[saiya-jin]

In western Europe, you do this couple of times (not as external consultant of course, but as perm employee), and you get semi-permanently branded as unreliable and unstable. For good reasons. I can see reasoning for this and it makes sense to me (i did it couple of times myself when younger, wouldn't' do that now). In growing economies, or where there isn't enough experienced IT people this isn't valid though.

[JepZ]

From my own experience:

- If someone stays less than 2 years with a company something is wrong (the person, the company or the combination).

- If someone stays longer than 4 years with a company in the same job, without promotion, that person is probably not the 'manager' type.

Both situations just give you hints on whether someone matches the profile you are searching for, but switching companies after 3-4 years seems to be reasonable for people who want to get the most out of their salaries. Nevertheless, if someone got all his 'promotions' by switching jobs you should be wary of course.

[ecshafer]

3 to 4 years is a good amount of time to switch, but I think 5 to 6 is probably better, it you have a good fit with a company. 5 to 6 years is the normal amount of time to 100% vest company 401k contributions, and any stock options. Leaving early can be a lot of money on the table.

[emodendroket]

I've seen a pretty wide spread of vesting schedules.

[emodendroket]

It's my understanding that in a lot of tech hub cities the average tenure at a company is only like two years.