What is Job-hopping?

It's a phrase that gets bandied about quite a bit, but how exactly do you define 'job-hopping'? It's often used in a critical way, to put someone down who moves from job to job, company to company and never 'sticks it out' in a role. Although it's pretty commonplace among younger generations, many recruiters are still reluctant to hire job-hoppers.

Job-hopping means briefly working in one role after another, rather than staying in a position for the long-term. According to Forbes, 91% of Millennials expect to stick at a job for under three years before moving on, meaning they can expect an average of between fifteen to twenty jobs over the course of their career. The average length of time for someone aged 20-34 spends in a job is 2.1 years.

These days, job-hopping is far more common than it was, with younger generations more likely to job-hop than those aged forty and above. For it to class as job-hopping, the constant moving on has to be a thorough choice, rather than because of redundancy or company closures.

There are all sorts of reasons people choose to do it – career progression if a higher tier job becomes available, being fed up with the workplace culture, feeling bored or stifled in a role or simply because variety is the spice of life and they fancy something new.

Some recruiters do still frown on job-hopping, but it can have its advantages. If you fit the definition, you shouldn't necessarily see it as a bad thing if it gets you to where you want to be in life.