Why do people often change jobs?

Recruitment experts recommend job seekers not to change jobs too often, because most employers act carefully towards people who frequently change jobs. This is no surprise – only rare employer wants to hire people, spend money on his training, but after a month to receive their resignation. Employers like better not to risk, so they refuse the candidates with “rich” job experience.

Runners or jumpers change jobs several times a year, but their CV looks like a phone book. These runners and jumpers are as grasshoppers – jumping from one place to another. That causes lack of trust in the eyes of staff recruitment specialists so if he or she is not “deselected” right away, then everything is being seriously checked.

The term “jumper” is already known from the old Soviet times. Stalin in his time offered to accept a law which prohibited employees to change jobs arbitrary. “We have to control these 10-15% lazy persons, drinkers and jumpers… Those who violate this law should be put in jail” – told the popular leader. In the years of stagnation, the cartoonists drew the jumpers with wings and bloated work book in their hands. At the time, all Soviet Union’s fought with such employees.

Now times have changed – nowadays for the too frequent job changing no one puts in the prison, but the attitude towards employees of this category has not changed.

Often, recruitment agencies do not deal with jumpers as normal candidates for vacancies. However, in the U.S., it is believed that frequent job change can be justified only if the employee each time gets a higher position. In Japan, they hire employees for life – one out of three residents of Land of the Rising Sun has worked all his life in one company.

The job change as itself does not have negative connotations, but the question remains – for what reasons do people change their jobs? What factors make specialists to damage their work reputation, but their CV to turn into a list of companies?

Examination of the causes

It is believed that people often change jobs in search for higher wages and better life …, that is, they want better working conditions. Just as a good cause for frequent job change could also be the irritable character of job seekers, various conflicts in the collective, psychological discomfort, lack of career prospects, moving to another city or the delay of the salary, family circumstances. However, just as well there can be no cause at all.

Today, we can distinguish several groups of job seekers, who are among the “jumper” category.

Consistency should not be expected from junior professionals – many of them have not yet decided where and how to realize themselves, to understand what the business requirements are, to gain work experience and give a try to themselves in different fields. Many experts of recruitment agencies believe that young workers often change jobs because of the wish to receive a higher salary, and they do not wish to accept the negative factors. Only those who manage to realize their professional qualities and ambitions within the framework of commitments, and manage to learn to work on the proposed conditions succeed.

At another sprinter category, we should add to the job seekers in average age who already have some work experience. Such professionals are not afraid to leave their previous jobs and to begin to “travel” in order to realize their ambitions by trying to find a more profitable job.

Often, the candidate is absolutely guilty about the fact that he worked for a very short time in the company. It can be affected by many objective factors: the company’s movement to other buildings (or the employee himself is moving to another place of living), which is located in another city, the change of management, which is usually followed by the change of company’s staff, changes in working conditions or changes in circumstances. However, mostly the main reasons for the change are subjective: the real wage is lower than it had been promised in the job interview, medical certificates and vacations are not paid, narrow range of responsibilities, uninteresting routine work, there is no potential for growth.

There tend to be job seekers who are very irritable. It is very hard to see such quality during a job interview because candidates are hiding it very carefully. Everything will become known later, when such person is hired. The result – constant conflicts and endless insults. This problem is related to the human personality and character, emotional imbalance, and inability to work as a team. Often, it is influenced by high self- appraisal or consequences of a low potential. Of course, such employees are unable to stay long in one place.

It should be noted that people are talking much about the new variant of jumpers – “the controlled” jumper. It is a candidate who is under stress. He leaves a good job with no aim further and goes for searching. Often, the psychological crisis forces people to change their jobs and their occupation. Such seekers sometimes do not know what they want, so they start to chase every vacancy. For this reason, the employers should be very careful with people who are over 30, because they regularly change jobs, as it once could be connected with psychological problems.

Run, run job seeker!

Without a doubt, employers tend not to be excited about job seekers who often change jobs. What to do with such candidates? If you do not want your CV to be thrown away in the paper basket as soon as the employer has finished reading it, it is desirable to omit all the previous work places. It is better not to mobilize the recruitment specialist’s attention to the frequent job change. In this case, the best tactic would be to divert attention from the frequent job change to your skills and achievements.

If the job seeker’s job changes were caused by independent circumstances (for example, due to the company’s bankruptcy, or the job seeker decided to move to another city), then the applicant should briefly tell about it in his/her application letter and make appropriate notes in CV. Thus, the applicant will be able to show the employer that he is not a jumper.

And most important factor – the applicant must be prepared that in the interview, he will be asked to talk about previous job experience. So, you have to prepare explanations for the frequent job changes. Interviews should take place in a positive atmosphere. In no case slander the former employer, as well as do not complain about the difficulties, even if they were objective. Better highlight and provide a logical solution for a question – why you are so often changing jobs, as well as prove that this job is exactly what you were looking for so long.

Will the employer take in the work a “jumper”?

The candidate’s work experience, which looks more like a detective novel, serves as a signal that the employer should examine this candidate more closely.

Many employers are asking themselves how to deal with such candidates? This question has no single answer. It should be noted that many things depend on the company’s personnel policy and the employer’s goals.

If an applicant, however, succeeded to rouse interest with something in the recruitment specialist, and he has been invited to an interview. However, then he should be more carefully examined, to find out the causes of frequent job changes, because not all jumpers are problematic people. Such candidates may be recruited only if his frequent job changes will have powerful reasons.

If there is a possibility to gather recommendations on the potential employee, then better use this information. This will help to avoid from engaging an unskilled employee. The most important in such inspections – to evaluate objectively the candidate’s work assuming different opinions. It will be enough to talk to two or three previous employers to have recommendations. When it comes to the job seekers who have worked for two months with one employer, but the next week in some other place, then it would be advisable to talk to four or even six employers for recommendations in order to obtain detailed information.

First of all, from recommendations you should find out why the employee left the job. And it would be good to ask whether the candidate could stay in the company. Thus, the recruitment specialist after testing could be sure that all the information in CV is true (or it was not). Only then you should make further conclusions about the candidate.

The choice is yours.

Of course, employers do not like such people who frequently change jobs. In most cases, the employers like reliability, loyal employees to the company who can and want to work for this company. Nevertheless, in the same time, people who managed to change a number of jobs have some experience and knowledge. In addition, they are communicative (the exception applies only to cases when the job changes were caused by a problem within the collective). Nevertheless, many companies are just dreaming about such employees. Therefore, some employers, however, stick to the principle of “Who does not risk, does not drink champagne!” and knowingly risk by recruiting people who have never stayed for a long time in one workplace.