This will be a quick post, but I wanted to put some thoughts down while those thoughts are still fresh. This is something I’ve always considered important and has become even more so as I’ve gone from doing marketing to hiring/managing/relying on other people to help me do marketing. I’m still a complete rookie, but even as naive as I am it’s amazing how often this comes up.

The topic? Job hopping.

Earlier today, someone sent me their resume. They had great skills. Solid experience. But there were three things that really hurt my perception of them:

1. They’d switch companies eight times in the last ~12 years.
2. Five of those lasted lass than a year.
3. They’d started at and left their last two different jobs over the course of just 18 months.

I have no doubt this person did their absolute best and worked their tail off at each of those companies. But here’s the thing. No, actually, here are the three things.

#1) Cost
It costs a lot to hire someone. Seriously. You’re basically worthless as an employee your first few months on the job because not only do you not contribute, the company is paying you to not contribute and someone else they are also paying has to contribute less to help you get going.

#2) Learning Curve
Even once they don’t have to hold your hand anymore, you’re still very much in the learning phase of the job. In my experience, it’s taken me at least a year (often more) to really start mastering the company, message, and job (side note, the only reason I realized this in some cases was because I worked for that company for 3-5 years and had hindsight to show me how bad I was).

#3) Impact
Large corporations may be able to absorb a vacant opening, but on a smaller team, losing someone is a huge deal. Spoiler alert, smaller teams are the norm in the ski industry.

So if you stay at a job for…say…6 months, 3 of those months will be spent hurting the company, 3 of those months will be spent not hurting the company but not significantly contributing like everyone else, and then the 3 months immediately following your departure will hurt the company again.

I Know, I Know
In other words, I’ve been surprised by how important it’s become to not just hire someone who is highly likely to do a great job, but also someone who is highly likely to stick around. And you know the most obvious way to predict how long someone will stay at this job?

You got it, by looking at their last job(s).

Yes, I know some gigs just don’t work out and that’s okay (I had been working at a job for less than 2 months when Corey called me back in 2011). But for all those times it’s a choice, just know that if that becomes a pattern, some people will have a hard time taking signing you on no matter how qualified all that experience makes you.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.