[
Marissa is only 25 years old but has already had four different jobs in her three-year career. Straight after graduating from university in 2021, she found a position working in her chosen field of data analytics. But just nine months in, she decided to move.
“My salary increased by 50 per cent when I changed jobs,” says Marissa. “It was risky because I went from full time to being a contractor, but it was worth it. I ended up getting promoted to full time after six months, so I stayed for another year. But then I decided to make a lateral move for the same pay because I wanted a job that was fully remote and allowed me to work from home. It was the best decision ever.”
This is just one example of “job hopping” – the rising trend amongst Gen Z workers, who are rapidly moving jobs in a bid to increase pay and supercharge progression. “Career hopping goes against the idea of a ‘one job for life’ way of working which is quite outdated,” says Jenny Holliday, career coach, who believes that changing work habits during the pandemic led to this rise. “There’s a rebellious element to hopping, and we should be normalising career pivots and multiple roles on CVs.”
About 97 per cent of Gen Z workers say work is part of their identity, and 83 per cent consider themselves to be job hoppers, according to a recent report from ResumeLab. A study conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found over 22 per cent of workers aged 20 and older spent a year or less at their jobs in 2022 – the highest since 2006. One of the biggest drivers is potential for salary increase. In the UK, workers who change jobs within a year of beginning a role have consistently higher hourly wage growth over those who stay, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data. And it is primarily workers aged 16 to 24 who make the highest salary gains.
When Jessica Carter graduated from university, she found a job working as an assistant in the charity sector. She stayed there for two years, working “way above her level”, until she was told the company couldn’t promote her.
“I moved to a different company in the same sector, and instead of rising up to become a co-ordinator and then a manager, I jumped straight to becoming a manager,” explains Carter, now 29. “I was a manager aged 24, and there’s no way I could have progressed to that level if I hadn’t moved jobs.”
Less than two years later, she swapped jobs again. This time, her impetus was less about a promotion, and more about a pay rise. “I wanted to move house, but in the charity sector you can’t just ask for a pay rise and get it like you might be able to in the corporate sector, so I started looking for other jobs.”
She ended up moving to another company, earning an £8,000 pay rise for doing the same job. “There’s no way I would have been able to get that pay rise in the company I was at before – there would have just been small annual increases. But moving jobs means I’ve been able to rise and progress much more quickly than if I’d just stayed at the same company.”
John Lees, author of How To Get A Job You Love, believes that a big driver in the rise of job hopping is a need for better working conditions and work-life balance. “This new generation is increasingly attuned to the values of organisations, from cultural things about how they operate to things like their impact on the environment and on communities.
“A decade ago, younger people – millennials – were going to organisations and being clearer about what they wanted. But that seems to have translated into younger people now saying that if organisations can’t deliver that, they’ll move around. And that’s probably the case because organisations are struggling to plan for the long term with markets and political environments changing so fast. It’s difficult for them to invest in talent long-term.”
That’s exactly why Marissa is now on her fourth job. She’s aware of the downsides – like the fact that future employers could be put off by so many changes on her CV – but believes they’re outweighed by the benefits. “I think I job-hopped early enough in my career to a point where hopefully it won’t matter down the line. I’ve only ever had one or two employers ask about it.
“Besides, I think company loyalty should go both ways. If more companies heard employees out and gave them raises, or helped them develop in their careers, then less people would job hop. Think of it like a relationship: would you want to stay if the person you were with was not meeting your needs?”
To Lees, this attitude is what makes modern job hopping different from that of previous generations. “People have always swapped jobs in their twentiestwemtoes, but it used to be in quite an experimental way. The interesting thing about this is that people aren’t moving around for variety so much as pay rise, promotions, prospects or better working conditions. It’s very strategic, saying it’s the best way to improve themselves, and there’s less drifting, more deliberate decision-making.” There’s also a sense of Gen Z wanting to be their own bosses – something Lees says has always been “an attractive option for entrepreneurial young people”.
That was the drive for Mariska Ariya, 28. She studied musical theatre and then business management at Coventry University. After graduating, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, but knew her dream job would involve uniting her love of creativity and business, as well as being her own boss, so she could have full agency over her working life.
Aged 20, she began her first job working in admin at a tech company. A year later, she moved to a start-up to do data collection, where she stayed for another year. And then she moved to work with animation at a studio. By the time she was 24, she’d gathered enough experience and skills to know what she wanted to do: found her own company to support independent music artists to streamline their businesses. She is now the founder of Maverick Soundz, which is hard-launching its AI-integrated app this month.
“Every skill I gathered from each job really informed what I ended up doing with my company,” explains Ariya, whose family were baffled by her choices at the time. “In the corporate working culture, I didn’t feel there was progression or a roadmap. I didn’t see anyone like me as a woman of colour in positions of power or getting promoted. Part of it was trying to create it for myself.”
Even though she didn’t know exactly where her jobs would lead her, she always trusted it was “part of the bigger picture.” She says: “I went into each job knowing it would take me to somewhere bigger and better. It takes a lot to keep your mind in that place, but it was definitely the foundation, especially learning new skills and trying to absorb and adapt as much as possible.”
For Ariya, now being her own boss, the rewards are endless. “Financially, I’m so much better off than I was, and I’m so much more in control of it – what I put in, I get out.” She’s also inspired her mum to start her own company – “I’ve managed to change that generational mind-shift” – and believes more young workers should job hop to adapt, learn new skills and push themselves.
But not everyone thinks job hopping is always the answer. Jessica, 28, from Glasgow, has had four jobs since graduating, and now works in a senior role in a charity, managing a national portfolio for Scotland. “For me, the pros have been salary increases (in one job hop, my salary went up by £15k, and another time, it went up by £8k) and developing a varied skillset.
“But there have also been a lot of cons. I’m now a generalist with no specialism and I have had major imposter syndrome. In my second job, I was only 22 and on the senior management team where colleagues were in their fifties and sixties. One had a mug from their 18th birthday and joked it was older than me, which was true. So I’ve often felt a bit intimidated or doubted my abilities.”
She also now has a constant “grass is greener” attitude, where she can’t help but “look elsewhere for other opportunities” because that’s what she has always done. Lees warns this could be an issue as Gen Z move into their thirties and then forties, and employers notice constant changes on their CVs.
“If you have a good narrative about wanting to gain experience and deliberately moving to learn new things, you can get around that in your twenties,” says Lees. “But if you’re still doing this well into your thirties and forties, you’re in difficulty. Employers could think that somebody [who has job hopped a lot] is unlikely to settle or be in that role for very long, so [job hoppers] look like poor hiring choices in terms of return on investment. I’d also suggest people be careful of how many sectors they get involved in, because sometimes you need a lot of experience in one sector.”
This is something Jessica has found. “I worry that I didn’t earn my dues as such, because there’s basic knowledge I’ve skipped which leads me to imposter syndrome. I also don’t have a clear path for what’s next. It’s probably an ongoing internal question for me that won’t go away unless I specialise in something.
“In terms of whether it was worth it, that’s a question I come back to a lot. I’ve gained lots of experience and had the benefit of a good salary and finding it easy to secure new jobs. But I always wonder whether I should have done a graduate scheme, had proper training and worked my way up.”
The one benefit is that, as a Gen Z worker who started job hopping just a few years ago, there’s still time to make big life changes. “I’d suggest considering non-work goals too,” urges Holliday, the career coach. “If a home or travel is a goal, does the ‘hop’ bring you closer to that? Think about what you want – your end goal – and use the hopping to get to it.”
