Loyalty, Job Hopping or Strategic Personal Placement

Days after joining my first real corporate company as an assistant in the finance department, I decided to do a little tour and get an "on the ground" feel of what I had just got myself into. I had figured out that this would give me an indication of how long I was likely to last here, what my growth prospects were and more so, how good an employer this company was. I had been sitting next to a young lady who had joined the company 8 months before me and was already looking for another job. Obviously her view of the company was not the greatest so to avoid pouring cold water on my most significant career move at this point, I ignored just about everything she had to say and went in search of some optimism, goosebumps and fireworks!

Mentally I had prepared two survey question for my respondents:

1.) How long have you been in the company? and

2.) Why are you still here?

To my absolute amazement, the first 5 people I asked had an average of around 8 years of service in the company. Impressive? Well that depends... What struck with me however was that most of them could not tell me why they had stayed that long, what life changing benefit they had derived during this time, what they had learnt or even that they were still happy working there. If anything, they felt stuck and almost helpless.

Bothered by this, I cornered one of my respondents over lunch in the canteen a few days later. She was middle aged and this was her 9th year. "So why are you still here if you're so unhappy?" I asked. Without wasting much time, she went straight for the kill, putting me in my place in the process. "Well young man," she said. "you will soon discover for yourself that it's tough out there. Getting another job is not easy and you should be grateful that we employed you here. At least you have a job". She then proceeded to gift me with a lengthy lecture spanning life, the birds and the bees and just about everything else while completely ignoring my one question "why are you still here"? My conclusion? She didn't know why she was still there and in this case, I couldn't even blame the company.

During this conversation, I discovered that miss loyal here had been in the same division of the company for the entire 9 years, had been promoted once, she hadn't seen her own CV in many years, never bothered to apply for open positions internally concluding upfront that she wouldn't be considered and in essence, she was firmly stuck and had given up on ever making progress choosing to rather convince herself that she didn't want it anyway.

Now this conversation made one thing very clear for me at the time despite being young and inexperienced. This is not how my career was going to go down!! I did a lot of thinking over the days that followed and decided to reinvent how I would position and manage my career. I decided that for the first 10 years of my career I would explore and not sit in one place in the name of being stable, loyal, level headed or any of the things corporates often pretend are good for you. I decided I would expose myself to things that the people who worked with me at the time didn't have, I decided to develop a rare combination of skills and experience, and while I was doing this, I decided that I would earn what was due to me... Why? Because what I could see before me simply wasn't fun, wasn't exciting, wouldn't multiply my earning potential, wouldn't get me to senior levels in any organisation and wasn't something I could justify doing until I was 60.

Would I be called a "job hopper?", would I be said to lack commitment?, would I be called unstable? Yes absolutely, but this was a risk I was willing to take. In my mind, the era of one company, doing the same job until retirement was long behind us.. needless to say, I didn't exactly find my fathers 20 year service watch that he wore with pride appealing at any point. In my mind, this era was about relevance, about keeping up to date, about adapting to change, about agility and about knowing as much as you can and being able to speak the languages of the various departments which make up an organization. Was I to become a deep specialist or a good generalist? I chose the latter!

13 years later, I have worked for 7 companies, moving regularly and each time making progress both from a career and financial perspective, each time getting more than an inflation based increase, each time walking away with exposure to a different way of thinking, each time taking on board a new lesson learnt, each time adding exposure to my personal brand, each time noting down "what I came here for" and achieving it, each time proving to myself that I can take on something that I knew nothing about and make it work, increasing my confidence along the way, each time learning a new skill, each time learning how to work with different people yet attaining results, each time working in a different industry and each time making peace with being ok to be called a "job hopper" when in fact I had now coined the phrase "Strategic Personal Placement" as a direct response to this criticism.

So what has this done for me? It's made me agile, it's made me adaptable, it has given me a broader perspective than most of my peers and it has taught me how to achieve results quickly, giving me a natural SENSE of URGENCY, knowing that I don't have 8 years to do this. In turn this has given me something unique to sell as part of my value proposition to potential employers.

So why do I mention these things? In my mind there is a very big difference between job hopping and what I call "Strategic Personal Placement". STRATEGIC because each move has been with an end goal in mind, a vision and not simply the lure of a few cents more. PERSONAL because I have taken charge of my career and not outsourced it to a boss, an organisation or a system, and PLACEMENT because I have been very clear and deliberate about where I work, I've made sure each job is at a more senior level than the previous one and I've been very clear about why I want to work at a particular company. In short, I have placed myself in organisations rather than waited for the system or employment agency to decide this for me.

Job hopping on the other hand refers to moving for the sake of it, moving at the same level, moving just for more money, moving to do exactly the same job as before somewhere else, or even moving for reasons like "my boss doesn't like me" or "I'm just tired". Even if you wait 8 years before moving for any of the above reasons, in my mind, you're a job hopper and adding little value to your career... Just a more patient one.. 

So, has my Strategic Personal Placement made me less employable?? To my surprise actually not. Although there have been employers who have called me a job hopper (bless their souls), in many cases it has actually attracted people to want to interview me, so much so that I was once asked "are you for real?" As in, have you really done all these jobs?..... Why? Because in 10 years I have gathered Financial Management, Customer and Relationship Management, Operations Management and extensive People Management & Leadership Experience, something that not many people in the market have. During that time, I have also backed this up with a track record of delivery and the necessary educational qualifications. Here I'm reminded of my mentors favorite line, one that he has literally choked me with for more than 10 years!! "Success is where opportunity meets preparation"

So where does loyalty fit into the picture? This question reminds me of the answer someone once gave many years ago when I asked this very question: "if you want loyalty, get a puppy". Although I do not entirely subscribe to the notion of absolutely no loyalty to organizations, I do believe that your primary loyalty is to yourself, especially in the corporate world. In my mind an employer, employee relationship should be mutually beneficial. It must work for both you and organisation. Blind loyalty is therefore in actually fact self disloyalty and has damning career consequences. Career decisions are supposed to be made with you at the head of the table and not as the guest being served.

One of my favorite books is one called Future Shock written by Alvin Tofler. In it he says, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. I read this book many years ago and it has informed some of my career decisions. Do yourself a favor and read it and put yourself out there to learn, unlearn and relearn. You owe it to yourself!