4 ms·

What's your definition of "short stint"? Less than 1 year?

nickthemagicman 9y ago
I was going to ask that as well! What's the HN community's view of a reasonable amount of time at an employer? Given that startups are way crazier, require way longer hours, and are less stable financially and politically than normally established companies. Asking because I've worked for several startups and tech management has changed several times in a year for both of them, they loose and gain huge streams of revenue rapidly, have worked burnout hours at times at all of them. All factors that have made me seriously question my employment there at times but the knowledge I'm gaining makes it to good to give up for now.
- pm 9y ago
  This is highly contextual. I've got a series of 3 month stints on my CV as I'm a contractor. I usually come in to fix things, but by the time they call me in most of the money has been spent on shitty agencies.
  - bowlich 9y ago
    If you're a contractor wouldn't your resume show continuous employment for one company (yourself) with each 3-month stint listed as a client?
- bigiain 9y ago
  This: https://hackerlife.co/blog/san-francisco-large-corporation-employee-tenure https://hackerlife.co/blog/san-francisco-large-corporation-e... Suggests median tenures at small tech companies can be as low as 1.5years. For me - it depends on the stage of career a candidate is at. If you're not job hopping every 2-3 years in the early stages of your career (say, first 8-10 years out of school), you're without doubt losing out monetarily (which may indicate a lack of ambition). On the other hand, if you've not managed to hold down a job for over two years (or any job for over 18 months), you ring bells in my head of maybe just having managed to not get let go for lack of performance and bailing out before it makes it to your record. Those are both offset of some of your roles are listed as contracts (but rest assured I'll be getting your references or LinkedIn or network-sourced ex-colleagues checked to make sure they don't describe them as permanent full time roles).
- fjeuplos 9y ago
  "What's the HN community's view of a reasonable amount of time at an employer?" ... If your a contractor, 6 months or more.
spooneybarger 9y ago
mine is less than 2
notyourwork 9y ago
It depends on how many jobs you've had and how old you are. If you have 3 jobs each being 1 year that would be a red flag. If you have 10 years of experience, 1 job for a year and the other 2 split across 9 years I would be less concerned. An outlier versus a pattern is where I see a bad situation versus a concern for hire. Personally, spending <18 months in a company or on a team doesn't yield enough time to accomplish much. It also doesn't afford you ability to learn from your mistakes and mature.
- kstrauser 9y ago
  It also highly depends on where you were working. Bouncing between Google and Amazon and Cisco and IBM at 9 month intervals is a pretty big WTF. Going between a few series A startups in the same period of time might be perfectly explainable.
  - notyourwork 9y ago
    I would agree with that, my point of reference is from working the last 3 years at one of those and finding lots of mediocre engineers who bounce from team to team or company to company every 12-18 months. They deliver, leave technical debt and move on. Its a facade of a good engineer and its hard to catch until you are the one cleaning up the mess or replacing the mess.
- matt_the_bass 9y ago
  > Personally, spending <18 months in a company or on a team doesn't yield enough time to accomplish much. It also doesn't afford you ability to learn from your mistakes and mature. This is a great way of explaining why I think lots is short stints reflect poorly.
erichurkman 9y ago
If it's short, put an explanation. If it's contract work, label it as such. "Example, Inc. January 2018 - May 2018 (contract)." If the company folded or otherwise, you may opt to indicate it, or mention in your reach out to the company.
matt_the_bass 9y ago
Depends on context. If someone is a consultant/contractor, short stints are ok. But then have a clear reason why they want to go back to standard employee. If someone has a number of longer stints, then a short one here or there is no big deal. But I want their resume to tell a story. Don’t be afraid of explaining circumstances in a cover letter.
- muzani 9y ago
  I have this kind of hero syndrome where I like to join dying projects to try to save them. Which means I join a lot of companies for short stints, and most of these projects fail. It's a bit hard to justify in a cover letter without looking defensive.
  - cema 9y ago
    So what do you do? How do you win attention of the hiring manager? I am asking because I may have (had) the same problem.
lhorie 9y ago
For me it's 3 or more jobs back to back with <1 yr duration each and irregular durations. Usually, their LinkedIn also boasts being CEO of their own company for an overlapping duration of time.

