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I'd like to hear the comments from this group about a recent article I read on BNET.

The article title is the subject and can be found at

http://blogs.bnet.com/career-advice/?p=811&tag=nl.e713

The author Penelope Trunk is the founder of three startups, most recently Brazen Careerist, a professional social network for young people. Previously she worked in marketing at Fortune 500 companies including Mattel and Hyundai.

I have read other things from her in the past, and Mark and Mike really spread the field on her when it comes to career advise.

JHB "00"

 

MsSunshine's picture

BLUF: It's never that easy to rule people in or out for hiring them!  You can use it if you like.  You may get some winners.  You may lose some great people.  It may not actually even matter.

BUT...you need to understand your business, what strengths you need, how a person would interact with the people you already have...  I personally aim for a group of people with different strengths to complement each other.  So, I'd want some of the energy, really up-to-the-minute skills, ... that a job hopper might have.  On the other hand, the newest technology isn't always the best thing...sometimes simpler is better.  Sometimes knowing what's been tried before or having tried other things helps.  In IT, you often have to do non-glamorous things like maintenance because it pays the bills.  Or knowing the customer could be important and that can be hard if you are always switching.  But switching may expose you to something you could share that we could do differently... 

It's actually been interesting to follow the origins of this discussion.  It started with this tweet: http://twitter.com/Jason/status/12621363849  You can google "job hoppers" and see a slew of blogs over the last month on both sides.  Here's a counter point:  http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-suster-never-hire-job-hoppers-never-... I can see points in all the arguments.  But I disagree with others.  I am not a person who has job hopped so I'm probably biased there too.  In my experiences, I felt that after 2 years people may have thought they knew it all but knew just enough to be dangerous.  (It's like my 18 year old son thinking he can drive just as well as I can after 2 years.  Sometimes experience is REALLY helpful.  But other time the quick reaction time is important too!)