More and more people nowadays have a quite diverse professional background. An average person changes employer every two years. Lifetime corporate jobs have become an old-fashioned trend, which has been replaced by a new one - pushing yourself out of your professional comfort zones by changing careers in less than a year.
Changing jobs too often is more common among Millennials whose desire to be financially successful can only be compared to their drastic addiction to search for better job opportunities and widen their horizons. However, why has shifting careers become so popular despite the good old American Dream of a stable professional life?
Let’s consider the reasons why you can actually benefit from switching jobs.
Adjusting to cruel reality
In the unstable world of global economic crisis, companies are forced to develop competitive advantages extremely fast. Workflows are becoming more and more flexible which causes new approach to management and team values. Alongside with professional knowledge employers are seeking for creativity, proactive mindset and what matters the most - a deep interest in mutual success.
Managers expect for a quick result in a short-term perspective and times when you could walk around the office waiting for your workplace to be prepared have become history. Nowadays, CRM systems evaluate your efficiency from Day 1, in order to increase company’s KPI and eventually make business more profitable.
By making a decision to change careers you become more aware of what’s going on in real life, developing new career vision and professional skills which brings us further to the next reason.
Boost your professional skills
Research conducted by Kelly Services shows that 50% of employees believe they would actually lose their professional value within one company. It actually makes sense. When you are obliged to follow the same policies and procedures for a long amount of time, you may found yourself stuck along the way. This unpleasant situation is widespread at big corporations where established rules and procedures are an indispensable part of corporate culture while at mid-sized and small companies whose business model is more flexible you can develop more skills and grow as a professional much faster.
New career prospects
Do you remember “What Women Want” where the character played by Helen Hunt - Darcy McGuire, suddenly appears on the scene as a new executive head of an advertising agency? She is a perfect example of a job-hopper who decided to take a risk and left her career stability for a brand new job. As we all know she succeeded (well, her ideas stolen by Mel Gibson’s character).
You may remain loyal to one company, which has raised you into a professional, but what if outside its walls you may face a chance of your life that will take your career to the whole another level?
The majority of people starts thinking about changing careers at 30. At this point of your life, your career goals may change completely. You might want to try something new especially if you have sticked to one company for more than 5-6 years.
Besides, did you know that average salary increase when changing jobs? Read below.
Financial benefits
Money matters. You can actually benefit more from changing an employer than from staying within the walls of your alma mater. This phenomenon has an explanation. Firstly, different companies offer different salary range. Secondly, when you are applying for a job you’re negotiating from the position of strength. You have an opportunity to choose from several offers and take the most interesting, the most profitable and the most challenging one.
Forbes reckoned that sticking to one company can significantly reduce your earnings. Staying at the same company for over two years makes you earn 50% less or even more. Numbers don’t lie.
Better social life
How often have you heard stories about an unpleasant college or a ballistic boss who turns your life into a real hell? You may struggle with stress in many different ways including bonsai cutting and yoga meditation but at the end of the day, the obvious decision to the problem is to quit your current job! Life couches teach us not to give up developing a champion mindset but when it comes to your mental health, you should be extremely careful.
Choosing to switch a job, you’re giving yourself an opportunity to live a better social life. New team members may help you:
- feel more comfortable during the probation period
- develop new professional skills
- prevent you from burn-outs
- become your true friends
The world doesn’t stand still. We are living in a time of great changes and one of the clue features of today’s generation is flexibility. Moreover, Millennial job hopping makes them more skillful and dangerous competitors on the labor market.
So how long should you stay at a job? Should you work harder and try to move on within one company or search for new jobs with good benefits? At the end of the day, it is up to you to decide but you should probably take into an account all the reasons we’ve mentioned in this article.
Remember, nowadays changing careers is not only tolerated, it is encouraged.
