Should You Keep Switching Jobs For Hikes? (Hint: NO!)

0:01 three switches 35,000 to 90,000 in just 2 years this switch will take me to 1 lakh 20 at the least so Aran tell me about your career so far so I started working as a data analyst at TC Infoch and then later moved to a startup bread and recently I've been working as a decisions analyst associate at a consultancy firm so when are you planning to leave this company this was Arian arian is 22 and has already switched three jobs arian is a part of the Gen Z who collectively are bringing down the average job tenure among Indian employees nearly nine out of every 10 surveyed professionals are looking to switch their jobs in 2025

0:47 which is very different from the yester years where you retire in the same company that you joined as a 20some today 54% of employees are actively looking for their next opportunity and 34% are not actively looking but will make that switch if they get that opportunity 48% of employees have already disengaged after 6 months of work only and the younger the employee the sooner they switch when asked why do you want to switch jobs the answers looked like this why do you want to switch jobs i did not like the culture of my old company i want to explore other domains for opportunities and to learn new skills i want to start my own company and uh I think the experience I'm going to gain here will be very valuable

1:32 so when are you planning to leave this company okay forget that let's bring it back why did you leave your previous company to earn more money more money 63% reveal their reason for switching as money and it seems like a fair expectation your average salary increases when switching jobs is shown to be considerably more versus when you stay with your current employer except that there is a problem that arises with all this excessive job switching that the average job hopper is just not aware of until they have to face this thank you for your time Arin but I can't hire you for every Arian that wants to make just one more switch there is a hiring manager not wanting to hire him anymore

2:18 and sure money or sometimes brand value or even FOMO might be the prime motivator for all the job hopping but there is scope for nuance here that most young folks miss and more importantly there is a threat to their long-term careers that they are very clearly overlooking so when is the right time to make a job switch should you decide bases your personal needs or market conditions and how often should you switch jobs my name is Lavina Kamut and here's the full [Music] disclosure we're very excited to be a part of the Zerodha Media Network together Zerodha and we will bring you wellressearched videos on careers

3:03 different industries and the evolving job market of India let me start by stating upront that this is not a video telling you not to switch jobs at all that's the other extreme to avoid this is about how you win the career game long term cuz if you switch jobs every 6 months you will seem unreliable and if you stay at the same role for several years without growing you will definitely be perceived as unskilled so if you truly want to compound your leverage and success there is a strategic way to switch jobs and find the correct balance let's understand exactly how first of all understand that getting a job is a perception game and there are two aspects to this how the candidate presents themselves and how the employer

3:48 perceives their candidature the candidate has the CV or the resume or their LinkedIn profile that paints a picture of them the employer receives this picture among many others and has to decide which one to buy note here that it's not as much about skills at this point as it is about synergy and compatibility you could have a very good painting but some other painting might look better on their walls anyways that's just me being unnecessarily metaphorical so it all comes down to this the story that the candidate is presenting and the metrics that the company values in most cases it is loyalty but I'll come to that later let me start with the candidates's perspective well every job that you take up has to be able to help you learn earn or upturn by learn I mean the job should

4:34 be able to teach you industry skills that you otherwise might not get like you could practice your SQL queries with dummy data but sifting through actual messy data to derive insights is a skill you learn only on the job similarly with all other profiles be it sales marketing or even HR next the job should help you earn and I don't mean just any amount of money for your service provided it should be a sum that helps you pay rent have three meals and then save some any amount below that means the job is not helping you earn and of course your minimum acceptable threshold should increase as you gain more years of experience and your standard of living increases and finally the job should help you upturn we mentioned the learn earn upturn framework in our negotiation video as well and a lot of you were confused as to what it meant so upturn

5:21 is a leverage that that specific company could provide you it could be a networking opportunity the tag of a brand like Google or a very specific skill set that only that particular company can provide you so now think of this framework like a game where you can actually accumulate points on each pillar there will be roles like the ones at large M andC's where you may earn decent but won't get a lot of upturn or learning opportunities then there could be a role at a startup where you may or may not earn a lot but you will definitely learn at a super fast rate or you could work at Google where you'll definitely get all three and free food your goal as you switch jobs should be to increase the total of the three pillars but as you continue to switch jobs through your career there emerges a pattern on your resume which the

