Message #65907

[Katie G]

Interesting question.  I don' t think there's a hard and fast rule.

However, I know my organization likes to hire a lot of twentysomethings for certain positions.  And the resumes that float through from that age group tend to have much shorter lengths of time than those from applicants in their 30s and older.  There seems to be an understanding, however, that that time in one's life is for trying out things, so a 23-year old applicant listing 6 jobs in the past 4 years isn't seen as something so unusual.  

The older the applicant gets though, it seems to be expected (at least in my organization) that lengths of previous employment will be considerably longer.  Measured in years, not months.  

Admittedly, it smacks of a double standard.  A twentysomething "job hopping" is seen as "experimenting" and "gaining experience" while a thirty- or fortysomething with a similar history is seen as "flighty" or "not committed" or even "unable to hold a job".  

Then again, with the downturn in the economy, I've noticed many "older" workers who had previously hired themselves out as contractors to companies are now applying for permanent employment with one employer as companies cut back on consultants and the like.  So these folks tend to have highly varied resumes, listing jobs lasting from a few weeks to a few months, and often overlapping.

So I don't think there's "one" answer.  It really does depend on the individual.