More thoughts on job hopping...

Job hopping's become a norm for younger workers (particularly millennials). Is this a passing trend or the future of the workplace?

Here are some more thoughts from Lynne Sarikas, director of the MBA Career Center at Northeastern University's College of Business Administration:

The latest figure I heard was that people have on average 7 different jobs over the course of their careers and I suspect that will increase. Not only do workers switch jobs on their own more often these days, companies don't keep employees for life either with downsizing, restructuring, mergers, acquisitions etc.

It is unfair to claim this is a phenomenon unique to the millenials. While the baby boomers tended to have careers for life, most people in the workforce today have not stayed with the same company for their entire careers. It is unusual to see a resume with a single employer. The trick is to have a story to tell about the changes. Why did you make each move, what experience did you gain from each, how do the combined experiences best prepare you for the next step? No one should be going in to an interview apologizing for having had multiple jobs.

The companies that tend to retain employees for significant periods of time tend to be the very large companies and they are successful in retaining the employees the really want by offering them regularly opportunities to grow and change. While someone may work at a Raytheon or IBM for more than 25 years, they frequently never have the same job for more than two years. Large companies have enough diversity of opportunities to keep people moving and growing.

While employers will still claim to look for stability when recruiting, they are truly looking for the best skill set and fit for their culture regardless of whether that skill set was built in a single company or a series of different companies. There is value in demonstrating the ability to learn a new company or industry. There is value in demonstrating the ability to work in organizations of different size and styles.

The job search is really a sales job and that means doing your best to sell your unique set of skills and experience regardless of how you acquired them. Focus on what the employer is looking for and sell your advantages regardless of how many employers you have on your resume. Just be prepared to explain why you made the changes, and how you gained valuable experience from each that prepares you for this new opportunity.

Human beings are learning beings - as long as you learn something from the experience and can demonstrate that, it has value. Obviously one should avoid the extreme of jumping from one to job to the next too quickly. It is helpful to show some progression and promotion within an organization but offer the big jump in responsibilities comes by changing companies.

It will be interesting to watch the millenials to make sure they aren't changing jobs every time their attention span wanes!!