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

[CRLLS]

I have "changed" jobs 4 times under the guidelines mentioned, only one was involuntary. I've survived some buyouts, mergers and many layoffs, not counting reorgs. I also been part of company shutdowns and division closures. I had a couple of contract jobs and in retirement, helped to form a small sales company. I took no pay there so didn't count it as a change. I did take stock though, which is now paying some handsome dividends. So happy to have all that work thing behind me now.

 

[Stormy Kromer]

One.

I started out working in a small business right out of high school. ( I was offered the job and accepted it during my Sr year ).

I bought the business 3 years later and ran it for 32 years. Sold it and haven't looked for another J*b since.

 

[MarieIG]

From the time I started my "career" (mostly small - one medium) private employers - five.

 

[street]

Started and stayed in one place for 35 years.

 

[Surewhitey]

Not that I've changed jobs, but we've moved a lot. For both of our careers & a 3 year sabbatical... Probably around 8-9 jobs & moving 6 times in 27 years (married lifetime)... Now self employed (PT) for the past 5 years. DW has had around 4...

 

[Texas Proud]

I put mine down but did not include the changes of jobs within Mega...


I had 6 different jobs inside mega and interviewed for all of them.. it was competitive with others... so not a slam dunk...


But even without them I still had 5 with completely different companies... a few not by choice

 

[Venturer]

I put 6 or more,early career 1 or 2 years at time, early 70's you could walk off a job today and be on a new job for a dollar or 2 more next day. Got hired for a truck driving job which lasted 9 years, then worked in a fabrication job 3years till they were going to be unionized and closed the doors and moved out. Then went to work in a Goodyear tire store for 10 years in management,then in management for & retired from a large autoparts company after 25 years.

 

[scrabbler1]

One job from the time I graduated from college (4-year-degree) to when I ERed, 23 years later. That's all.

 

[Exchme]

Just one job change.

Had enough of my first employer after 8 years - the division had a series of layoffs to where it had shrunk in half from when I joined, the demands for unpaid overtime were horrendous, Dilbert's pointed headed boss was the model mine seemed to be trying to emulate.

In one memorable adventure, I got a special assignment to go to a remote site that was having problems and worked 60-90 hour weeks for no extra pay for 9 months straight. The site thanked me profusely for the help. When I got back to the main office it was review time and my boss lowered my rating as he did not take the 9 months at site into account and instead only graded on the random useless tasks he had assigned initially. I asked him if those were important why didn't he reassign them as I was working 60-90 hours weeks at site and he said "I should have done them in my spare time". This from a poser than never gave one minute extra effort - Bye-bye!

A few years later they got bought out and 2/3 of the remaining people were laid off in one big swing of the axe. Glad I wasn't there for that.

Maybe I could have done better on a different path, but also I could have done a lot worse had I tried to tough it out.

 

[jfn111]

I joined mega corp out of college at age 22. I retired 33 years later at age 55.

 

[sparky08]

It took me a few years to find the right job & location.

So, 4 jobs before 35, then the same one until retirement.

 

[O2Bfree]

2 years with one employer, 10 years with the next, 25 with the last.

This is not counting 12 years working part-time in the family business, as I don't consider that part of my career.

 

[aaronc879]

I never had a "professional" job so I guess I can't vote. Am I still allowed to retire early?

 

[Alan]

I had 4 career jobs on leaving High School. The first took me through university, and after graduating I continued working for them for another 18 months, so 5.5 years in total.

The 2nd company I worked for 6 years, the 3rd for 8 years and and the last company for 17 years.

 

[38Chevy454]

6 employer and job changes over 30 primary working years after college, varying from 1.5 to 12.5 years in each job. Two changes were not my choice (one layoff and one company went bankrupt). Each job change also involved moving to a different city. Fortunately all moves were paid by employer as new employee benefit.

I also have a small home based side business that I have now done for 15 years, although it is not the same as my professional engineering career; it's related to my hobby with old cars.

 

[pacergal]

Two.
Even though my income dropped pretty significantly going from private health care to govt.public entity, over long term, I did much better financially with long time in pension program, and I got there before changes were made to funding, so grandfathered in.
38 year career as an RN

 

[mystang52]

I checked every comment; I'm tied with 2 others for the "top" spot: 9

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Excluding pre-college jobs, I changed jobs 8 times. Twice I went back to a previous employer. Once was a change due to an acquisition of the current company. This was in the high tech industry.

 

[Time2]

I don't get to play, never had a profession or career. But had 8 full time 1040 jobs. Mostly doing electrical or electronic repair or assembly.

 

[Milkman]

Counting the job I held on and off from high school until 4 months after graduating from college, I had 7 separate employers. The longest tenures were 23 and 13 years over 41 years following college until retirement.

 

[Texas Proud]

I checked every comment; I'm tied with 2 others for the "top" spot: 9

If you count the job changes I mentioned with the same firm I am up to 11...


They were different jobs, not something that was doing the same work but a different location or department...


And one of those jobs I had I had a LOT of bosses... it was growing at over 100% a year and they kept moving people around.. so in 2 years I had 20 bosses... glad I moved on from that mess...

 

[Free To Canoe]

6+
Nothing to brag about I guess.

 

[athena53]

6+
Nothing to brag about I guess.

Well, maybe it is. As was mentioned earlier, sometimes it's the only way to make quantum leaps and keep your skills sharp.

One of my coworkers took a job in the London office- moved from Kansas City so they must have given him some COL differential especially since he was married with a stay-at-home wife and 4 kids. He lasted less than a year. Came back to the office in KS and must have negotiated no change in compensation because a coworker with very similar credentials, years of experience and work content (they reported to the same guy) found out when HR accidentally directed an e-mail to her that he was making $20K more than she was. She never said anything- didn't want to get the HR person in trouble.

I spent most of my career in the NYC/NNJ area and if I had it to do over again I'd have changed more often.

 

[GalaxyBoy]

I had nine employers over 35 years. Mostly I jumped to get more money, once I was laid off, once or twice to escape toxic bosses, and at least once to voluntarily change cities. If you add in companies getting bought, going bankrupt then becoming a “new” company, changing names, etc., well, I probably can’t count that high. Not to mention that I worked many one or two year stints seconded to clients at their offices or job sites which would add another bunch of “jobs” not meeting the criteria of this poll.

 

[PointBreeze]

8 employers in 30 years. Five different industries. I was a software engineer for 4-5 of them, a CIO for 2-3, and a VP in Higher Ed at the last.