Job-Hopping Millennials

Millennials consider job-hopping as an opportunity to climb the ladder in today’s rapidly growing economy. This trend is in fact rising in the millennial workforce. A survey by Indeed, a global job site states that 56 per cent of employees have changed their jobs at least once in the last 16 months and thrice in the last three to 10 years. With an aim to understand the mindset of employers and millennials, we spoke to experts to unravel the answers.

Giving us an understanding about how long is appropriate to work in a firm is Malathi Shetty the co founder and partner of DRIVN solutions. She says, “The biggest problem I see in millennials is the fact that they do not give clarity during the hiring process and the second and biggest issue is job hopping. It is essential for an employee to stick to a firm for at least three years before they plan to change jobs. The best way is to climb the ladder within the firm and then take a leap. But, I believe that everyone needs to change after a good five years in an organisation or you tend to become stagnant.”

It entirely depends on the stage of the organisation and the job role requirement says Vieshaka L Dutta, is a Senior HR professional and Inclusion specialist. She says, “A few years ago the scenario in the IT industry was such that IT services were budding and people kept hopping jobs even with a good pay. Now, the situation is the same because of the start ups wave, since they are mostly funded well, they do not hesitate to pay candidates a high salaries. In such a situation, start ups don’t look for candidates based on their sustainability, they rather focus on talent and flexibility.”

Throwing light on the hiring process in well established firms she adds, “When companies are ramping up they tend to follow the market rates while paying candidates. In such stable organisations, they look for candidates that are reliable. However, this again doesn’t apply to junior posts. This rather implies to candidates who are being hired for managerial roles. Hence in such cases, job role plays a pivotal factor.”

Binay Sarkar a Product Marketer in a leading Multi national company says, “In today’s fast moving world, I believe we can safely put the argument that youngsters changing jobs is completely motivated by financial gains to rest. We are not afraid to take the plunge from a top brand to a booming startup. The major reason is we thrive on challenges and responsibilites and have that zeal to climb up the corporate ladder much faster than say, the previous generation. They are no more content to spend more than a certain amount of years in an organisation if they feel their careers are stagnating. Add to it, increases responsibilities, more visibility.

In the present scenario, more than ever, skillsets and competencies are of utmost importance. At the end of the day, what matters is learning. And currently, a little healthy chaos in the system(rather than set systems and structures) is what all we crave for. We have the appetite to take risks and fail. Heck, even organisations these days prefer more rounded indiviuals with exposure to varied industries. And make no mistake, this trend is here to stay.