How long to stay in consulting gig to break job hopper label?
Hi everyone. I graduated from a target in 2019 but have moved around a lot since graduating. I am about to start my third job in a little over two years in a series of Covid impacted but upward moves and am looking for advice about avoiding being labeled as a job hopper. I have listed my jobs and rationale for leaving below.
Job 1: 1.5 Years. Strategy/planning role in a private tech company that is not very well known but is a leader in its industry. Industry was massively impacted by Covid and layoffs started occurring and I feared for my job security. That being said, the role was also more planning focused than I hoped and I was more interested in strategy. Decided that I wanted to eventually pursue strategy consulting to build stronger skills and get broader exposure than I was getting in this more niche kind of tech industry but then COVID shut down the consulting industry basically.
Job 2: 6 months. corporate strategy at a publicly trade fortune 1000 company. Joined because it was an opportunity to be in a role focused on strategy development and technology which is where I want to be. Team was ex-consultants so I figured I would be able to build similar skills to consulting despite not being at a consulting firm since the market was a shitshow and they weren't hiring. Also, the company and industry was less impacted by COVID and I was no longer living in fear of losing my job everyday. Figured I would stay here for a while and use an MBA to pivot into strategy consulting.
Job 3: T2 consulting (LEK, OW, Strategy&). Consulting experienced a massive hiring surge about 5 months into my 2nd job and I managed to get an offer at a T2 firm. Took the offer because consulting was my goal all along and I feel like this is a massive step up from being at a relatively unknown fortune 1000 company. Really excited and I start there pretty soon.
Do I have a strong explanation for job hopping? Also, I know people don't stay in consulting for that long usually but how long should I try to stick it out given my job hopping background? Thanks everyone.
The reasoning is justified. However, why worry about being labeled if you’ve reached your destination (for the time being)? As long as you don’t leave in 6-12 months it shouldn’t matter. Any potential employer who judges you harshly for navigating through a pandemic in the manner that you did - isn’t a solid employer to work for. Typically the trend is job-hopping every 2 years. I’ll add that those individuals have no issues continuously landing roles.
I think this is a little optimistic. I'm 8 years in and I still get questions about a company I worked for for 6 months even though I've been at the current company for 5 years
From my recruiter friends, I've heard both the 4/5 rule and 6/10 rule ~i.e. profiles get flagged if the candidate 4 or more positions in 5 years/6 or more jobs in 10 years. This is mostly for tech where some job-hopping is not necessarily seen as problematic. Other industries may be more traditional and view job-hopping more negatively. Seeing that you are already at your third job in 2 years, I would stay at least 2-3 years before switching again.
Yup - this is particularly what I've seen.
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