There is one constant conundrum in the profession of a recruiter as well as for our clients and our candidates. It is the problem of having too many jobs in a short period of time as part of your career history.\u00a0 We’ve known some organizations that consider more than two jobs in five years to be excessive. Most people would agree that three jobs in three years is problematic. A hiring authority and his or her company are looking to minimize risk. A candidate with three jobs in three years is considered a risk. Most hiring authorities assume that, no matter what the reasons, a candidate with that kind of record is only going to be with their company for three years.<\/p>\n
Candidates with short tenure will always have “reasons” for why they left or were forced to leave. Some are more valid than others. Some of our clients simply won’t, under any circumstances interview a candidate who has had three jobs in three years. I understand.<\/p>\n
However, the truth is that the complication of business has rapidly changed over the years. Companies are more fluid than they have ever been\u2026 Ever!<\/p>\n
Consider the following facts:<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1973 (the year that I got in this profession) the average company in the United States was\u00a059 years old.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n In 2012 the average company in the United States was\u00a015 years old<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n In 2014 the average company in the United States was\u00a012 years old.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n The average turnover rate of a survey of 40,000 businesses in the United States was\u00a015%\u00a0<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n Average turnover rate for small businesses was close to 20%<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n The average job in United States\u00a0lasts 2.5 years<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Think about it. Businesses come and\u00a0go faster than they ever have and the turnover rate is as great as it’s ever been.<\/p>\n One of our hiring authorities, Danny, stated he just didn’t want to see any candidates that had more than two jobs in the last three years. Danny said that they would be with him for about that amount of time and he just wouldn’t interview anybody like that. He stated that he was 55 years old and it only had two jobs in the last 25 years. He couldn’t understand why people these days would have so many different jobs in short periods of time. In other words, why weren’t more people like Danny? Well, Danny was a performer but he was also\u00a0lucky!<\/em><\/p>\n I explained to him the above statistics.\u00a0Companies\u00a0<\/em>come and go faster than they ever have. The candidate whose company got bought, shutdown or merged may be a really good employee. His or her reasons for leaving the job may not have anything to do with them, but the company\u00a0that they were working for. Twitter, for instance would be a great example of turbulent work environment, as of today, that may cause a job change.\u00a0 Danny reflected for a moment and admitted that his company, a few years earlier, had bought another company and laid off 60% of the people in that company because there was a duplication of jobs.<\/p>\n Danny and all of the other hiring authorities out there with the same mentality might want to reconsider a candidate’s “too many jobs.” To eliminate a candidate without investigating\u00a0as to exactly the reasons<\/em> for the job instability is not only unfair to the candidate but shortsighted on the part of the hiring authority.<\/p>\n “Too many jobs” is relative. Just because a candidate has had three jobs in three years doesn’t mean that he or she would be on their next job for only one year. The important thing to do is\u00a0investigate thoroughly the reasons the candidate left the jobs. <\/em><\/strong>Dig deep, check references thoroughly. You may end up eliminating the candidate with too many jobs but at least you’ve given yourself, and him or her, the benefit of the doubt. Giving people a benefit of doubt allows for the discovery of real gems for the company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is one constant conundrum in the profession of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n