Job Hopping Candidates

[Anonymous]

His/her timeline is: Finished MBA in 2020, worked job #1 for 9 months, #2 for 6 months, #3 for 15 months, and has been at the current for 6 months.

Justifications seem legit & there is clear career growth. Gave great technical answers to questions & seems like it would be a good fit.

Excuse for leaving job 1: Graduated during the pandemic and took the job that was available in an industry that was not.
Excuse for leaving job 2: Was recruited from job 1 on a contract bases. 6 Months.
Excuse for leaving job 3: Was recruited for job 4 to lead a bigger division, has good references from this position. Position i'm hiring for is in the same industry.
Excuse for leaving job 4: Said 'could stick with this position for years. Good pay, good boss, full time work from home, just the work is unfulfilling and industry isn't ideal.


I want to take the risk here. We urgently need someone on board, but my panel is old school and thinks we go with someone else.

[Anonymous]

OP Here: Prior to the MBA, the person was in a role for 5.5 years after undergrad.

[Anonymous]

Hire slow, fire fast.

[Anonymous]

Hire me 😂 my shorted job is 2 years and longest 5 years.

[Anonymous]

Is there a question here?

[Anonymous]

Are you cool with it if they take the job and leave within a year? If so, make the offer. If not, hire someone else.

[Anonymous]

Check their references from prior jobs.

[Anonymous]

Nope- I could see one or two short roles over a ten year career but this candidate will leave before they’re even completely productive in my industry.

[Anonymous]

So they've been at two of their four jobs for six months?! I would not hire them unless you're filling an urgent, short-term need and can handle them bailing for something else in six months (though presumably at some point employers will stop hiring them).

[Anonymous]

Had one of these last year. Terrible at everything. Had to fire. Resume didn’t match ability and never in one place for a full year.

[Anonymous]

Too many red flags. To me it seems they are chasing the money and will jump for another opportunity after a year. You can try checking references but most will on verify dates of employment due to legal. Believe me I learned my lesson with a similar profile. She jumped ship 6 months later. And believe it or not, she just reached out to me networking bc after being at her current company for 13 months she is looking again. The literal gall.

[Anonymous]

I've worked with people like this: during the first year on the job, any time you reach out to them for something that's supposed to be their job duty, they reply saying they are new to the job, still learning and can't help yet. Then a few weeks/months later, they quit.

I would only hire a job hopper if they can be trained to perform a new job within a few days and become fully functional quickly. If a job takes months to get up to speed, it's not a good fit for a job hopper.

[Anonymous]

it would not bother me. It has been a strange few years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:it would not bother me. It has been a strange few years.

This. Covid really messed up peoples career paths, I couldn’t imagine finishing grad school at a time when literally nobody was hiring.

And it doesn’t sound like the candidate was looking two of the times. They were poached. Talent gets poached, not duds.

[Anonymous]

My resume looks a bit like this and it’s because I’m not very good at my job and I leave before they can fire me.