6:06 employer is keenly observing for the employer the framework is slightly different they look for skills definitely be it managerial or technical which corresponds to the employees learn pillar then they look for cost the price for which they can get you and the lower the cost the better your candidature this corresponds to your earn pillar do you notice at this stage that as you try to maximize your earn column you start becoming more and more undesirable to the business it'll be important later the third pillar that most candidates overlook but the employer looks out for is the number of years you stay with the company on average or for lack of a better term your loyalty and they have very good reasons to do so your career history should paint a positive picture to the employer and each switch of yours should communicate an intention a

6:52 motivation it cannot be random because that is a massive red flag for the employer the hopper usually ignores all of this and keeps maximizing just one column for themselves which is the earn column which bloats their price way above the market rate while ignoring their learn column or the skills column for the employer all the while making these switches so frequently that eventually they start to lose their credibility points switching jobs too often can make it harder for employers to take your profile seriously at the end of the day landing a job comes down to two things how you present yourself and how your application is received whether you're a designer a marketeer or in any field a well-crafted personal website will set you apart from the

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9:11 but can you at least let me know what the reason is so that I can improve being a job hopper or being perceived as a job hopper is essentially the same problem that of credibility and you need to solve it for two people your potential employer so they can take that bet on you and yourself so you don't push yourself into a corner when the employer is looking for the number of years there is a very good reason for it like mentioned earlier your resume is their only window to your relevance for the role and if you're a job hopper your resume will look something like this this scene here is just for dramatic purposes by the way there's usually never an interview or such long conversations i'll take just one look at the resume and decide and most times I

9:58 won't even see any rum at is going to do that for me what this communicates to the employer is that you're overpriced for your skill level you have probably not accumulated enough skills to begin with because you don't stick with the role long enough to learn anything and you'll most likely do the same here why should I hire you at the start of your career you're expected to perform repetitive operational and low stakes tasks this is universally true at this stage it's still fine if you've made a couple switches that's forgiven generally maybe the candidate was trying to find his footing i was still exploring at that time and you're still exploring but something changes after the initial few years you're expected to step up into managerial and strategic roles

10:44 roles which require experience of working in a team experience which is a function of the time spent at a company every time you switch jobs too quickly you risk being seen as unreliable future employers may hesitate to give you responsibilities worried that you will not stick around long enough to see the project through it's not just about the skills you gain it's about the trust you build over time real mastery comes from seeing a project through from start to finish but when you hop jobs you get only a slice of each role you miss out on building deep expertise and don't have the chance to work closely with mentors who could guide you to your next level the candidate being at the lowest hierarchal level at the time may not realize it then but their new employer does that there's no way he knows how to

11:31 manage a team cuz I'm pretty sure his previous company didn't trust him with that after what just 5 months on top of that the candidate will have bloated their salary above market rates the market is to be blamed for that to some extent cuz there was an over supply of candidates and a lot of cash was available to be spent on it and now you find people unable to land their next job because they don't want to take a pay cut because they're used to the higher salary now and employers on the other side are reluctant to hire at that point employers are faced with a choice to get someone from outside with less experience and a higher pay or to look inwards and see who can match up to the responsibilities and be cheaper than the bloated salary guy who do you think they're going to choose tell me Aaron would you date a girl who's had three partners in 2 years

12:19 that is the employer's perspective but there are very good reasons why you should stick around for 2 to three years at least at a company for your own growth but I promise you I'm I'm a great performer and I'll be a good fit in your team how do I know that number one context of skills when you've worked with a team for long they have a much better context of your skills and how you can add to the team your new employer simply won't know that and you have to start from scratch to reestablish that context and trust i know Python i know SQL i know Tableau and I'm the quickest with creating any decks how long will you do that i need someone to manage my team number two your actual skills goes without saying

13:05 that real skill accumulation starts to happen when the boring manual repetitive tasks are behind you and it's sort of an unsaid rule and actually common sense that for any candidate to actually start experiencing the insights of an industry it starts to happen after a year if you leave before that you'll very likely join at the same level with the new company and a little unobvious is cost of migration moving cities or even moving within the same city has many invisible costs that cannot be offset by the minor hikes you accumulate especially when you've not given enough time in your job to let the hike actually accumulate into something substantial let me ask you something do you like where you live comfortable you made friends in office i do still you're sitting here

13:51 number four the mental cost of starting fresh figuring out a new city new house new colleagues and their quirks new work environment their culture some people really thrive on new experiences which could be great but regardless this initial phase really does impede your ability to learn long term and every time you make a switch you reset this progress while simultaneously burning all bridges and goodwill of your team and managers that actually become very crucial in the later parts of your career a word of caution here i know all of the reasons I listed might sound like some cost fallacy but it's important to balance these costs well before planning your next switch your switches make no sense they're random and there is no growth you started your career as an analyst and you're still applying here

14:37 as an associate but what should I have done so what should Arian have done if Arian had valid reasons to switch jobs he could have still defended his case there's a way to go about it that does not hurt your credibility if you keep switching at the same level even if you're switching every two years what does that tell me that I might be unexperienced and unskilled there are two games to be played early on in the career either you hike your pay by moving laterally into the same role or move vertically at the same pay but at a higher designation if you could get both that's best but your goal should always be to move upwards in at least one so if at any point it starts to feel like there's no growth happening either your personal growth or even the company's

15:23 growth is halted that might be a good indication to start packing your bags what's a fair time period to assess that i'd say at least 12 months culture is another big contributor as well as a valid reason to make a switch some companies can get very inefficient and by extension a toxic workplace and you could make a switch then but it can't be too frequent either you can explain it to your interviewer once but not multiple times at least if I could see that you were trying to rectify a domain mismatch still be okay with it but all three of your previous roles have literally been the same the other acceptable reason to the employer could be domain mismatch and it happens a lot in India you might want to pursue something you get pushed by the education system parents or the market into a totally different role and if your switches reflect that you're trying

16:10 to fix that that's a good response always have a mental pros cons matrix in your head to inform if it's time to switch if your job is net net positive in your life it could be adding skills financial security and friendships stay for longer at that job if not and if after considering everything a switch seems like the most logical step here's how to do it consider this a dumy's guide to switching jobs step one get a job goes without saying but if you're lucky to be watching this video as a college student you can start your career in the right industry in a market that's in demand and in a role of your interest as it will save you precious years trying to make that switch if you find yourself stuck in the wrong domain or role your first switch should happen

16:56 in one to two years to correct this misalignment and set up the foundation to a long successful career but be sure that you know for sure that you want a domain pivot cuz if you then find yourself wanting to come back to the same domain you're not only wasting your time but also hurting your credibility switch two if you are in the correct industry a switch can occur after 2 to 3 years to switch to the company that pays the highest for your role any sooner than that and you again run the risk of being considered unreliable that way you also establish credibility when you've worked with the best it's essentially given that you must have picked up enough skills by now important point the health of your company will determine how comfortably they might pay you switch three move to a better designation in 1 to 3 years after your

17:41 second switch aim for that designation promotion now switch four move to middle management and strategy and head of department it's important to show 2 to 3 years of stability in the previous job before you make the switch exceptions will be there some will rise faster and skip a few levels and some will fall short everything is permissible as long as you have a solid answer to back it up this is more of a loose guide and it's fine to move with your career at your own pace one final piece of advice most people overlook this but you can actually be open and upfront with your current employer and have conversations around your growth and you'll really be surprised at just how receptive most companies would be to that especially high growth startups with less hierarchy and bureaucracy indian employees are anyways more likely to ask for a pay

18:28 raise and promotion than our global counterparts so you might as well do that first before planning that big switch so I can't hire you Arian your resume screams job hopper you've exhausted your hikes you're overpriced for the market and I'm afraid most companies will have the same opinion you may try to prove me wrong and test the market and maybe you'll get lucky but Arin you should start playing the long-term game now wherever you go my advice you just prove your worth at uh VS Associates and ask for a raise there first maybe we'll meet you a few years down the line yeah good luck that was all from our side my name is Lvina Kamud and this was your full disclosure if you think you're creative and want to make videos like this you should check out

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