You call it job-hopping...

I call it curating your career. 

The collective experiences of your career, strengthen your ability to execute more complex work. Whether you are an entrepreneur or a 9 to 5er it's important to understand that all of your experiences build upon one another. These unique experiences provide you with more breadth and depth within your scope of knowledge.

Think of your career as a blank canvas. When you first start out, you have limited knowledge and experience to draw from. What you are able to offer is based on the exposure you have had throughout your life. Over time, you learn more skills, become better at decision making and begin to understand how to leverage what you are learning as you go. Asking for additional responsibility and new projects add more layers of exposure and learning opportunities, all of which speed up your learning curve.

Consider the current job market, opportunity is abound and many candidates are exploring their options after ignoring requests from recruiters since the start of the pandemonium (global pandemic). Whether you are just curious about available options, fed up with doing significantly more work with fewer resources, or feeling unappreciated, you are likely to find positions that offer stronger compensation packages and a better work environment. You are not alone in feeling the urge to explore your options. There are a few things that are important to consider in your decision making.

First, you are likely to encounter questions about your motivation to move on from your current role. Depending on the company, these questions may be relatively straight forward, the goal is simply to understand your decision making process. Be sure to provide clear explanations that highlight the knowledge and skills you have acquired along the way. The most prepared candidates offer thoughtful responses that are logical and unapologetic. If you find that your answers are being scrutinized, pay attention. It's not always a red flag, but depending on the line of questioning, it could be. There are many companies that are overly obsessed with the idea of "job-hopping" and during the interview process they spend far too much time trying to stir up doubt in the candidate about their work history. This is often a negotiation tactic. If you walk away doubting the brilliance that you can offer, then you may also be willing to accept less than you are worth. A lower level role, lower salary, more challenging team dynamics, to name a few. 

Keep in mind that you are also evaluating whether or not the employer is a fit for you. Don't try to force alignment, which may ultimately lead to you making a regretful choice. As you progress through the interview process, continuously check your notes and recap your conversations to make sure the role that captured your interest is the one you are still interviewing for. It's very easy to start a conversation about a role that is more appealing in comparison to your current position and by the offer stage, realize that you are being offered the same job at a different company. 

Hiring teams often default to more of the same. They set out to find someone who is a great fit for the team, who will challenge their thinking and offer new ideas, only to pivot and end up hiring someone who is exactly the same as the person who left the role or the same as someone else already on the team. Familiarity is often the enemy of progress. Just be sure you are getting what you were looking for and not fulfilling the needs of the company, while neglecting your own.

Next, reference your list of needs early and often to keep yourself on track. Don't lose sight of what you set out to have in your new role simply because the offer being presented is more money than you are currently making. Your next offer should always (with very few exceptions) be more than what you are making today. The price for your experience goes up, just like the cost of your living expenses. Make the hassle of changing jobs worth it for yourself.

Lastly, a major benefit of curating your career by not staying at one company or in one role for too long are the compensation increases. While your current company may offer an annual increase of a just a few percentage points, another company will offer you a double digit increase to encourage you to make the move. I work with many candidates who are netting double digit percentage increases simply by changing employers. Anyone stagnant is also stale or at least that is the perception. Depending on your industry and line of work, if you have little to no understanding of how your work and the work of your company aligns with the market then it's likely that you're working on challenges that are dated and therefore make your skillset less marketable over time. This is also why it is important to continuously work on your own professional development. Many candidates are naturally risk adverse, which leads them to stay at a company longer than they should. They get comfortable with the routine and understand how things work at the company. The appeal is the predictability. While it's not the approach I would recommend for the employee or the company, it's common. In these cases, prioritizing professional development gives the employee exposure to new skills, which also benefits the company.

There are many variables when considering the next best step in curating your career. As long as you are clear on what you want, you will be able to curate a career that you are proud of and excited to continue. You have the right to change your mind and your approach. Use your knowledge and resources to propel you.

*Rewritten today while lying in bed, because I felt compelled to do so. Someone clearly needed to hear this and I hope it helps.