Are you scared to be labeled as an unsettled and untrustworthy entry-level employee? According to John O'Neil, the assistant dean of Career Education at Stanford University, these days "it is not as negative as it once was to move on to new job opportunities."
You may have heard from your peers or family members that it is not wise to hop to a different job right away. You are risking being labeled as disloyal or unsettled.
This advice often leads to employees staying at a job that they dislike longer than they want to versus finding a good opportunity of a better job and tenure. But that advice, according to the NY Times, has already diminished in importance. Career counselors are now saying that some hiring managers are not looking at the list of jobs you have had that are "blips" on your resumes. These blips which are jobs you have had for less than a year are now tagged as "OK" as long as you have had good reasons for leaving.
"It's expected that people will move on to new opportunities, especially earlier in their career," says O'Neil. Even Kristen Fitzpatrick, the managing director of Career and Professional Development at Harvard Business School said that it is now much less common to stay. "There is no right or wrong," she says. As long as the reason for your staying (or leaving) are for the right reasons.
But there are still hiring managers out there that are still skeptical of job hoppers. And they have every good reason to suspect so. And there are also good and bad reasons why an employee leaves the company.
What is important is that when you jump to a potential next job, you are able to explain convincingly to your potential employers that each move was made with your career path, growth and development in mind.
