I have had so many conversations lately with people trying to decide if they should stay where they are or look for a new job. One of their questions is whether their tenure will be judged too short or too long by future employers. Let’s look at the “too short” side of the equation.
Disclaimer: I am only one former manager so I won’t pretend to speak for them all. Also, times do change, but this is my take on it.
I have reviewed a LOT of resumes. Unless I’m hiring a short-term contractor, if I see a resume with several (say 3 or more) recent short stints of around 18 months or less, I will pass. Why? I don’t want to invest time and energy getting someone up to speed just to have them leave.
Of course I don’t know why they had multiple short stints. Maybe they hit a streak of bad luck and all those companies went out of business. Or they were hired under false pretenses and the jobs were nothing like what was promised. I’ve heard of that happening. Once.
But if someone moves on from multiple jobs after a short period of time, I think there is something else going on. Maybe they don’t have the desire, temperament or skill to really dig into the harder problems that people with more tenure are expected to solve. Or their interpersonal skills are such that they don’t get along with their teams. Or there is a large mismatch between their expectations and their manager’s.
I get it if it happens once or twice. There are many good reasons to leave a company after 12 or 18 months. I’ve hired plenty of people who have had shorter duration jobs interspersed with longer. It is the pattern that is concerning.
There are challenges and benefits to staying at a company longer. If you’ve had a couple of short stints and you are thinking about leaving again, maybe take a pause and ask yourself what is going on. Are you running to something or from something? What could you learn by staying? Could you mentor someone who is more junior? What new opportunities could come your way if you grew your expertise and influence where you are?