Length of Service

Pross

I've just changed jobs after just under 18 years with my previous employer and it got me wondering how long people generally stay with a single employer these days. I see a lot of CVs where, at first glance, I assume the person is highly experienced as they will have a long list of past employers but a closer look shows most of these to be less than 2 or 3 years. My own employment history up to starting my new role was three employers in 26.5 years (and one of those only lasted 6 months). Seeing people with so many jobs lasting such a short time instantly marks them down when I'm looking for new staff but I'm beginning to wonder if that's just the way of the world in today's job market.

pblakeney

37 consecutive years working.
No more than 4 years at any one job. Mostly my choice, but redundant 7 times.

scottishgeek

I tend to spend around 8 to 10 years in a job. The only exception to that was my very first one when I got made redundant after 6 years.

kajjal

To begin with i changed job frequently to get more experience and better pay. Used to drive my father over the edge as he was used to the job for life view of things when people tended not to move around so much. Since then i have been with the same company about 15 years in various roles.

Today's job market is very different to the past and a good team needs new blood on a regular basis or it can get stuck in its ways. The area i am in now ranges from late twenties to early sixties, mostly around 40ish.

bbrap

36 years with the same employer but probably over 20 different roles. Retired early.

Stevo_666

It is the way of the world to some extent but generally as you get older your job tenure gets longer. Also it depends on whether you need someone to stay for a long time - if not then don't necessarily mark them down for it.

I'm on job number 8 after just over 28 years in work including a year out for a career break a short while back. Shortest one lasted just over 6 months (take over/redundancy); longest 5.5 years. Generally moved to advance the career or get more money.

Pross

The thing I find is that they are quite often on the same grade after 4 or 5 jobs which suggests they are either moving solely for money or aren't being discouraged from moving on.

ddraver

I don't know how similar the oil industry is to yours Pross but usually the companies are clustered around particular places so that a change of job is effectively just a change in commute. Plus the larger companies will move people around every 3 years. So if you imagine you work for Shell and you ve had a good 3 years in The Hague, London or Houston (or wherever) and then they want to move you to Siberia (genuinely a potential) or wherever, if you can get a job in the Total office next door you may choose to do that. You ll probably also get yourself a bigger pay rise than staying in the same place in Shell would have got you. So it ends up being quite common to move companies after 3 or maybe 5/6 years

It's even more true now there are people like Rick who will do almost everything for you, and you just have to turn up for the interview...

(none of this is true at the moment obviously, everyone is just sh1t scared...)

Stevo_666

Pross wrote:

The thing I find is that they are quite often on the same grade after 4 or 5 jobs which suggests they are either moving solely for money or aren't being discouraged from moving on.

What I have found when recruiting is that a fair proportion of people who fit that fact pattern are not that good - otherwise they might have been able to go up the grades.

ddraver

The flip side of that (and I don't know what pross does so this may not be relevant) is that there arent any grades to move up. For example, a promotion for me is my boss's job which is 100% management/sales and doesnt involve actually looking at rocks at all. Which is what I did 2 degrees to do...

BelgianBeerGeek

I woudn't worry about it. I have now been the longest time in this current job and I left school 28 years ago. For the record, I am a Civil Servant. I am not sticking with this because it's ace, it suits me now.
Work pays bills, and puts food in the cupboard. That's it.

Stevo_666

ddraver wrote:

The flip side of that (and I don't know what pross does so this may not be relevant) is that there arent any grades to move up. For example, a promotion for me is my boss's job which is 100% management/sales and doesnt involve actually looking at rocks at all. Which is what I did 2 degrees to do...

That sort of thing is down to grade/career structures in specific industries. I was assuming that there were higher grades in the OP's case.

In your case, you're just saying that there is a next grade up but is very different from what you do - and sounds like you just don't want that. Each to their own, but career advancement is always worth considering.

kingstonian

I'm with my 5th employer - in order 2 yrs, 4 yrs, 2 yrs, 10 yrs and now just over a yr with my current one. Had a yr out to do an MBA before the 10 yr stint.

bikes`n`guns

32 yrs working. 23 yrs with my first employer and 9 with the current. Although I did have a little 5 day hiccup a few years back. (headhunted by liars )

rick_chasey

Varies a lot from industry to industry but as a general rule, if people move around a lot it looks bad, if they're lifers it's not that attractive either.


Also people look at when you were where. So if you say, survived and did well in structured credit during the crash that counts.

DDraver I would argue the same now for O&G.

Pross

ddraver wrote:

The flip side of that (and I don't know what pross does so this may not be relevant) is that there arent any grades to move up. For example, a promotion for me is my boss's job which is 100% management/sales and doesnt involve actually looking at rocks at all. Which is what I did 2 degrees to do...

I'm in a similarish field, civil engineering consultancy. It is an issue that as you go up the food chain you end up doing less of the work you trained for and get sucked more and more into management and 'business development'. I still get a chance at quite a high grade to do a decent amount of technical work but if I get involved in the real hands on stuff the fee budgets get blown. In my last job I managed to progress up 5 grades in a fairly small company which is why I sceptical of people who have to move elsewhere to progress, it makes me wonder why their current employer isn't seeing their potential. That said, in a smaller company there's obviously a bit of a case of waiting on dead men's shoes the further up you go. I think the upsurge in recruitment consultants also plays a part, I've had a bit of experience of recruiters calling people up more or less as soon as the payback period ends and trying to tap them up for another move. They obviously make no money in a static employment market.

mamba80

For me, progression is management only and ime come job cuts, they r the ones that get culled, i love the technical side and management just would cut it, out side of a tech support role, which i do within a small team now.

but after 30 years in IT/voice in many forms and 20 years of continuous service (with a few TUPE transfers) i feel a change coming on .... maybe Accountancy ????? lol!

