up to $52k, $90k, $127k, and more.
Had I stayed in that initial job at $45k per year, assuming I would have received a 3% pay increase per year, plus an occasional promotion, I’d likely only have made it to around $60k in 10 years, rather than jumping up to well over six figures.
Job Title Advances
When you’re climbing a traditional career ladder, it can take years to move up just a single rung.
When I was working as an instructional designer, the company I worked for had very specific criteria that I would have to meet in order to become a “senior” instructional designer, including a certain amount of time I would need to be in the position before being considered for a promotion.
However, different companies may have different criteria for each job title and tier. Thus, if you can demonstrate that you are bringing valuable skills and experience to the table, you might be able to advance your job title more quickly through job hopping than through staying at a single company.
Expanding Your Network
Another advantage of job hopping is the expansive network of professional contacts you’ll build up. When you stay within a single role at a single company, you get to know your immediate coworkers fairly well, but your overall network stagnates.
When you’re continually on the lookout for new opportunities, you’re often meeting new people, considering new companies and roles, and expanding your overall network at a blazing fast speed.
Having a large and diverse network can serve you well in multiple aspects of your career growth and self-discovery, from uncovering new opportunities to introducing you to new concepts and ideas.
Job Stability
This is one advantage of job hopping that most people overlook, and I don’t blame them. Job stability and job hopping seem like polar opposites. However, if you look more closely, you’ll see how they’re inextricably linked.
Job hopping is an active thing that you do. Each time you go through the process of considering a new job opportunity, you must dust off that old resume, consider the skills and experience you’ve gained since starting your current job, practice telling your story through job interviews, and negotiate your salary.
Job stability, on the other hand, is something that usually happens to people. If the career path you chose is in a growing industry, or if there are lots of job openings in that field, you tend to have more job stability.
However, if technology is threatening to take over your job, or your industry is shrinking, you might have lower job stability.
By actively job hopping, you are taking your job stability into your own hands, rather than leaving it to chance.
Just as with any skill, interviewing, negotiating, and starting a new job are skills that you can improve upon the more you practice them. If you stay in a single position for 10 years, your interview skills might be pretty rusty when you need to find a new job either due to layoffs or other life circumstances.
By keeping your job hunting skills fresh and up-to-date, you can protect yourself against potential layoffs and company changes, as well as increase your own potential and refine your goals with each round of recruiting.
Learning New Skills And Ways Of Doing Things
When I was growing up, we moved around a fair bit, and each time, I had to start at a new school, make new friends, and learn new ways of doing things.
But through that process, I learned more about myself and who I truly was, aside from my peers. And, each time I moved to a new school, I was able to make friends and find my place more easily and quickly.
It’s the same thing when you’re job hopping. Starting a new job takes courage and guts. Each time you start a new job, you must get to know new coworkers, figure out a different commute, and learn new systems and processes.
But the more you do it, the better you’ll get at onboarding and learning new teams, work cultures, and processes. You’ll learn new skills and processes more quickly, and you’ll start to see different ways of doing things, which will open your mind up to new concepts and ideas.
Is Job Hopping Right For You?
Okay, now that you know some of the advantages of job hopping, you might be chomping at the bit to jump ship from your current job to find your next role. However, before you do that, a word of advice.
If you’re job hopping merely to bump up your salary or get a new job title, you might want to reconsider. If you’re doing it just for the money or the status, you likely won’t find any more fulfillment in your next role than you have in your current role.
To make sure that a job hop is the right next step for you, start first by examining your current role, what you love about it, and what is missing. See if there are opportunities to fill those holes by talking to your manager about new projects, trying out training courses to build new skills, or exploring other departments or roles within your current company.
In other words, don’t job hop just for the sake of job hopping. Make sure that each move you make is intentional and purposeful, both for your goals and your overall career (or uncareer) path.
How To Explain Job Hopping
One reason that you should make sure each new role is intentional and purposeful is that you’ll need to explain your job hopping to others – to your friends, your family, and potential new employers.
In order to help others see past the short stints listed on your resume, you’ll need to weave together a story that explains each job hop decision, what you gained from each role, and what you’re looking for next.
I started out my career as an elementary school teacher with Teach For America. When I left the classroom, it was because I wanted to make a bigger impact. I realized that my students responded really well to games, so I went back to school to study video game design so that I could make educational games.
A simple narrative like this can help you tie together your various career decisions into a logical path, show the intentionality behind your decisions, and demonstrate your sense of self and your overall goals.
So, before jumping ship to your next role, think about how that role might fit into your overall (un)career story.
Job Hopping And Your Uncareer Path
These days, more and more people are partaking in job hopping, either once or twice, or multiple times. The stigma of job hopping is starting to wear off, and people are starting to see job hopping as a valuable tool for career progression and self-discovery.
So, if you’re finding yourself moving from one role to another in rapid succession, know that you’re not alone. More and more people are forging their own “uncareer” paths, rather, than sticking with a more traditional career ladder.
Ultimately, job hopping is a tool to help you learn more about yourself, what you truly love to do, and how best you can make an impact and contribute to the world around you.
If you’re considering job hopping or have already embarked on an uncareer path, join the Uncareer Path Trailblazers Facebook community, to connect with others who are just like you, expand your network, and explore new opportunities.