I was going to ask that as well! What's the HN community's view of a reasonable amount of time at an employer? Given that startups are way crazier, require way longer hours, and are less stable financially and politically than normally established companies. Asking because I've worked for several startups and tech management has changed several times in a year for both of them, they loose and gain huge streams of revenue rapidly, have worked burnout hours at times at all of them. All factors that have made me seriously question my employment there at times but the knowledge I'm gaining makes it to good to give up for now.

pm 9y ago
This is highly contextual. I've got a series of 3 month stints on my CV as I'm a contractor. I usually come in to fix things, but by the time they call me in most of the money has been spent on shitty agencies.
- bowlich 9y ago
  If you're a contractor wouldn't your resume show continuous employment for one company (yourself) with each 3-month stint listed as a client?
bigiain 9y ago
This: https://hackerlife.co/blog/san-francisco-large-corporation-employee-tenure https://hackerlife.co/blog/san-francisco-large-corporation-e... Suggests median tenures at small tech companies can be as low as 1.5years. For me - it depends on the stage of career a candidate is at. If you're not job hopping every 2-3 years in the early stages of your career (say, first 8-10 years out of school), you're without doubt losing out monetarily (which may indicate a lack of ambition). On the other hand, if you've not managed to hold down a job for over two years (or any job for over 18 months), you ring bells in my head of maybe just having managed to not get let go for lack of performance and bailing out before it makes it to your record. Those are both offset of some of your roles are listed as contracts (but rest assured I'll be getting your references or LinkedIn or network-sourced ex-colleagues checked to make sure they don't describe them as permanent full time roles).
fjeuplos 9y ago
"What's the HN community's view of a reasonable amount of time at an employer?" ... If your a contractor, 6 months or more.

spooneybarger 9y ago

mine is less than 2

notyourwork 9y ago

It depends on how many jobs you've had and how old you are. If you have 3 jobs each being 1 year that would be a red flag. If you have 10 years of experience, 1 job for a year and the other 2 split across 9 years I would be less concerned. An outlier versus a pattern is where I see a bad situation versus a concern for hire. Personally, spending <18 months in a company or on a team doesn't yield enough time to accomplish much. It also doesn't afford you ability to learn from your mistakes and mature.

kstrauser 9y ago
It also highly depends on where you were working. Bouncing between Google and Amazon and Cisco and IBM at 9 month intervals is a pretty big WTF. Going between a few series A startups in the same period of time might be perfectly explainable.
- notyourwork 9y ago
  I would agree with that, my point of reference is from working the last 3 years at one of those and finding lots of mediocre engineers who bounce from team to team or company to company every 12-18 months. They deliver, leave technical debt and move on. Its a facade of a good engineer and its hard to catch until you are the one cleaning up the mess or replacing the mess.
matt_the_bass 9y ago
> Personally, spending <18 months in a company or on a team doesn't yield enough time to accomplish much. It also doesn't afford you ability to learn from your mistakes and mature. This is a great way of explaining why I think lots is short stints reflect poorly.

erichurkman 9y ago

If it's short, put an explanation. If it's contract work, label it as such. "Example, Inc. January 2018 - May 2018 (contract)." If the company folded or otherwise, you may opt to indicate it, or mention in your reach out to the company.

matt_the_bass 9y ago

Depends on context. If someone is a consultant/contractor, short stints are ok. But then have a clear reason why they want to go back to standard employee. If someone has a number of longer stints, then a short one here or there is no big deal. But I want their resume to tell a story. Don’t be afraid of explaining circumstances in a cover letter.

muzani 9y ago
I have this kind of hero syndrome where I like to join dying projects to try to save them. Which means I join a lot of companies for short stints, and most of these projects fail. It's a bit hard to justify in a cover letter without looking defensive.
- cema 9y ago
  So what do you do? How do you win attention of the hiring manager? I am asking because I may have (had) the same problem.

lhorie 9y ago

For me it's 3 or more jobs back to back with <1 yr duration each and irregular durations. Usually, their LinkedIn also boasts being CEO of their own company for an overlapping duration of time.