Good news for job hoppers: Frequent change maintains passion
Most people change jobs every two years, and, guess what? It’s a good thing to do for your career.
The Bureau of Labor reports that people in their 20s change jobs every 18 months, and CareerJournal reports that 75 percent of all workers are job hunting. All this change has been scoffed at by people who say the word “job hopper” with a sneer, but if you want to be engaged and passionate about your career, frequent change is probably a silver bullet.
Troy Jackson, who has had stints in Fortune 500 companies, a startup, and Harvard Business School, explains the rationale for changing jobs: “Being in a new position and doing something for a year or two is great. But later, the things that are not as appealing about the job start to wear on you. So changing positions or going to a new environment keeps you excited and keeps you wanting to learn.”
But let’s be clear: Haphazard change, leaving job after job for frivolous reasons - like you want a cubicle near a window- is not going to get you far in terms of finding engaging work. But switching jobs specifically to spark more engagement in your career is a smart.
“The people who win are not necessarily the smartest people, but they’re the people who are able to sustain drive, commitment, passion and engagement,” says David Maister, management consultant and author of the blog Passion, People and Principles. “What it takes to succeed is not intellectually difficult. Everyone knows what to do: Eat less and exercise more, for example. Success is about having the confidence and determination to do it.”
A precursor to sustaining passion, of course, is finding it. Sometimes you can do this with some help from a career coach. Curt Rosengren, for example, specializes in helping people find what they’re passionate about and creating a work life that harnesses that. He says you need to understand what motivates you — for example some people are motivated by competition, and some people are motivated by making personal impact - because those are the goals that will make you most excited.
But in many cases, the intense soul-search is not as effective as just going out and trying jobs until you find one you like. We are not very good at guessing what we’ll like, according to Daniel Gilbert, Harvard psychologist and author of the book, Stumbling on Happiness. He recommends that instead of philosophizing about career passion, just try a lot of jobs to find one that makes you happy.
Once you find that passion, it’s enticing to keep doing the same thing that you’re good at; the work world encourages this, because once people know you are good at something, they will ask you to do it all the time. But after a while, your learning curve plateaus, your personal growth sputters, and then your passion dissipates.
Maister says each of us has three modes: Dynamo, loser and cruiser. The first two are when you are doing something - getting a lot accomplished or failing - and both are important for growth. We all cruise, too, but “the trick is to have a system around you where you don’t let yourself cruise for too long,” says Maister.
So how do you do that? Force yourself out of your comfort zone and try something new. Once you accept that success and failure are both worthy avenues of personal development, it’s easy to understand the importance of trying new things, and risking that they’ll be bad ideas.
Jackson agreed to relocate from North Carolina to Boston, where his wife had a new job, and he started interviewing for jobs. He focused on large companies, because that’s where he had always worked, but in an effort to look at something new, he interviewed at a smaller startup, HiWired.
“It wasn’t until I started interviewing and talking to the people I’d be working with that the opportunity really revealed itself,” he said. By seeing how things were done at HiWired, he better understood the frustration he had at larger companies where getting something done took forever. He also realized that he could have ownership of something large at a startup - in this case, all of marketing.
Now, he realizes that one of the things that energize him about his job is getting things done quickly. Jackson would not have found this opportunity if he had not interviewed at a company outside the normal scope of his targets.
Another way to keep yourself from cruising is to always understand what gets you out of bed in the morning. “Really clarify this, because this is what keeps your momentum,” says Laurence Haughton, management consultant and author of the book It’s Not What You Say…It’s What You Do. To this end, he recommends, “Getting a checkup: Going to the dentist or doctor reminds you to floss or get on the treadmill. Go to a mentor who understands your goals … but will ask you tough questions.”
The problem with finding work that makes you passionate is that we are all passionate about a lot of things that don’t mesh well with work. Sex, for one thing, is something we love to do but don’t do for work.
So when you are deciding your next career step, try using the criteria Maister uses in his own career: “I ask myself three things: Is it as much fun as I thought it would be? Can I get paid for it? Can I make a [notable] contribution with it or will I be just another player?”
A lot of maintaining momentum is actually about dealing with setback. And even a passion maven like Rosengren, says, “It ain’t all sunshine.” So recognize when you need to manage yourself through a bad time, and when you are in cruising mode and need to get out.
And next time someone calls you a job hopper, stand up tall and proud, and tell them it’s a new workplace, and strategic job hopping is a new way to create a passionate career.
del.icio.us
Digg this
Reddit
Blogs that link here
16 Comments »
Wow, great insightful article. I know exactly what you mean. Out of college, I worked as a management consultant for 6 years, and LOVED IT. I had a new job/role every 6 months, but I never had to worry about searching for it.
