Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Resist the two year itch


I sound like a stuck record when I tell young people that frequent shifts in jobs may get short term gains, but is not a wise long term career strategy.  I point out as evidence the number of agency heads, creative heads and office heads who have been with their current agencies for a long time.  

Now there's a study done by a global research and analytics firm that supports my statement.  An article on this was published in today's Business Standard (click here) The study shows that across industries, senior executives look warily at people who change jobs too often.  It also shows that people who have changed jobs very quickly don't get sufficient training and other developmental inputs from their companies and hence suffer in the long term.  

I wonder if young people would heed advice such as this or just dismiss them as typical rants from old people.  I know that my own young relatives often look at me as a creature to be pitied rather than censored.  I am equally sure that saying "I told you so" is not going to improve my image.  

I guess the only way young people will learn is by making mistakes themselves.  It may well be too late.


4 comments:

Narendra shenoy said...

I wrote a post on this theme a while ago and then decided not to post it because it sounded silly. It was based on an acquaintance who has been known to change jobs more often than he changes his underwear. Perhaps it is not a coincidence that he is unmarried. (I can imagine the nuptial night - "What's that smell, darling? Is there a dead horse in the room?" "No sweetheart, I just took off my..." Faints.

My comment is probably worthless since we both belong to that boring old generation, but there is much to be said for experience.

Maybe I should dig out that article and post it anyway.

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

hmmm, that is a generalisation... a lot of organisations hire people, irrespective of their frequent flier history, when they have a time/resource crunch... from the other side, is it worth sticking on in a job when all you can see is stagnation? so, to me, its a very subjective thing and should be judged (if it has to be) on a case to case basis.
and no, it has nothing to do with age :)

Suman Srivastava said...

Naren,

You must post your article. Probably be really funny and we need to laugh about this.

Manuscrupts: love the name! I agree that companies are hiring the frequent flyers. The issue is whether they are reaching the top. My point is that when the pyramid starts to get really narrow, the rolling stones hit a glass ceiling.

Unknown said...

I will surely heed your advice this time. Gen Y or would you like to call the early 80’s Gen –X always like to experience by action rather than just blindly following the advice. And personally by all the great experience that I had under your leadership now that I am getting forward towards the top of the ‘Pyramid’ your advice makes more sense to me now.

Collectively it’s a search for the ideal profile and work culture that makes people hop and once they find “That” ideal place they think of settling in but in the whole bargain they’ve been always in a comparison mode and they fail to understand and foresee the ‘Long term service advantage’ they would’ve gained in their earlier organisation. There’s when they pay attention to the ‘advice’ of the ‘been there & done it’ Experienced Gurus in which we include our parents and mentors.

Cheers :-)