Re: Job Hopping to Increase Pay

["Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM>]

Matthew Danda writes:

>At night, when I relax and think about how I am abandoning a project to take
>a new job, I feel some shame. But then I pull out the calculator, review the
>major salary changes, and think, well, I'll just have to live with it.

And Moshe Koenig answers:

>I've done exactly what you've done. What has resulted is that I've
>actually had prospective employers openly question my emotional
>stability!

>I'd like to know if it's a crime to go for the big money. I'm
>tired of having people act as if I'm doing something that they
>wouldn't do. Maybe they're jealous. As I've said often enough,
>Elizabeth Taylor has been married often enough, but that doesn't
>keep men from seeking her.

A lot of these attitudes, IMO, are holdovers from the days when
employees joined a company right out of high school or college
and stayed until they retired. Neither companies nor employees
have that sort of tenacity any more.

There are lots of reasons to leave a job; money is only one of
them. In the software industry in particular, job tenure of a
year or two is more common that the old 25-year standard -- and
I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of.

However, lots of people in position to hire or screen resumes
still think that job tenure of less than 3 to 5 years is
flighty... unstable... suspicious...

That's why I switched to a functional resume years ago. It
highlights my skills and downplays my short jobs and unless
I have to fill out a job application (something I've only
done two or three times in the last 10 years) nobody ever
knows how long my jobs have lasted.

Just a thought...

Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com
     -- The _Guide_ is definitive.
        Reality is frequently inaccurate.