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Comment by roflc0ptic | Hacker News Reader

Do you feel like that number of job changes has limited your career opportunities? I had a string of years where I changed jobs several times for fairly good reasons (substantially better paying jobs, family illness, spent a year trying to get a non-profit off the ground), but it left my resume feeling kinda blotchy, and I've resolved to try to stay in my current (very awesome) job for at least 4 years (~1.5 down so far).

People have commented on the blotchiness directly, so I do wonder how many conversations I just haven't had because of it.

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That's not true. If you had an emergency appendix surgery in the middle of the nowhere and there was only one surgeon, would you question how many hospitals he worked at before? If you are good at your job and can prove it, then it doesn't matter. We, tech people, have it really easy compared to other jobs.

If anything, it's the opposite. I have more career opportunities than ever:

1. You learn new skills -> you become more employable

2. You leave on good terms -> most of your previous companies are waiting for you with open arms (more opportunities, safety net, upper hand in negotiating salary)

3. You discover yourself -> what you want, what are you good at and where can you go next.

I would take it with a grain of salt. Contracting and living in a big city is very different to small towns and/or permanent roles.

Interesting that you see yourself as being more employable. And if you say so, probably it's true! So, I'm wondering what you bring to the teams you're hired into. When I hire, staying at previous jobs for only 1—2 years is a red flag. And you've done it 10 times!

We're looking for people who would like to stay with us for, say 3–5 years, at least. While our tech stack, culture, etc. isn't that special, it still takes time to acclimate.

Perhaps you are a very talented specialist in very narrow niche? People like that are always useful, and can skip between jobs as they please. Although, I'd probably do stuff like that on a consulting basis, instead of a salaried employee.

I have amended my comment to highlight that I've been mostly contracting.

I firmly believe you are looking at the short side of the stick. Ask yourself, what can you do for people to stay for 3-5 years? You don't need special stack or culture, just listen to individual's needs (plenty of books written on this subject).

Some places I worked at, the time just flew. I honestly wanted to stay there longer because the whole assignment was like a Swiss watch.

1-2 years is a red flag, but it's mostly a red flag of a bad company, not the employee. I base this on my experience and interviewing devs.

You can remove gigs from your resume.

I mostly do, but then I have large gaps in employment.

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