I found I lost my patience and keep looking to others for advice and guidance for my career. This is almost to the point of asking everyone in my phonebook!! It is so absurd.

How do I explain this to a future employer? I knew what I was doing was wrong but did it anyway. Is there a way out of this hole I’m digging for myself and find the right job for me?

As far as people who get a job and somehow end up hoping/praying to get a lawsuit out of it, that’s pathetic. Just look for another job and put in your two weeks, sheesh.

My past has made it very hard for me to get a job in my field, even though the previous jobs were way before I graduated. When I get the second interview, I almost can’t even believe it anymore. Sad but true.

My advice to job hoppers… give it some more time with the position! Nothing is worse than quitting a job only to end up getting paid less- every time.

However, in some cases you may want to explore the reasons for the job hopping. As a physician recruiter, I often work with physicians who have taken locum tenens positions, similar to short- or long-term contract positions. The reasons for accepting these jobs may vary, but sometimes the physician wants to gain experience in a variety of specialties, or to check out a geographical area before moving there permanently. When I see that sort of evidence on a resume, it’s a signal to gather further information – that information may actually become a mark in the applicant’s favor.

Thanks for the comment. Examples like yours are what I try to mention when discussing job hopping. Good people who end up trapped in this cycle of short term employment. I don’t want people to “Suck it up” if they don’t want to but I do want them to consider the long term consequences of their actions. That’s speaking to reality rather than want.

The temp-to-hire route is really a weird feeling. I’m doing it again, hoping and praying this time it works out and I’m not back out at the recruiter’s in a month or two with yet another thing to explain. My husband (a full ten years older than me) just lost a temp-to-hire when the company decided they “didn’t really need” the extra person. That’s the third time in eighteen months he’s been on that end of things.

Oh, and I have to add all the HR bloggers who tell you that job hopping doesn’t matter, that your resume doesn’t matter… they are absolutely wrong. Every recruiter or HR person I met expressed concern, and I wound up revamping my whole resume to a more functional one (which by the way a lot of HR people and/or recruiters don’t seem to like) in an effort to help assauge concerns about my qualifications.

I think the implied point that you’re trying to make that disagrees with mine is that it is the employers fault that all of these things are happening and they should work unilaterally to fix them? Is that correct?

I think both parties are to blame and job hopping ultimately hurts both parties. It hurts employers by having to rehire and retrain a person. It hurts the employee by making their employment choices less than desirable. I don’t know if you’ve been unemployed but it is pretty stressful as well. And I certainly know that hopping from one bad job to the next bad job is even worse than staying at the first bad job.

I just want employees to seriously consider the consequences of their actions. I don’t want people to stay in bad jobs but I do want them to leave bad jobs for better ones. That’s it.