Poll:How Many Times Did You Change Employers In Your Career?

[Midpack]

Just bonafide career changes please.

Please don’t count promotions within a company, part time jobs, summer jobs or gig jobs - full time (professional) jobs. Maybe how many times did you have to find a new job with a new company in your career, go through a competitive hiring situation.

If your company was sold, and you stayed in the same job/location I would not count that (e.g. I started with Megacorp but my division was sold to a private firm - so I didn’t change jobs or locations - I’d count that as 0).

Generations ago working for one company your entire career wasn’t unheard of as you know. Now that’s very unlikely for private sector careers at least, maybe less so in the public sector? Was just watching a Clark Howard video on the subject.

 

[Qs Laptop]

If your company was sold, and you stayed in the same job/location I would not count that (e.g. I started with Megacorp but my division was sold to a private firm - so I didn’t change jobs or locations). Maybe how many times did you have to find a new job with a new company in your career.

Please don’t count part time jobs, summer jobs or gig jobs - full time jobs.

Generations ago working for one company your entire career wasn’t unheard of as you know. Now that’s very unlikely for private sector careers at least, maybe less so in the public sector? Was just watching a Clark Howard video on the subject.

Just once. I worked for MegaCorp for 11 years. I left to start my own business and have been running it ever since (1989.)

 

[MRG]

I had 4 employers in my life. I spent 29 years at my last employer.

 

[Sojourner]

I changed employers once. Went from my first full-time job to my final full-time job, and 16 years later decided to semi-ER. I did some other work after that, but it was all consulting, part time, "easing into full retirement"-type stuff.

 

[Car-Guy]

Just once after I finished school. 2 Mega Corps = 1 career for me. .

 

[bobandsherry]

Had the same employer for my entire 35 year career, surviving 8 mergers and acquisitions, went from small local bank where I started part-time while going to school to largest in the US. What a ride.

 

[Dtail]

Worked for 7 companies. Length of time ranged from 1.5 years to 9.5 years.

 

[jollystomper]

Same employer from a summer college internship before senior year through a 39 year career. Every time I thought about changing, something would happen to show me that, for my situation, the grass was still greener on this side .

 

[Luvtoride]

3 times in my career.
I just retired from my last job/ employer that I was with for almost 34 years.
I consider myself very fortunate to have had so few job changes in my career.

 

[xlf11]

3 in 24 years

 

[Yipper]

5 total since college with the current one 27 years

 

[W2R]

I didn't read the initial post carefully at first! Oops. I thought it meant any full time jobs so I voted for 6, but I should have voted 1, for 2 full time career jobs.

First job was a challenging research faculty position at LSU ("Assistant Professor, Research" - - I was SO thrilled to get that title, with a brand new PhD!). But it was what's known as a soft money position, which meant that my pay had to come out of research grants that I was awarded. Always had enough to pay myself, but who wants to live like that.

Then, after a little less than 3 years, I faced reality, figured out what I really wanted, and took a federal job for the stability and benefits.

 

[latexman]

I was sold twice, so 44 years with one Megacorp (at a time).

 

[skyking1]

As a union operating engineer I don't fit with your poll criteria as many jobs are short or seasonal. It is all gig work. I have been on the last gig 3 plus years though

I have done a few different careers over the years, and some concurrent with the union gig.

 

[rodi]

Since graduating college - 3 employers***

*** unless you count when the company was sold, spun off, merged, acquired. My paychecks changed to the new employers... sometimes 401k changed, sometimes not. Pension was effected. But my work, coworkers, desk, etc all stayed the same (except for when I relocated states within the same company.)

*** If you count the mergers/spinoffs/acquisitions/etc that 3rd employer becomes 5 separate employers over the course of almost 20 years bringing my total to 7.

 

[easysurfer]

0.

Name changes weren't from me job hopping but from megacorp reorganizing. But technically, I was a lifer.

 

[imjustawarrior]

Received a scholarship from a company, then interned with them, then worked with them my entire career of 31 years. I was sold twice, but I basically kept the same job the entire time.

I did not count my 4 years in the Army before college.

 

[pb4uski]

3 employer changes

3 years, 6 years, 12 years, 14 years

The 6 year one was in two different divisions in a Fortune 500 company... 3 years in each division.

 

[Toast]

Over a 34 year career, I’ve worked for 9 companies. Job changes were typically for career advancement. Length of employment ranges from under a year to over a decade. I’m still working but plan to retire from this employer in the next year or two.

 

[CardsFan]

Did not count my co-op job, though it was with the same employer for 4 years (6 months per year).

So, 3 career employers total. 3, 7, 28 years.

The last one had so many different ownership changes, I lost count, but I am pretty sure is was at least 7. My job never changed, and the ones around me only changed a little.

 

[prudent_one]

Counting only actual "career" type jobs, just 1.

 

[brett]

6

But the last one was 25 years.

 

[Morgan22]

8 different employers. My stays ranged from 1 year to 17 years at the different companies.

Oops, 9 now that I think about it more. I had one employer that I figured out early, that it just wasn't going to work out. So I quit after a month or two. No notice either. My direct boss was just a downright mean person.

 

[tominboise]

I had a few employers before I went professional, but after I went professional, only 4. The big airplane company - laid off.
Small printing press company - quit to go back to the big airplane company when they were hiring again.
The big airplane company again - quit to relocate to smaller town in Idaho.
The big locomotive company - laid off.
The other big locomotive company - Laid off during covid and retired.

Professional working career was 30 years.

 

[athena53]

Seven, and that doesn't count a couple of jobs where the company was acquired but I stayed on.

Only the first move was a "fun" change (and it was definitely a better opportunity). Of the rest, one was after being downsized, one was a small consulting firm that imploded, and the rest, including ER, I saw the handwriting on the wall (toxic politics, job duties dwindling) and got out on my own terms. It sounds pretty dismal but every time moved there were aspects of the new job that were much better than where I'd been previously.