Saturday 13 January 2007

Job Hopping : Where is the world driving you?

Last I met my friend Dhiraj after 3 months and asked him how his Job was going I was shocked to know when he said “It’s going Damn cool”… Yes I was shocked because in past he used to start cursing his company once he was 3 months old…. The second shock did not take much time when he said he had hopped the earlier firm and was with a new maestro this time it’s a company in the Health sector… so finally I understood that he had hopped 3 companies over 6 months and was holding another offer just when he is not even a month old….

OK let’s forget Dhiraj … but the fact that Job Hopping these days has become a fashion and to add more glue to it it’s the easy way to make Big money… Boy you don’t need to be mafia to earn a couple of Big Grands a month… just Hop companies every 2 months and you will get a fancied designation with a handsome 10-15% hike if some desperate service company who got a big project last month finds you, its possible to get a 40% hike there….

So the bigger problem here is job hopping is the best piece seen by the young lads who are screwing there careers for the sake of easy flow of money and some fancy designation…. I found a couple of reasons why people really hop the jobs (BTW when I say hopping I mean jumping across jobs when you are not even settled in the current firm)…

1. Your friend got a good offer in some other company (Only Money my Son).
2. You feel shy taking your Company Name because it is too small.
3. You get a fancy Job Designation.
4. You want to impress people with your career growth graph.
5. You don’t like the work you are doing.
6. You don’t like the people around (No girls/dude’s in my Office????)
7. You ended up in this company because you wanted to get out of the old one anyhow.
8. Your colleague was promoted and not you.
9. Your performance in this organization is not good and you think the next organization you can start afresh.
10. blah blha

Well these are the just few reasons I can really make out …. I am sure you will have tons of them to add… So while I see that people with lesser experience tend to hop more there is also a backend demon that tends the middle level guys to hop… simply see the way Indian IT is growing any person with 6+ yrs of experience don’t want to play a role lesser than a Manager, A Person with 4 yrs of experience wants to be a Project Lead and so on… this thinking is not so bad but it tends to be bad when a person not having enough experience ends up in a very very critical role screwing up the whole business…. See the way IT curriculum is generating IT aspirants… around 1 million every month? Interested in IT or not but since they think its big money they are here…

I don’t think we can change a lot of here at least the mentality cant be change so I thought I would just give you a jinx on the future problems. I remember Sarah (Our ex. V.P) telling me that we are looking for people who want to stay with us for long just not 6 months… No wonder why there were a bunch of interviews and a heavy H.R interview I had to face before getting in here… And for the same reasons we had being rejecting candidates looking at their profiles.

Also since the IT is evolving lot of companies are getting into trade liaisons to avoid hopping some of the BPO companies in India have that contract, while other strong players of the IT world are trying to avoid Talent that is hoping… I think it is going to be more and more difficult over next few years for the Job hoppers to get through easily…The reason is clear... no one wants to waste there time on a resource that will runaway and the H.R. will have to struggle soon finding a replacements. It’s the H.R. that is and should be more aggressive on this front.

Before I have to quit writing as the post is getting too long I thought I will also share a few fallbacks that you will have to face sooner or later if you are an expert or Amateur Job hopper:

1. Lack of creditability. You can get in the organization easily but you won’t get the additional set of responsibilities just because people fear that you will leave soon.
2. Lack of Experience: You do the same things that you had being doing in previous organizations, I think every organization has the same set of things for everyone to start with…
3. You are a Technical Fool: Just not because you are there in the shortest period of time but because you haven’t learnt what you were supposed to as you kept hopping…
4. Visiting Card: You will have to change your visiting card and numbers often... one way you loose your creditability.
5. CEO: Ever dreamt of being a CEO… if Yes then Job Hopping will never get you there… No Management will want you to take that over if you have being hopping… Savio told me the other day that the CEO of one of his previous companies was working for the same firm for 25 yrs… Dammn I am ashamed I had being max for 31/2 yrs.
6. You can’t be an expert unless you are a born Smart A**Hole… Hopping leaves you only in one position “Jack of All King of None”


OK so this sounds no more than enough… but I would be glad to listen on what you guys think on Job Hopping?

regards
Sameer Shaikh
http://sameer-shaikh.blogspot.com
http://pm-better-than-sex.blogspot.com
mailto:sameera.cmc@gmail.com

2 comments:

  1. I do agree with you, Sameer.

    This frequent job hopping will result in a new breed of professionals who are not competent enough, attributing to mainly:

    1. Lack of maturity.
    2. Lack of "hands-on" experience in tough situations, as there will just be 'number' of years added to the experience and not the 'value'.

    However, to deal with this situation, many companies have started innovative initiatives. Sharing below a couple of e.gs. recently I read about:

    Tech Mahindra - Employing non-IT (who were not working in IT sector before) middle aged people for their middle management positions. Company feels that these people are more mature and have more sense of responsibility than the young IT turks and don't have the tendency to switch jobs that often.

    Another company (forgot the name but I read this probably in India Today) - is trying to develop a bond with the employees' families, providing them with various facilities, organizing their meets, trips etc. According to this company, attrition rate came down drastically after undertaking such initiatives, as family creates a pressure on the employee not to leave that company.

    Thanks,
    -Vaibhav

    ReplyDelete
  2. thanks for sharing your thoughts
    This is my fav topic i cud not resist myself frm writing...

    In last 4.5 years i have switched 3 companies. I am in synechron(4th company) since last 2.5 yrs :-)

    Well the reason for my hoping were i felt i was not getting properly rewarded and then in next company i felt i am not getting work of my interests.. I think these are reasons why ppl look for change.

    I am not in agree with on some of your views where you mentioned if you want to be CEO you shud stick to one company , may be u r correct but If you want to build your company you shud work across multiple companies. By this i dont mean you shud do frequent hoping(like ur frnd) that is not professionalism and not even maturrity...I feel you get to learn more by switching job (after correct intervals).

    I really wonder how ppl can spend decades in one company. I cant do that.. I would do that only had i been in army:-)

    Have you wondered why there is no attrition in army..this question mite sound funny..here is the reason, they always have change in job/role/locations after specific intervals may be bcos of this a individual doesnt feel a need for change.

    The reason i cud to stick synechron so long is i always got the change i wanted.

    have u written blog on how to stop attrition ..btw thanks you have given me some topic to write...

    Change is must and if he someones is not getting it then he/she needs to move ahead.

    ReplyDelete