Fresh out of college, I remember my mentor advising me to guard my first job dearly. The catch was to keep the job for the coming five years and avoid anything that would jeopardize my job retention. What my mentor missed are the steps the world has made to shift away from the traditional norms when it comes to jobs. For example, keeping a job for 10 years that is not allowing you to live up to your full potential is no longer stylish. Today, it is normal to abandon a job after even 5 months if there’s a lack of chemistry between your character, ways of working, and the culture of the organization.
Job-hopping does not only apply to moving from one job to another. Job-hopping can as well refer to changing careers to one you’re passionate about and offers an opportunity to scale up the career ladder. In addition, job-hopping can be influenced by the need to change the sector you work in. For example, if you work in the private sector, you might suddenly be motivated to shift to the not-for-profit sector.
Research conducted in the UK for the 2021 financial year showed that the employees who switched their jobs within a year were paid a higher hourly wage. This is similar to the statistics from the US labor market. Bringing it back home to Uganda, the country has a paltry 5.3% unemployment rate among the youth. Although about 77% of the youthful population is working, the World Bank describes the quality of jobs to be very low. Thus, a tangible reason to job-hop when you get an opportunity that appreciates your value and expertise. But before you job-hop, is it a good or bad thing for your career progression?
Here are 5 ways job-hopping will influence your career:
Job satisfaction
We are all looking out for greener pastures. Job-hopping is an opportunity for you to move into new opportunities offered in the job market. It can be a well-paying job, a job that gives you an opportunity to travel and attend conferences, a job that has good medical coverage, or one that will challenge you to move out of your comfort zone and explore your skill set. Hence, shifting jobs is an opportunity for you to finally achieve job satisfaction.
A chance to grow your network
Tom Sanders says, ‘your network is your net worth.’ Job-hopping introduces you to diverse workplaces and cultures where you are able to meet new people. The more you interact with the people within the sector you are working in, the more you grow your network thus developing a rich social capital. Social networks play a major role in career growth in that people from your network can directly recommend you for jobs as they have interacted with your skill set.
Better grounds to negotiate your salary
Sometimes when you have stayed in a job for too long, it might be hard to wake up one day and ask your boss for a salary increment. As a good employee, you might be waiting for your employer to notice the value in your skill set, quality of work, and the many courses you have taken to advance your knowledge. This might never happen. Job-hopping to the next available job will position you strategically to negotiate your worth and bank a fat cheque for yourself.
Some employers view job-hoppers as unreliable
Although job-hopping has great benefits, some employers still view job-hoppers as unreliable people with no respect for contractual agreements. Such employers might hold a negative attitude towards you, and give bad feedback within your professional network. This might negatively impair your image and be a bottleneck to thrive career-wise. Before you become a professional job-hopper, look at the statistics and check what employers are saying about job-hopping. This way you will not jeopardize your career.
Job-hopping denies you the opportunity to grow tangible skills
Anyone who has been in the job industry for more than three years will tell you that schoolwork does not equip you with tangible skills to maneuver the workplace. You learn most, if not all, of the technical skills on the job. Job-hopping under 1 year of being in a position does not give you enough time to acquaint yourself with the technical skills in that role. This can be a challenge when you are looking to rise up the career ladder.