[thoughtpalette]

I've job hopped quite a bit (7 times in 6 years). There's plenty of valid reasons to leave a job, most of my moves have been due to skill stagnation at a certain company. Also, increases in salary is ridiculous when switching. If you stay at a single job you run the risk of stagnating your salary as well.

If you can articulate to the company your reasoning behind switching jobs, and why you're genuinely interested in the company and the value you bring, I believe you'll be alright.

Has yet to bite me in the ass (Chicago) and the experience you gain between companies (small-large, workflows/methodologies, stacks, etc) is priceless.

[scarface74]

I've got to disagree. I've job hopped over the past 8 years - 4 full time jobs and one short term contract. I would think two years is the minimum unless you were a contractor or were laid off.

I'm at a point now where I need to stick around a job for at least three years.

[thoughtpalette]

What's the reasoning behind your disagreement? Have you noticed any skepticism while interviewing?

I do believe 2 years is a great norm, 1 year for getting up to date, 1 year for giving the company a chance. But, we're in high-demand (mostly) and if you don't feel comfortable at a company, life's short, not worth staying imo.

I'd also like to point out, while I have a great track record of interviewing, it seems (pointing to the quantity of positions I've held) that I need to do a _much_ better job of asking questions about the company in the interview phase itself.

While I do feel stuck at my new job (2 mos), I have a different approach mentally for keeping myself happy.

It's all contextual/anecdotal to the person involved. Though I'll tell you, my mother is always worried about the short-term positions. Just for a personal reference.

[scarface74]

For the first time, the last time I looked for a job, people started asking questions. I consider myself a great interviewer --the last time I looked I got no rejections, two offers, and 8-10 other positions I withdrew from the process after accepting an offer.

As far as asking questions. I use a modified version of the Joel Test:https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/08/09/the-joel-test-12-s...

Basically, getting rid of the last 2 questions and asking about automated testing, code reviews, continuous integration, etc.

I always of course ask about the technology stack and the amount of autonomy developers have.

[thoughtpalette]

Great idea, going to save this reference. I believe StackOverflow has this at the bottom of all their career posts.

Need to use this next time :}

[aliston]

I'm in a similar boat. When you got the question about job hopping this time around, how did you answer it?

[scarface74]

2011 - company acquired, everyone laid off and I went to do a short term contract with one of my former company's clients

Early 2012 - contract over self explanatory

Mid 2012 - I was brought in to work on a new .Net project and to convert a PHP project to .Net. Two years later they abandoned the .Net initiative and everyone was working on PHP. That wasn't a career direction I wanted to go in.

2014 - I was brought in by a manager who wanted people who would aggressively pursue change and modern best practices, they pushed him out and all of the people who didn't want to hear about change started pushing back on his hires.

So when I was looking for a job late last year, I was very specific about the technology stack I wanted and the coding practices that were in place. Ironically, I ended up accepting an offer with a company that ranked 2 out of 14 on my modified Joel Test. But I was promised the support of the manager to come in and implement best practices.