After leaving that life because of travel (now have a spouse and son to worry about), I hate corporate life (I’m the CIO of a mid-sized Financial Services firm). Like in consulting, the first 6 months were great, but then I was craving something new. It’s tough though … I know I can’t move around every 6 months and get decent positions, yet I’m at a level where I can’t move around much within the company.
Posted by Anita | December 25, 2006
Penelope, I just discovered your blog and plan to become a regular reader (saw the URL in the Boston Globe.) I really liked your article and I’m also a big fan of David Maister. Personally, I really enjoy making change periodically, though my changes tend not to involve an actual job change (I change the way I work, I change my exercise regimen, I change the focus of my recruiting efforts–I’m a legal headhunter.)
I work a lot with attorneys and I’m trying to think through how your article relates to attorneys who work in a law firm setting (or other professionals who work in a professional services environment.) Maybe the analysis is slightly different for a professional.
In order to “build a practice”, most professionals need some semblance of stability. For more junior professionals, it may very well make sense to make a move or two (in order to have the chance to do more satisfying work, in order to get better mentoring, in order to be closer to family, etc.)
At some point, however, constant change can have an adverse impact on client loyalty.
Maybe for professionals it is therefore important to make periodic internal change (i.e. change without actually changing law firms.)
I would be very interested to see a follow up piece that focuses more on change in the legal profession (or more generally, in the professions.)
* * * * * * * *
Thanks for this great comment, Stephen. You bring up the important point that change is not always changing jobs. People who work for themselves generally have to become specialists in order to survive. (For example, Stephen is a headhunter, his specialty is attorneys.) It’s always a delicate balance between too little specializing (and then you do not stand out enough to make it on your own) and to much specializing (and then when there is a change in how things are done, you are useless.)People like Stephen (and me!) have to make sure to constantly look for what’s next in order to stay relevant and we try to stay passionate. Change can mean trying something new to see if it’s a good thing to start doing. This blog is a good example of that. It looked to me that jorunalists who are really on the cutting-edge are blogging, and if I want to be part of the huge shift that journalism will eventually make, I might need to blog. So I tried it. This was not a career change, or quitting my old job, etc. This was testing the waters in something new, which is part of what keeps us passionate about our work.
Penelope
Posted by Stephen Seckler | December 26, 2006
One of the bennefits of working for the Federal government is that I can change jobs (within reason) without changing my benefits. I enjoy knowing I can work in public relations in my current position (so far very satisfying) or I can work for a host of other agencies and still keep the same work schedule, benefits, and tenure. That is one of the advantages many people don’t realize about Federal service that, despite somewhat lower pay than the private sector, keeps in working here.
If I want to try something totally different I can still apply for that position as well.
Since money isn’t everything and flexibility in the workplace is the key, I am surprised more people aren’t taking advantage of Federal service.
Sorry, I sound like a recruiter!
* * * * * * *
This is a good point. For some people, taking care of their home life and their work life at the same time means making sure that insurance is stable. If this is true for you, then a bigger company, or the government, will give you more wiggle room while you continue on the same insurance policy. Ben, I hope the governement is giving you a bonus for posting this stuff in the blogsphere :)
-Penelope
Posted by Benjamin Strong | December 26, 2006
So glad to hear this! I routinely change jobs every three years or so and in nearly every case it’s to pursue a new opportunity.
I find it keeps my skills and interests fresh.
Posted by CrankMama | December 26, 2006
As it happens I am a recruiter (contingency) and I speak with lots of people everyday about their careers, goals and aspirations. The other day I read a suggest, and for the life of me I can’t remember who said it, but they hit the nail on the head. “You don’t have to do what you love, but whatever you do, don’t do what you hate”.
This is great, practical advice, John — and so snappy, too.(I echo this advice in a piece I wrote about how people should stop with the soul-searching and just do something.)–Penelope
Posted by John | January 3, 2007
Hi Penelope.
I haven’t read your column in quite some time (too busy!) although I enjoy it a lot. I have to say that I am impressed with its new presentation. It looks very professional and I like the way you have re-organized the layout. It is absolutely gorgeous!
I’ve been reading articles - some I’m re-reading and some I’ve never read before - and these all deal with changing careers. I am in the middle not so much of changing my career but taking on a part-time career outside of my usual job. It is an exciting time for me. I am very enthusiastic about it and I am going about it in a systematic way. (I haven’t quit my first job yet…and I may never).
I was motivated by the article you wrote about job hopping and keeping passion in one’s life. I am someone who does get tired of routine quickly so this transition is something I look forward to. I’ll keep reading your articles for further advice.
Good luck in WI!
Posted by Lisa Lahey | February 27, 2007
RSS feed for comments on this post