Job Hopper or Not

Example of Job Hopper Resume

Today I received an extremely well written cover letter indicating I had found the perfect candidate for one of my job searches.

Among the many qualifications mentioned in the cover letter were dependability, loyalty and dedication.  The candidate went on to explain how her experience was a precise technical fit for my opening as well.

Thinking this resume would definitely be worth reviewing, I quickly opened the attached resume.

My definition of dependable, loyal and dedicated must be different.  Attached was a resume listing approximately twenty different jobs with twenty different companies over a span of less than five years.  None of them were labeled as “temp” or “contract” or “consultant.”

If you are going to lead with these qualities, at the very least, there should be some explanation as to why you haven’t stayed with any of your former employers for longer than six months.

Throughout my recruiting experience, every hiring manager I’ve spoken with has the same feelings about job changes.  “No job hoppers” is a common mantra.

There are times when changing jobs frequently is truly not the employee’s fault.  I’ve seen resumes where the last three jobs ended abruptly because the company was sold, changed management or moved out of the area.  So it is not always within the employee’s control.

When there is no logical reason for five jobs in a year, you may wish to consider adding brief explanations on the resume.  I don’t normally recommend this, as most people feel the need to write a paragraph explaining what happened.

However, wording such as:  “Company relocated” or “Company closed” after the name of the business goes a long way towards assuring anyone reviewing your resume that you may in fact be loyal and dependable, just caught in a bad situation.