Analyzing the Resume of a Job Hopper to Analyze the Potential for Hiring

 
There was a time when people would travel happily in a bullock cart. Times changed, and we had trains taking a couple of days to go from one city to another. In present days, forget those high-speed jets, but we reach from Tokyo to Osaka by covering around 450 km in a little over 2 hours, and yet it seems to be so long. Now we talk about the Chuo Shinkansen trains, in Japan, with a planned top speed of 505 km/h or 314 miles per hour.
 
Why only that? The hyperloop is expected to hit the speed of 1126 km/h 700 miles per hour. And, we would still feel that time was moving slow.
 
These days, we wish to whisper to Alexa to switch on or switch off the lights and open the curtains.
 
The exponentially increasing tech advancements are bringing down the patience levels of all of us. “The increasing impatience in the shortening journey” effect happens in the career journey also. Gone are the days when people used to stick to one job for whole their lives.
 
As per this study of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the US, the average time span in a job for the age group of 25 to 34 years old workforce is only 2.8 years.
 
But then, it’s not just the United States of America. At one point in time, Japan used to be known as the land of lifetime employment. People used to join a company after the studies to retire from there. The Situation is very different now. Yes, there are many such cases there with large Japanese corporations, but on the other side job-hopping has become a rising trend. Employee attrition is already becoming an issue in Japan. This situation will worsen with the new normal of work from home, where the employer and employee connect will see a rising downtrend and loyalties will be decreasing further.
 

Is Considering a Frequent Job Hopper for Employment Bad?

There is no simple answer to this question. There are always pros and cons. Before we go for a bit more analysis, let’s talk about the pros and cons of hiring an employee with a history of frequent job changes.
 

Pros & Cons of Hiring an Employee with Frequent Job Change History

The probable disadvantages of hiring a job-hopper are simple. It is about the uncertainty about the reliability & stability of the employee and the cost involved if the employee leaves soon. Also, a rising attrition may have a chain reaction and may lead to an exponential increase in attrition, as it may also affect even the otherwise stable employees.
On the other hand, having an employee exposed to different work cultures, skill-sets, viewpoints, and processes can bring newer ideas and add diversity. Such an employee can sometimes become an asset to bring ignored but much desirable changes in the system.

What an Employer should Look for

The first and most important point is keeping an open mind. Thinking that of a person with frequent job changes as a job-hopper and discarding the profile just on that basis may prove to be wrong. There may be genuine reasons behind the job changes, and there is always a possibility that the candidate might find, what he has been looking for in your company, and settle down for an optimum period of time for the mutual good.

Career History Trends from the Resume

The career history from the resume can show different trends, and those trends can tell us a lot:

1. Very long time in the very first job, with good growth and frequent changes in subsequent jobs
2. Very long time in the very first job, with little growth and very short tenures in subsequent jobs
3. Frequent changes during the first few jobs and then a good tenure later on
4. Less than or around 2 years in each job
5. Less than a year with more than one companies
6. Many changes with the same responsibility or position
7. Changes with increasing responsibilities

Very long time in the very first job and very frequent job changes later on

This trend should raise a little red flag. A person who stays a very long time and with good growth indicates good potential, reliability, and stability. However, the frequent changes thereafter show that the person has adapted so much to a company-specific work culture that they cannot adjust and adapt to any other company’s culture and systems or processes. It is always possible that he may find your company’s work culture matching his expectations, but there is always a high probability that he or she may fail to adjust to the new workplace also.

Very long time in the very first job, with little growth and very short stays in subsequent jobs

This type of profile should raise a bigger red flag because while the latter part of the above point remains true for this type of profile, the lack of growth in the first job shows that the person may be stable and reliable but certainly lacks performance potential.

Very frequent changes during the first few jobs and then a good tenure later

Very frequent job changes initially, followed by a respectable tenure in a later job, indicate the initial jobs did not meet the expectations. When there was a good fit, the person stayed with that job. There is nothing, really, wrong with such a situation.

Less than or around 2 years in each job

If a person has been leaving almost every job for around two years or less than two years, it certainly raises the alarm. There are no statistics, but the professional experience tells us that it is quite easy to survive with a company for around two years, without much performance. Such a case indicates not only issues with reliability and stability but also about the performance.

Less than a year with more than one companies

It takes some time to understand the work culture, systems & processes and start performing. A tenure of less than one year indicates a lack of adaptability, accommodability, and the desire to learn.
 
Anyone can end up with one job, which can make him or her realize, in a very short time, that it was a wrong decision to join that company and it would be better to leave as soon as possible, and there is nothing unnatural in that. However, if this happens more than one time, then, at the least, it indicates poor judgment and decision-making ability. And, if this happens more than two times, then there is something terribly wrong.

Many Job Changes with the Same Responsibility or Position

Such a trend proves that not only are there issues about the reliability but the performance. The person could neither perform & grow in one organization nor grow by changing the jobs.

Job Changes with increasing responsibilities

Changing jobs to get more responsibilities and grow the career is natural. Such a profile indicates potential. Such a profile also indicates that the person is a fast learner. One cannot convince the next employer to hire you for a higher responsibility if you cannot understand the previous role and responsibilities and achievements.