Was 12 years at one company too long?
Mitch King
Talent Acquisition at Fleet Space | Space-enabled technology to revolutionise mineral discovery, defence capabilities, and space exploration
As the title suggests, I worked for one company for 12 years.
Started as a Junior Recruitment Consultant/Administrator and when I left I was APAC Managing Director (you won’t see that title on my LinkedIn, story for another day).
In that time I had a couple of opportunities come to me but I hadn’t actively looked / applied for other roles for the majority of that 12 years.
But as you’ve probably heard and read a lot, there’s a view that if you stay with a company you’ll earn less than what you would if you went to a new company. I’ve seen this to be true, sometimes but not always.
A few years into that job I was approached by a competitor. At the time I was on a base of $50k a year. They offered me $80k.
This was a huge amount of money for me then, a $30k pay rise today would still be huge (might even be enough to buy the fancy chips at Woolies next shop) but I had my concerns.
Eventually I went to my boss and told her I had another offer, I wasn’t asking them to match it but I think it showed that I was underpaid. It’s testing my memory but I think I ended up getting my base to $65k.
Now some of you might read that and think I was stupid for not taking the higher base but it wasn’t just about that. I was running a desk solo so at the new company, I would have been up against 2-3 others to make commission.
领英推荐
I also weighed up the pecking order. I was the 5th employee in our companies Australian office so if there was to be growth and bigger roles in the future, I’d go from about 3rd in line where I was to about 8th in line at a new company.
Then other opportunities came in those years and each year, another boss I had would give me a raise. I hit targets so come January performance review, the raise he gave was usually there or there abouts to what I would have asked for, but I didn’t have to ask.
So I progressed within the same company - which is something that’s not always possible - and didn’t really have a driving reason to leave. I liked what I was doing, I was being paid fairly, the people were nice, what was I chasing?
But after saying all of that, 12 years was too long. I think. Maybe it wasn’t?
The point I’m trying to make is I don’t think these opinions or rules we spout about how long to work at a company or never accepting counter offers are blanket rules that apply to everyone in every situation.
What I would find interesting to know is how long people consider a “long” tenure for employment now?
There is a poll you can vote on but only subscribers to the beehiv version of the newsletter can vote and see results, head to https://heymitch.beehiiv.com/subscribe to sign up.
IIM Lucknow/Zonal Sales Head North, East,Nepal and Bangladesh at Straumann Dental India LLP
10 个月I think we should be clear in what we want if you are getting what you want then there is no harm staying 12 or 20 years in a company I myself have completed 12 years in a company
Barnet and Southgate College student and upcoming apprentice at HSBC global private banking and strives to make an impact to the world as an autistic individual shaing insights
10 个月It depends on the overall environment I would say and the workplace and the people that makes or breaks a company
It is not only about money and promotions. The environment, general policies are sometimes even more important. A 50% salary increase might mean nothing if you will loose the flexibility of picking up your kids from school, for example. So is difficult to give a number as each person life situation is diffrent
Sales Manager - ANZ | APAC | Healthcare Tech| Medical Devices | Capital equipment | Consumables | ICU| ED| OT| Respiratory- Acute & Critical Care| NEONATAL | Distributor management | No-Story teller only problem- solver|
10 个月It depends on what you learned and how much you earned in the process. I’d say if - 1. You didn’t enjoy the ride, 2. If you didn’t make good or good enough money while at it 3. And didn’t even have promotion (s), as 12 years is a long time. Then it wasn’t probably the best decision. Here in ANZ yearly pay raise barely beats the inflation curve positively. A yearly pay raise equivalent of $250 a month can barely stand the test of interest rates and is snared by the inflation python ?? of rental increase of $400 a month every year ( in todays scenario of 11 or 12 times rate increase). I’m not even talking about the growing overall cost of living, loving ??, eating out (food) ?? mortgages, cost of tap. Beer ?? it’s $14-18 can you believe it etc. which got me to find out pint and schooner. If you ticked more than one boxes above I think you did well. On the other hand i change job or country every 3-4.5 years. And it has worked quite well for me. Learned a lot, earned a bit, had a few promotions and enjoyed a hell of a ride along the way.
Fractional CFO - Commercial & Non profit | Ex Cisconian, Siemens & Vodafone Group | Senior Finance Executive
10 个月Mitch King These days, l work in a role or company until l collect a package and then l move on. So it's determined by the market & company's conditions.