Gen Z Job Hopping: Positive or negative?

IN today’s fast changing employment market, job hopping, or often changing professions or responsibilities, is becoming more widespread, particularly among younger professionals. 

Long tenures at a single company were once thought to indicate stability and devotion. Moving swiftly from one job to the next was often considered a major red flag by hiring managers. 

Employers frowned on applicants whose résumé appeared to indicate that they couldn’t stay put. The professional argument was that these experts were unfocused, unstable, or perhaps difficult to deal with. 

While some companies will always have a negative attitude against what has become known as job hopping, it is becoming more usual for people to change jobs over their working years. 

Should I start job-hopping?

Everything we do in life has advantages and disadvantages, particularly when making life-changing decisions. Job hopping, in particular, offers both advantages and disadvantages. 

Job-hopping can help you boost your career quickly. Professionals who transition from one job to another are more likely to receive promotions and wage increases than those who rise within. 

Professionals who change employment regularly might also extend their professional networks. Each new employment presents new set of coworkers, mentors, and industry contacts, all of which can be extremely beneficial to their professional development. 

Furthermore, this can increase job happiness by allowing people to select employment that are more aligned with their interests, values, and talents. This can lead to a job that better aligns with one’s personal and professional goals. 

However, one of the key disadvantages of job hopping is the possibility of developing a bad opinion of employers. Frequent job changes may indicate a lack of commitment, dependability, and stability. 

Employers may be cautious to engage in training and development for an employee who they believe is likely to quit the company in a short period of time, based on their previous employment history. 

Furthermore, while job switching might contribute to rapid success, it can also result in a lack of depth in one’s career. Professionals who are constantly changing employment may miss out on the in-depth experience and competence that comes with long-term projects and responsibilities. 

This could result in a career plateau in which the job hopper is perceived as a generalist rather than a specialist, restricting prospects for higher-level roles.Intro: Effects of Job Hopping: 

Job hopping in Gen Z’s perspective

At the age of 21-years-old, Rhea Wilkins had her first job as a Call Center Agent on where she lasted in the company for 9 months. 

Courtesy: Instagram.com / @rheyreads

The 27-year-old claimed that she is someone who partakes in what most people would refer to as Job-hopping–a career choice where a worker opts to switch jobs frequently. 

Throughout her experience, she shared that she is to last in a particular job between the range of 5 to 17 months due to higher salary, better benefits, better chances to learn new skills.

Aside from the benefits for having a higher salary and being able to acquire new skills, Rhey also shared that being underpaid based on her skill set, being placed in a toxic work environment and the lack of career growth are what prompted her to leave a company from time to time. 

While the idea of frequently changing your job rings a bad tone to most people, Rhey had pointed out that both the advantages and disadvantages of partaking in job-hopping.  

On one hand, she pointed that one would “a get higher salary compared to your previous work, you are exposed to better systems and in demand skills, you get more competitive in the job market because you know more.” On the other hand some “are seen as someone as high risk to leave when hired by a company, not likely to be hired at any job that requires experience to manage people.”  

Despite having a butterfly effect on Wilkin’s resume, one thing that pushed her to continue job-hopping was due to better salary and better work environment.  

Message to Gen Zs

Coming from her job-hopping experience, she shared that loyalty to any company wouldn’t be anywhere. “You can stay and give all your golden years to one company and be paid less than people who did not stay.” 

Wilkins had shared on RepublicAsia that for her two first job hop, she first thought that there is something with her but then knew at once that she felt that she wanted to resign. 

“I have been very critical at myself after my first two job hop, I thought there is something wrong with me. But I knew that once I felt I wanted to resign, I’ll continue to feel that way. I know now that leaving was the right decision. But I did not just quit, I had a plan first then I left.”

A message to the management and human resources

Aside from sharing her experience regarding job-hopping, she also has a message for the management and human resources professionals who are specific with their two or more years of work experience in a company policy. 

“Give them reasons to stay. If they have more reasons to leave, why would they stay in the company? If they are likely to be paid more and offered more flexibility at work by other companies, they are more likely to leave and create more opportunities for themselves.” She said. 

She also stated that the company should provide opportunities to become better on what they do and support them on doing so. Adding to that, she stated that there should be the right people to supervise them. 

“I have seen lots of companies from my experience who have managers that only micromanage people and are really bad at it. The bad managers don’t put enough trust on them to do things right leaving them no option but to quit eventually. And lastly, give them a clear path to get promoted inside the company.”  

While the idea of Job-hopping might sound like a bad idea to many people, keep in mind that one should not feel bad for wanting more for themselves and for one’s potential.