The following is based on an excerpt of a book I’m writing on online and offline networking. If you have any comments, I would appreciate it. You can email me at erik [at] problogservice [dot] com.
How often do you change jobs? Are you moving up in your career ladder? Or has each job change been a series of lateral moves with no apparent pattern?
While we all enjoy new challenges and making more money, changing jobs can have a negative effect on your reputation if you’re not moving for a specific reason. It doesn’t hurt to move once in a while. We’ve reached the point where it’s expected for people to move. (A 2006 study by the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that college grads will have 10 – 14 job by the time they turn 38.) Despite our nomadic careers, recruiters and hiring managers will want to know why you’ve changed jobs so many times.
If you’re networking your way into a new job, that’s not as important. You’re being recruited based on your experience, knowledge, and skill. They’re not as concerned about your past work history as the hiring manager who only knows you from your résumé.
While money may be your primary reason for leaving a job — “I changed jobs because my new employer offered me 20% more per year” — that’s not going to be obvious on your résumé. This is why you need to stay at a job for more than a year whenever possible.
For one thing, if you only switch jobs for the money, you’ll earn the reputation for being a mercenary and not being loyal. This can be respectable for a time, but two things will happen: 1) companies won’t hire you, because they’ll know you’ll leave as soon as someone offers you a little more money, and 2) you’ll eventually price yourself right out of the market. You’ll either find yourself in a job you hate that you can’t afford to leave, or you’ll have to take a significant pay cut just to stay in the industry or the community you love.
It can be especially hard for people in sales or business development who stay within their industry. You spend months, and even years, developing relationships with your customers. You tell them how great and awesome your product is, convince everyone that it’s the best in the industry, and that if they don’t do business with you, their companies will burn down, fall over, and sink into the swamp.
And then you switch jobs to one of your competitors.
How do you overcome the obvious question of “so what makes this new company so much better than your old company?”
You’re stuck. The customer may believe that you were either lying to them before about your old product being so great, or they’ll think you’re lying now, and you’ve somehow gone to a second-class company with an inferior product. Either way, you face the very real possibility that my old customers are going to lose respect for you and your new company.
Your best bet? Don’t spin it or try to downplay it. Be honest and tell them why you left. You don’t need to go into the gory details about how you and your boss didn’t go along. But if you left because of a layoff or because you were offered more money, that’s an acceptable reason. Just don’t come back to the customer a year later with the same song and dance. Eventually your customers will get tired of switching, or will realize they’re happier with the last solution you brought to them, and they’re not going to want to switch.
Be sure to check out:
