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Hi all:

  I would appreciate your input on this question.  Two recruiters have indicated to me that too much time with a single company is not a good thing. 

  I have been with one company my entire professional career (14 years) and have had steady progress through the ranks (am now in middle management).  I have been speaking with recruiters recently as I entertain ideas of moving and two recruiters have suggested that even though I've been successful, I haven't been able to demonstrate that I can be successful in any other organizations and therefore this is a nonplus.

  I'd appreciate your perspectives.

 

flexiblefine's picture

Yes, there's a cast for that: Multiple Jobs in One Company and Your Resume.

I don't recall all the specifics, but as long as you can show growth over your years at the company, you're doing what you can. You can't change the past. Maybe you can find some recruiters that don't start by casting doubt on you.

I have similar concerns about being in one place forever. I'm coming up on 12 years in the same company -- and worse yet, with the same job/position/title for the whole time.

flexiblefine
Houston, Texas, USA
DiSC: 1476

jib88's picture

Ignore what you are hearing from the recruiters. It's not helpful, and not something that you can change anyway. Saying that your successes don't count because they were all at the same company is ridiculous.

If your path to your present position took you through different departments as you moved around the company then you can point to that as a level of organizational diversity you have experienced. If your path took you straight up the line then you can point to that as a significant achievement, as that's usually a much more difficult or unlikely path. Either way, you have experienced a lot of success and you should be proud of that.

You do need to think about your experience and how you want to represent that to other people. I don't look at your situation as inherently bad,  but I also don't see it as necessarily positive either. A lot will depend on the person making that judgement and what they are expecting in an external candidate. In truth, there are pros and cons for either type of job history. You just need to be prepared to talk about the growth you have experienced and positive aspects of your journey. 

-Jib

 

42blue's picture

I appreciate you taking the time to offer your input.  It's definetly a subjective thing to evaluate and I'll have to hope that recruiters and future employers can look beyond the initial impression to what I've done within my roles.

-Cheers

42blue's picture

I appreciate you taking the time to offer your input.  It's definetly a subjective thing to evaluate and I'll have to hope that recruiters and future employers can look beyond the initial impression to what I've done within my roles.

-Cheers

edzaun's picture

 Hi 42Blue,

There are two aspects of this that pop out at me. In the first place, if your current career path is taking you where you want to be in terms of compensation and challenges then you are on the right path. It is harder to move up in a company you have been with for a long time because they tend to remember your mistakes and failures, a situation you do not have with a new company. In the second place, I would consider the motives of recruiters who probably stand to gain something by convincing you to change companies. Who are they trying to help?

Some jobs are better served by people who have been doing them for a time despite popular opinion that one must move around to "broaden one's skills." I manage maintenance projects on process equipment and I have been at the same plant (albeit with 4 different companies) for 22 years. These projects have intervals between 2 and 7 years. Without the institutional memory I have in my plant, new people make rookie mistakes I avoid without thinking about the matter. It is impractical to record everything that happens in a 50 day, 470,000 man-hour project and impossible to absorb that data if it existed so new people are at a distinct disadvantage and the learning curve is steep. You have to learn some things by doing them and lessons from history we learn best from falling flat on our faces.

If you are happy in what you are doing there is no reason to change. If you want to change companies, accentuate what you were able to do within the organization you have been in but change companies because you want to do so for new challenges or because you have hit a dead end where you are and not because it is recommended or the popular thing to do.

 

Ed Zaun

DiSC Profile 7-3-1-2

altadel's picture
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A recruiter says someone at one company for an extended period of time is bad? Hmm. Perhaps because that person didn't contribute to the recruiter's bottom line? Moving up in one company is not a bad thing, and neither is an extended time in one position if you're able to document results.

Scott Delinger

DiSC: 5137

screaminscott's picture

I've been at the same company for 20+ years, at pretty much the same title for most of them.  But then I work in I.T., so my job changes every couple of years as we upgrade our systems and I have to learn new technology.

I have heard that hiring managers might have concerns about a candidate's adaptability, so all you need to do is address that issue in an interview.  Show how you have adapted to new challenges at work and you will help allay any concerns.