Frank the tank

I am in my 39th year of employment with a leading aero engine manufacturer who's name is a byword for excellence.

bbrap

The key to all this is to be on a final salary pension scheme (sadly now closed to almost everyone), do the job you like (or don't hate too much) for most of your career and then take the management/bullshit job for the last couple of years to boost the pension up to a liveable level. Given the way things are now, retiring will be a pipe dream for a lot of younger (and some older) people unless you are prepared to put away a lot more than in the past. Sad that many now see us retired folk as an undeserving bunch who have opportunities they do not (which may have an element of truth). But, given most people seem to think that it is their right to have whatever is being touted as the latest must have, and that saving/going without as we did to become financially secure is not their idea fun due to their overpowering sense of entitlement. The only growth industry at the moment seems to be laziness and stupidity, if you want something work for it, don't begrudge those that have gone through hardships to get in the position they are now in because you want it for free.

mrfpb

My longest time with one employer was for nine years, during which time I had five different roles. Only left due to needing to move halfway across the country for family reasons. Before that I had lots of jobs for less than two years at a time. I've been three years with my current employer, and happy to stay there.

byke68

Nine years next month but can't see myself here for much longer.

schlepcycling

I think it also varies by job role. I work in the airline industry in IT and did 12 years with BA before moving on, but many engineers, pilots and cabin crew work their entire careers with one company.

keef66

4 years
3 years
10 years
18 years despite 1 merger and 1 takeover
I'm sticking with this job as long as they'll keep me; package / pension is as good as I'll ever get. I'll get a long service award in 2 years! Then hopefully they'll be looking for volunteers for redundancy / early retirement

chris_bass

I spent a bit less then 4 and a half years at my first job, a bit less than 3 and a half years at my second and have been in my current job a bit less than 2 and a half years and have just started contacting recruiters.

Not sure i like where this is headed!!!

confused@BR

Made redundant eight years ago to the day @ sixty one and a half years of age I was never going to get another job as a valuer of housing and was too old to be worth re-training. As you age your attraction to a possible employer diminishes, will he know more than me?/ stuck in his ways/ medical conditions/ difficult to manage? My last director had a problem with older staff, not just me and seemed ill at ease in our company. Not really a conscious matter as he was generally OK but much younger than many of us. We didn't mind as we didn't fancy all the running around he had to do, he didn't know that though.

The last job lasted eighteen years as change and upheaval in life become progressively less attractive.

earth

5 employers since 1998, longest employment 9 years.

The problem is all the tiny pensions you collect. The way it should work is when you join a company you should be able to give them an account number and sort code and they should make the relevant deductions from your salary and pay then into that account just as they do with your salary. The account will be for a pension scheme of your choice that is administered by a third party pensions provider that is regulated to ensure they are above board. Then all your contributions would go to the same place and you don't have to keep track of all the micro pensions you have.

Ironically I now work for a pensions administrator and they are making half my department redundant.

chris_bass

earth wrote:

5 employers since 1998, longest employment 9 years.

The problem is all the tiny pensions you collect. The way it should work is when you join a company you should be able to give them an account number and sort code and they should make the relevant deductions from your salary and pay then into that account just as they do with your salary. The account will be for a pension scheme of your choice that is administered by a third party pensions provider that is regulated to ensure they are above board. Then all your contributions would go to the same place and you don't have to keep track of all the micro pensions you have.

Ironically I now work for a pensions administrator and they are making half my department redundant.

why not set up a personal pension and transfer all the pensions into that when you leave a company?

I used to work as a pensions administrator (my first job) who do you work for?

Grifteruk

15 years with one employer for me, but thinking of moving after several false promises of late and the feeling that no matter how much you progress in one place some people still treat you like the trainee/subordinate.

I don't think people changing employer should necessarily be seen as negative, its all about circumstance and being clear about the reasons (good or bad).

earth

Chris Bass wrote:

earth wrote:

5 employers since 1998, longest employment 9 years.

The problem is all the tiny pensions you collect. The way it should work is when you join a company you should be able to give them an account number and sort code and they should make the relevant deductions from your salary and pay then into that account just as they do with your salary. The account will be for a pension scheme of your choice that is administered by a third party pensions provider that is regulated to ensure they are above board. Then all your contributions would go to the same place and you don't have to keep track of all the micro pensions you have.

Ironically I now work for a pensions administrator and they are making half my department redundant.

why not set up a personal pension and transfer all the pensions into that when you leave a company?

I used to work as a pensions administrator (my first job) who do you work for?

JLT but I don't actually do the administration, I work in the department that develops the software used to do the administration. Nobody seems to interested in sharing the knowledge so despite working for JLT pensions are still largely a mystery to me. I am currently facing a no win situation of either being made redundant, due to JLT's alleged poor performance last year, or worse still - I keep my job

crispybug2

Been with my current employer for twenty two years, but for the first thirteen years of my employed life I never worked at a job for more than two years. I think in my early years I was a bit of a dreamer and didn't really have my head screwed on properly but my current employment coincided with marrying my first wife and becoming a dad for the first time.
Some of my friends accuse me of lacking ambition, which is probably a fair enough statement, but I enjoy my job and I consider that to be worth a lot!!

ilovegrace

38 years same place different job roles , Council Housing then transferred to a Housing Association .
Ooohh the things I have seen !!
regards
ILG