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Changing jobs gives you a broader base of experience: After about three years, you’ve learned most of what you’re going to know about how to do your job. Therefore, over a ten year period, you gain more experience from “three times 90 percent” than “one times 100 percent.”
Many professionals stay within their current employer organizations due to some false sense of security or loyalty. Many of these same professionals may have very justifiable reasons to do so, however many others will never know simply due to their careers being managed by such emotions as fear of change, personal loyalties or an inherent need for security. The laws of business dictate that your employer run the organization efficiently and profitably. An employer must make decisions that concern the overall health and welfare of the organization, not individual interests. You as a professional should also view your career as an entity or organization that needs to be run efficiently and profitably. You have to view yourself as an enterprise within a vast market of employers that need your services. From this premise, we believe there are many deeply personal reasons to change your employment situation. We recommend that such change be made with much thought, study and introspection. From a purely strategic point of view, there are four good reasons to change jobs within the same (or similar) industry three times during your first ten years of employment:Changing jobs gives you a broader base of experience: After about three years, you’ve learned most of what you’re going to know about how to do your job. Therefore, over a ten year period, you gain more experience from “three times 90 percent” than “one times 100 percent.”
A more varied background creates a greater demand for your skills: Depth of experience means you’re more valuable to a larger number of employers. You’re not only familiar with your current company’s product, service, procedures, quality programs, inventory system, and so forth; you bring with you the expertise you’ve gained from your prior employment with other companies.
A job change results in an accelerated promotion cycle: Each time you make a change, you bump up a notch on the promotion ladder. You jump, for example, from project engineer to senior project engineer; or national sales manager to vice president of sales and marketing.
More responsibility leads to greater earning power: A promotion is usually accompanied by a salary increase. And since you’re being promoted faster, your salary grows at a quicker pace.
Many people view a job change as a way of promoting themselves to a better position. And in most cases, we would agree. However, you should always be sure your new job offers you the means to satisfy your values and career goals. While there’s no denying the strategic virtues of selective job changing for the purpose of career leverage, you want to make sure the path you take will lead you where you really want to go. For instance, there’s no reason to change jobs for more money if it’ll make you unhappy to the point of distraction. In fact, we have found that money usually has no influence on a career decision unless it materially affects your lifestyle or self-identity. We believe that the “best” job is one in which your values and goals are being satisfied most effectively. If career growth and advancement are your primary goals, and they’re represented by how much you earn, then the job that pays the most money is the “better” job.