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Subject:Length of service--how often to change jobs? From:"Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 31 May 2001 10:02:54 -0400
Sean Brierley wonders: <<Can somebody point me to a resource for finding the
average time a tech writer spends at one job, in the computer software
industry (or something along those lines).>>
Nope, but I have seen people cite estimates of 2-5 years often enough to
consider this to be a typical ballpark estimate. Of course, these people
could all be simply repeating one unscientific estimate by someone vocal but
ill-informed, but I haven't seen anyone leap up to challenge these numbers,
and that lends them some credibility.
<<Over the past 10 years, my track record is 2.5 years. Somebody called me
on it and I wonder where I stand compared to others.>>
My opinion is that if you want to change jobs every couple years, you should
probably considering going freelance and working as a contractor. Then, if
someone complains that "you don't seem very stable, do you?", you can reply
with perfect confidence that you chose the contract life because you like
being your own boss and picking your own assignments. However, were I an
employer looking for full-time staff rather than contractors (and I'm not),
I'd have to ask myself whether I would really want to go through the hassle
of hiring someone again every 2.5 years. I wouldn't. That being the case,
I'd probably eliminate a candidate with a track record of frequent job
changes if I had several equally skilled candidates with longer tenures on
their resume. That's not necessarily a good criterion, because someone with
a broad range of experience might make an excellent choice, and might be a
particularly good choice if I'm expecting cyclical downsizing (heck, the
person will want to leave anyway, right?), but there's no guarantee I'd
follow that chain of logic were I submerged in resumes and trying to cut
down the number I had to review.
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