A few decades ago the idea of working for the same company for a long period of time—sometimes your entire professional life—was commonly seen as good. The idea was that companies were responsible for people’s professional careers.
This has changed. We now know that when it comes to our career we should manage it in a way that we maximize the results as we move forward.
So far no problem, right? Well, sort of. I think this “responsibility” of taking care of one’s career without anyone’s “support” has caused so much anxiety in some professionals that we’re now seeing a generation of “job-hoppers” with chopped resumes and periods of 1 to 2 years on average with each company. And this is not good either.
So what would the ideal length of time?
As far as I’m concerned, discussing only how long a person stays in the same job is as absurd as saying that a movie is good or bad based on its length. When someone recommends you an awesome movie do you ask how long it is? There are great movies that are longer than 4 hours and amazing short 16-minute films. What really matters? What drives you to recommend the movie? Obviously it’s what the movie adds to your life, the message it conveys and how it impacts viewers.
I guess we can borrow the same analogy for careers. There are 10-year careers with the same company that includes several very well managed 1-to-2-year projects while there are other professionals who work for the same company for 18 years with great success.
The important thing is to look at the complete career cycle in each job one has had. A complete career cycle means one has gathered major lessons from each stage. Simply put, I’d say that a complete cycle goes through 3 stages:
1) Initial success, or "Beginner’s Luck ";
2) Cycle of ordeals, or "Pitiful Cycle ";
3) Evidence of success (when you finally find your way around and show what you’re capable of)
Then you’ve completed the entire cycle!!
You don’t have to exit a company after each complete cycle, but leaving in the middle of it is not a nice thing.
And how do we know in which stage of the cycle we’re at? It’s not very easy, I’ll admit, but here’s a tip. When considering a new professional opportunity, think about what’s actually making you stay or not in your current job.
If the reason is the seemingly endless difficulties, remember that you might be going through the "Pitiful Cycle". If you think the execution of your plan seems impossible you might be going through the last stage of the cycle, which is about showing what you’re really capable of achieving.
Such reflection is worth going through because it takes away the immediacy and emotion out of your decision process. By thinking it through you’ll discover your drivers and the “answers” that you’re searching for your career. And of course, there’s always an ideal job for EVERY kind of profile in the market.
The ideal length of time for someone to remain with the same company is the one in which you’ll experience continuous development, achieve your goals, and more importantly, be happy at work. If it happens in 1 or 16 years it’ll depend on each one’s career cycle.
Good luck!
