4 ms·

Never Hire Job Hoppers. Never. They Make Terrible Employees (2010)

7 points by gedrap 11y ago

throwaway215 11y ago
So hilarious. I think he's absolutely right, but I take the opposite conclusion: > You were recruited away three times? You aren’t loyal. The first company that offers you a higher check means you going to jump ship. You’re only about the money and yourself.” Believe me – people WILL offer you employees more money. Job hoppers take it. He's caught on to something that most people are just beginning to realize. Millennials don't give a fuck about your "vision." They will relentlessly and ruthlessly drift to competition if they could make more money or any sort of appreciable advantage doing so. I'd eat my CEO if I thought it would make me a dollar. You can say you won't hire job-hoppers, but years of corporate malfeasance and broken promises means we're all job-hoppers now.
maxharris 11y ago
Translation: "Never hire people who dare to leave for better opportunities. Never. They want to be paid what they're actually worth!"
supercanuck 11y ago
He values loyalty above all else. No harm in that. Hopefully those who are loyal to him are paid handsomely when they could have fielded better offers, otherwise, this guy is an asshole and a user of people.
ChuckMcM 11y ago
I've been in the tech industry for a while and my experience is that people who stay longer, learn deeper, and do better over the longer term. Have I done a long term longitudinal study over everyone I've ever worked with/for? No. Of course people will argue that "companies screw employees so I'm just looking out for #1, its just a job." and like all generalizations, including this one, its wrong. It really comes down to what value you bring to the company, if it isn't sufficient you won't get the offer.
nikdaheratik 11y ago
What a load of lazy nonsense, it's the startup equivalent to the "never do this" chum buckets at the bottom of penny ante media websites. There is no formula for successful hires, especially in tech, especially in startups. A "founder" who sells 6 startups at age 30 and makes a bundle off of each is a raging success, but a potential employee who climbs the ladder and lands a better job at 6 different companies by age 30 is "suspicious". I'm surprised the author hasn't collapsed under the weight of the cognitive dissonance.
NumberSix 11y ago
My main objection is that technology companies appear to have very high turnover rates. By design? Are the companies "loyal" to their employees? Many surveys have reported extremely short average or median durations for technology jobs, meaning 1-2 years, especially in software development. Payscale did a survey that listed both Google and Amazon as having extremely short durations among employees. http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/least-loyal-employees http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/least... The New York Times recently published an article reporting extremely difficult working conditions at Amazon resulting in a perhaps intentional high turnover rate: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-w... See also coverage of working conditions at Electronic Arts and other gaming companies. It is true that some people are able to get jobs at technology employers and stay for several years. Even among these, very very very few seem to make it past ten years at a single employer. There are those who suspect that many companies have a covert policy of hiring young, single, mostly male employees, getting them to work large amounts of unpaid overtime through various deceptive tactics ranging from free food to continuous grossly unrealistic schedules and deadlines, often coupled to PR events like trade shows intended to create a perpetual crisis atmosphere. Inevitably and by design this burns out large numbers of people, leading to large turnover rates and other problems.

7 points by gedrap 11y ago

So hilarious. I think he's absolutely right, but I take the opposite conclusion: > You were recruited away three times? You aren’t loyal. The first company that offers you a higher check means you going to jump ship. You’re only about the money and yourself.” Believe me – people WILL offer you employees more money. Job hoppers take it. He's caught on to something that most people are just beginning to realize. Millennials don't give a fuck about your "vision." They will relentlessly and ruthlessly drift to competition if they could make more money or any sort of appreciable advantage doing so. I'd eat my CEO if I thought it would make me a dollar. You can say you won't hire job-hoppers, but years of corporate malfeasance and broken promises means we're all job-hoppers now.

maxharris 11y ago

Translation: "Never hire people who dare to leave for better opportunities. Never. They want to be paid what they're actually worth!"

supercanuck 11y ago

He values loyalty above all else. No harm in that. Hopefully those who are loyal to him are paid handsomely when they could have fielded better offers, otherwise, this guy is an asshole and a user of people.

ChuckMcM 11y ago

I've been in the tech industry for a while and my experience is that people who stay longer, learn deeper, and do better over the longer term. Have I done a long term longitudinal study over everyone I've ever worked with/for? No. Of course people will argue that "companies screw employees so I'm just looking out for #1, its just a job." and like all generalizations, including this one, its wrong. It really comes down to what value you bring to the company, if it isn't sufficient you won't get the offer.

nikdaheratik 11y ago

What a load of lazy nonsense, it's the startup equivalent to the "never do this" chum buckets at the bottom of penny ante media websites. There is no formula for successful hires, especially in tech, especially in startups. A "founder" who sells 6 startups at age 30 and makes a bundle off of each is a raging success, but a potential employee who climbs the ladder and lands a better job at 6 different companies by age 30 is "suspicious". I'm surprised the author hasn't collapsed under the weight of the cognitive dissonance.

NumberSix 11y ago

My main objection is that technology companies appear to have very high turnover rates. By design? Are the companies "loyal" to their employees? Many surveys have reported extremely short average or median durations for technology jobs, meaning 1-2 years, especially in software development. Payscale did a survey that listed both Google and Amazon as having extremely short durations among employees. http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/least-loyal-employees http://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/least... The New York Times recently published an article reporting extremely difficult working conditions at Amazon resulting in a perhaps intentional high turnover rate: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-w... See also coverage of working conditions at Electronic Arts and other gaming companies. It is true that some people are able to get jobs at technology employers and stay for several years. Even among these, very very very few seem to make it past ten years at a single employer. There are those who suspect that many companies have a covert policy of hiring young, single, mostly male employees, getting them to work large amounts of unpaid overtime through various deceptive tactics ranging from free food to continuous grossly unrealistic schedules and deadlines, often coupled to PR events like trade shows intended to create a perpetual crisis atmosphere. Inevitably and by design this burns out large numbers of people, leading to large turnover rates and other problems.