Yes, but please remember that switching jobs too often is definately a thing.

If you jump jobs every year or every two-three years, companies that value stability would never consider you (and that will most likely follow you for the rest of your career).

The only companies that don't value low employee churn are startups (they are dead before that anyways) and fastfood joints...

So if you are not in the "startup wonder-land of Silicon Valley", that might be worth considering too..

I think a year is closer to reality. If you're at your current employer less than a year consistently it is a red flag. But two years is plenty of time in my experience.

Also, loyalty works both ways, as an older millennial my experience and the experience of people I know in my age group has been that we get laid off roughly every year and a half. I barely know anyone my age who has not been laid off at least once.

And definitely through no fault of their own. Companies cut entire teams all at once.

As a very late Generation X "babybust" (i.e. born in 1979) from Europe, that sounds crazy..

And that isn't because of financials (i.e. going bust)?

> And that isn't because of financials (i.e. going bust)?

Typically it is because of financials in my experience. Keep in mind we were all low level employees or just getting started during the 2008 recession. Most of my friends graduated college in the peak of the recession.

Basically it falls under 4 categories from my personal experiences:

- Downsizing due to decreased profits

- "Failing fast" with a product (its not working so it gets shut down and the team gets let go with it)

- Increase efficiency (job automation)

- Employers trying to do more with less. Lay off 15/20 people on a team and expecting the 5 left to do the same amount of work as the 20 did before the layoff.

I've seen it most often with big conglomerates where the management is detached from the workforce. I was at a large web company (won't say who but you'd know the name) where the corporate owners gave word to our office that they needed to save $5,000,000 a year. So they did it... by laying off 40 people and getting a smaller office.

The world is schizophrenic at best. Had my last job 10 years. To recruiters, I'm "wonderfully stable", to employers I'm "stale".

If you keep up and learn new things, that should be a minor problem.

And here in Denmark, the company is required by law to support that.

We even have a regal requirement to hold "employee development meetings" every year, where the company and the employee discuss how to "enhance" the employee...

My skills are beyond up-to-date. :-)

Things are a little bit different in California. But I wish they were more like Denmark.

Well, Denmark is a very nice place to live...

The two major complaints are the weather and the taxes (30 - 55 %, but again healthcare, eduction, maternity leave and lots of other stuff is free and excellent... )

If you can convince my wife, I should very much like to live there. :-)

> If you jump jobs every year or every two-three years, companies that value stability would never consider you

And that would be which companies exactly?

Companies, that are not hip, but have large codebases and large set of complex business-procedures, that takes long time to grok...

Not every development shop in the world is constantly racing towards the newest stack for "venture-fueled cat food webshops".

Plenti of those steady businesses with long views (at least here in Europe).

I work a place (as an contractor) where the language is from the early 1980s and quite rare...

And though it is not hard to learn it takes a while to feel comfortable in it, hence they like long engagements... (I have been working there for 5+ years now, as a part-time contractor).

> Companies, that are not hip, but have large codebases and large set of complex business-procedures, that takes long time to grok...

Like Nokia with its backend hardware for mobile networks? Or Ericsson? Or Volvo? Or virtually any bank? It's not like they balk at programmers that changed jobs every two or three years and don't hire them in bulk.

> Plenti of those steady businesses with long views (at least here in Europe).

I don't think you've seen as an employee that many big companies, even here in Europe.

> (I have been working there for 5+ years now, as a part-time contractor).

And I am supposed to be amazed or what? 5 years is not that long, I've been there myself and I've seen good programmers with modern skills that had much longer relationships with their company.

Nope not at all. This is very much a european thing.

Well, I am european (and an employer myself)

At least in the Bay Area, this article is disconnected from reality. Lots of people have jobs and some are taking time off. There's little connection between whether they are working currently and their expected future performance.

Job hopping could harm one in the future, it can raise some red flags.