Views of a Job Hopper
I admit it, I could be considered a job hopper. Over the course of the past two decades I’ve worked at a university library behind the scenes (discharging and shelving of books), in customer service, retail, held data entry and other clerical related positions, and operated an envelope inserter machine.
I’ve never worked at a job for longer than three years. I’ve been through two layoffs (nearly missed a third), worked temp and part-time jobs, and quit a position after a month when I was just too overwhelmed by it. My experiences with being employed, and more often than I care to admit, unemployed, took a toll on my self-confidence. Questioning not only certain paths I took in life, but certain notions I had growing up about the working world.
I am late Gen-X. I never like to assume, but I would think there are peers in my age group who shared similar notions of employment. Growing up my parents held steady jobs (though my father experienced his first layoff in 2010). I had aunts and uncles who spent most, if not all their adult working lives at one company. The notion of working at one place for years was instilled in me by my family without them saying a word.
My experiences would vastly differ from that of my parents and other relatives. The things I was told by my high school guidance counselor didn’t match the cold truth of the world myself and my peers were going into. A world where for a lot of us, expectations did not match the reality.
We had the degrees that we were once told would make us a lot of money with expectations of success. Some of us did do well, but others I know, myself included, struggled with finding our places. Perhaps we took jobs that were wrong fits (I know I have), and just haven’t found our “thing”. Perhaps we took jobs out of necessity because we had no other options.
Sure we had our degrees, but perhaps some of the best skills we needed as navigated our world as employees was adaptability. To be flexible and willing to forge a new path. To always continue to learn.
Fortunately, we’re somewhat in a time where job movement is not only expected, it’s accepted. However, there may be employers out there who may frown upon this. Sending out resumes was a nerve wracking experience, as I thought of how my resume had a 95% percent chance of getting rejected by an automated screener, never seeing human eyes. It made me question my competency, though in nearly every job I’ve held I’ve performed well and established myself as a good employee.
I look at my jumble of a resume, and see a couple things. One, a kaleidoscope of small successes and achievements. The second is I see a person in middle age who has gained wisdom from experience from the various companies he’s worked at.
Perhaps for those of us who’ve had struggles establishing a solid job history, instead of viewing ourselves negatively, learn from the experiences, and know that a job does not have to define you.
