Pros and Cons of frequent Job change

Over the last 10 years, I worked for four different companies. The two first ones were for one year each. I remained with the third one for 8 years, but in three different positions.

I've been working for the last one for four months, and I'm still in the "all new - all good" phase.

I think it's important to precise at this point that the description above describes all of my professional life. There were various reasons behind these changes. I was not really happy in the first one. The second one was a one-year contract. It was supposed to be renewed, but the next contract came too late, I already had found something else.

The three positions within the third company were in different fields of the same activity. They also corresponded to a move from simple collaborator to "project manager" - even if I don't like this wording.

The last change was because that company was no longer matching my expectations. Not that it was doing anything wrong, but the way of working slowly changed, and was no more compatible with my personal views.

Given the significant amount of time spent working, I'm convinced that having a job one likes is of paramount importance. After all, working in the second most frequent activity in our lives after sleeping.

Changing job is also the best way to get a better salary, particularly if you change employer as well. Even if it's not politically correct to mention that during interviews, it's well known that young professionals can increase their income significantly when changing job.

If you stay in the same position, there are not so many opportunities to ask for more money. The gained experience is probably the best argument, but many "salary system" are simple variants of "salary locks". Frequent changes in the begin of a career are well accepted, as long as they don't interveine at too short interval.

My personal limit is one year. Anything below looks suspicious.

Whatever the experience level of a new employee, it will never be productive or beneficial for the first couple of months. Adaptation to local usages and training cost a lot of time and money.

Making the wrong decision when selecting a new employee can cost a lot and have strong consequences, so the selection processes tend to get more and more refined.

A resumé that shows many changes can give an impression of instability, that is not good sign regarding the future. If yours is so, you'd better have good explanations ready. Avoid things like "I saw that the company's future was not good", you would look like the guy leaving the ship at the first negative sign.