Looking for a Business Development superstar or Recruiter extraordinaire? Look for longevity in previous roles.

In recent times, job hopping has become very common. Millennials and Gen Z in particular have gained a reputation for changing jobs frequently, often staying in roles for no more than 2 and a half years. 

Job hopping is now so prevalent in the job market that employers have become somewhat desensitised to candidates with shorter stints in their previous roles. 

For candidates, I can see the attraction of job hopping. It’s one of the easiest ways to gain a salary increase as well as other benefits, like better work-life balance or a more welcoming company culture. 

But when should it raise a red flag for you, as an employer? 

You need to see a success story for any candidate applying for a performance-based role

If you are looking to hire a Business Development Manager or a new Account Executive to supercharge your sales, you need to see some longevity in previous roles. 

This applies to all roles that are rewarded based on performance, including all sales roles as well as recruiters. 

Longevity in previous roles is the single most important thing you should look for in candidates for performance-based positions, whether they’re a salesperson or a recruiter. 

If your candidate changes roles every 1-2 years, chances are they’re not going to be a superstar candidate that is going to drive your sales through the roof or recruit top-tier talent. 

As someone who has worked in recruitment for 10+ years, I know how important your professional success story is when you work in a performance-based role. Over time, you add more strings to your bow and accumulate achievements. These are the things employers who might use you as an external recruiter are looking for. 

How can you carve out a success story when you have only stayed in the job for a short time? 

The longer you stay in a role, the easier it becomes. You develop core competencies and real mastery in your job. This deep expertise only comes with a number of years honing your skills and building your network. It simply can’t be done overnight. 

Additionally, in performance-based roles, commission earned is often cumulative. Therefore individuals who are rewarded with commission are incentivised to stay at their workplace for a number of years to benefit the most. 

It doesn’t really make sense for a candidate in a performance-based role to switch jobs every 1-2 years since they gain more benefits by staying with the same employer for at least a few years. 

Don’t be afraid to dive deep into reasons for leaving a previous role

Of course, there are reasons why individuals might have hopped from one job to the next. They may simply have had a run of bad luck when choosing employers and picked ones who displayed major faults only after beginning work for them. 

Alternatively, they may have experienced some massive personal change, like illness, bereavement or birth of a child.

I don’t suggest discounting these types of candidates. Chronic job hopping should set off alarm bells but there may be a good reason for their frequent switching. However, you need to qualify your prospective hires on their reasons for leaving previous places of employment. 

Aside from the reasons given above, some good reasons for leaving previous jobs include: 

• Being passionate about a product or project and wanting to work for these businesses. 
• Needing a new challenge or wanting to use certain skills more often.
• Wanting to take on more responsibilities. 
• Being laid off. 

There are of course other perfectly decent reasons why a candidate might have left their previous roles. In addition to the reason given, you should assess their sincerity when they talk about previous roles and their overall character. 

Job hopping should still remain a red flag to employers

When looking to hire for sales roles or recruiters - whether internal or external - you need to see longevity in previous roles. Job hopping should raise alarm bells. In these performance-based roles, often it means they are not very skilled at their job and are not candidates you should consider for your company. 

You do not have to discount candidates entirely on account of job hopping. However, they better have a great reason for switching up jobs frequently!