[mrap]

Hi, guys.

There has been a lot of articles and discussions, what constitutes job-hopping, and how good/bad it is. I understand that this may be viewed differently across the globe, but anyway (I myself am from Europe, to clear this up).

Now, I have worked in public for a bit more than 4 years (in audit), currently I am in my 4th month in a private company. There are good things about this job (such as a large learning curve, possibility to work with high level executives and so on), then again there are some issues that I really don’t like (obviously, the people factor, starting from frequent management changes, finishing with some of the managers, and overall increase in workload due to the expansion of the Company) which has led me to understand that, while the job in general is good, it’s more of a transitional phase, to get the knowledge I lacked in public and move on.

Now, I understand that less than a year in a job is a kind of a red flag, and I really do not want to hop jobs so fast, as I will try to stay here at least a year, but beyond the year, would you consider this really a job-hopping type of thing? Look, at it this way – I have been in audit 4 years, audit is very limited in itself, so of course you take a wild jump when going into private, you go into the unknown, basically your first job outside public is always an experimentation. You have worked for a year in one job – You have lived through the trial period, you have lived through 1 evaluation.

Given the fast paced environment where I am, would that really be considered job-hopping? Especially if I would emphasize these things in a potential cover letter and the interview that this was my first job in private, it made me understand what I want to do in future really, what interests me, and that I would be willing to have something stable and long-term in the future?

Comments and opinions welcomed.

[Defo]

There is no right answer here. One person may see this as a red flag, while another might not care at all. From my perspective, assuming your last job in public was for the entire 4 years and not 4 or 5 separate companies then this looks more like a one-of bad fit and not a perpetual job hopper. I think its a bad idea to address job hopping in your cover letter though, as you're just inviting attention to a situation that may not need any.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't say you are a job hopper. If you were leaving jobs or being fired every 3-6 months, that would be one thing. I wouldn't worry at all about it.

[mrap]

@Defo Thanks, I may have formulated my thought incorrectly (English is not my native) – what I meant is that I would emphasize the takeaways from my current job in the cover letter and then if asked in the interview, why would I consider jumping (or in future if someone would ask why I had a short stint there), I would just say that it was my first job after public and 2nd overall then it was a wild shot and apparently not the best, but after that I understood what I would like to do in the long run at the place I would potentially be interviewing.

@crazyleon thanks, I would also consider that its not a big problem, just wanted some opinions.

[Author]

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