"Job Hopping" prejudice is ageism in disguise

The BBQ Pit
1

(longish)

I am looking for a new job. I can’t COUNT the number of ads I read that say, “no job hoppers!!!” in big, obnoxious print. Apparently, according to recruiters I’ve talked with, I qualify as a “job hopper” and have gotten rejected from positions because of it. Why am I a “job hopper”? Because I’m young (25) and have yet to stay at one job for a significant amount of time.

Lessee… right after college I was an office manager for over a year, when I quit because they were still paying me in the mid-$20s (that’s per year, not per hour), I was fixing all their computers and programming their website, and they couldn’t even deign to give me a bonus at the end of the year. Fuck that, my loyalty ends when the company owner is taking long pleasure-trips to europe every month with the profits and then telling me she can’t afford to pay me a living wage or give me a bonus for all the overtime I put in.

Then, I had two three-month-long temp assignments in large-office settings. I worked my ass off at both of them, often times being handed higher-level work because people took advantage of how smart I am, and then politely inquired about the possibility of staying on. Denied. “If we ever need a temp again, or have an entry-level opening, we’ll call you”. Right. Like I ever heard from these places again. Like their divisions have gone two years without hiring entry-level. As if people ACTUALLY keep resumes “on file”. As if hard work is EVER rewarded.

Then, I had a 6-month temp assignment taking over for a high-level secretary on maternity leave. I did a GREAT job and everyone was very happy with my work. When the secretary came back, I asked about staying with the company. They said they had no openings. Then, two weeks before I was about to leave, they hire ANOTHER OFFICE ASSISTANT cold, no experience, through a temp agency. Dumb as a box of rocks, he was, and I had to train him. I was SO MAD that he was immediately hired full-time and I wasn’t offered an employment continuance after 6 months of effort. (Repeat: as if hard work is EVER rewarded!)

Then, I got a job as a high-level secretary in a financial firm. This lasted 6 months until my (married) boss decided he had a thing for me and couldn’t keep it to himself. I kept my mouth shut, fearing reprisal. The higher-ups found out, didn’t like it, weren’t going to get rid of my senior-level boss, and ended up paying me a few months’ salary to split.

So, here I am. I’ve worked my ASS OFF at EVERY JOB I’VE HAD, even temp jobs. I’ve been loyal and worked tons of overtime. I’ve gone in on weekends. I’ve done the most menial of tasks without complaint. I go above and beyond what’s expected of me. I would have a handful of references to vouch for this, if people didn’t immediately forget who their temps were two months later. (“NightRabbit?.. oh, yeah… she was here a while ago… I guess she was OK…”) :mad:

And yet, because I’m 25, and I have four different jobs on my resume, I’m labelled as a “job hopper”. Right, because I have a sense of entitlement. I’m not trustworthy. I’m not loyal. I won’t stick around. I’m looking for immediate promotion. I’m yet another gen-xer, too good for the employment world, who is going to come in with a chip on her shoulder and a holier-than-thou attitude.

Fuck hiring managers! Fuck HR dicks! Fuck the people who stereotype young people just because they haven’t yet lucked into a job that will last them 30-years-straight like the baby boomers all have. Fuck temping agencies who take advantage of young people by saying that temp jobs can always turn into full-time jobs, when this is definitely not always true.

I would LOVE to be at a job for 30 years. I would LOVE a sense of stability. I am a HARD worker and I’m smart and I always, always, exceed expectations. But, because I haven’t found a good employment situation yet, now I’m categorized as an entitled brat who can’t seem to find her footing and who is certain to leave her employers in the lurch when she realizes she can’t have something for nothing.

Oh, and while I’m at it, FUCK “overqualified”. Just because I have a degree from a “name” school does NOT mean that I think I’m better than everyone else. I am NOT above temping (obviously). I am NOT above bringing coffee to conferences. I am NOT expecting an immediate promotion. I do NOT surf the web more than I do work. I do NOT watch the clock. My parents WILL NOT call my boss and complain about my salary.

I just want a fair shot at a job that will last longer than 6 months! I guess I’ll be a temp all my life because I’m not “worthy” of a longterm, permanent position. It’s such a negative cycle. It makes me think that my three years of job experience isn’t worth crap. In retrospect, maybe I should have joined the peace corps right out of college. :frowning:

2

You’d think HR people would realize by now that the days when someone took a job straight out of high school or college and stayed there 50 years is O.V.E.R. For good. Forever. Gone. Swept away. Dead. Deceased. It’s not comin’ back.

The ironic thing is that a major reason for that is that the companies decided that loyalty could only go one way. “CEO wants a bonus…whoops! Have to downsize! Sorry to see you go after 20 years, Fred. Say hi to Stella for me.”

3

Start your own company…get a passport.

4

Well, this one was from money, so I suspect that starting a company was more of an exercise in vanity than in true entreprenurial spirit…

5

I wondered if the prejudice was regional or what. I never faced it until I cane to the Midwest. I’ve never had any job longer than 3.5 years because when I started in the business world for real (early '80’s), the conventional wisdom was anybody who stayed longer was stale and unadaptable. That was in California and I never heard anything different until I moved to Iowa, especially in the last 2-3 years. Apparently, here they think if you’ve left any job after less than five years you are unstable. It took me a lot of time to overcome the attitude, and my current place of business is full of people who have been there for 10-20 years. Oddly, I seem to have started a trend and now the management is filling with people who are there to do 3-4 years and leave once they’ve accomplished a certain number of major goals. I certainly don’t intend to stop where I am for the next 20 years. I get bored when the job becomes rote and there are no more major changes I can effect.

BTW, I’m 45 so I don’t think it’s ageism, at least not in my case.

6

Maybe you just aren’t as good of an employee as you think you are. It’s certainly a red flag that after 4 years you still can’t stick at an employer for more than 3-6 months.

7

Just take the dates off of your resume

8

Well, there your reason right there! It is obvious you will not allow yourself to be shamelessly exploited, which means you lack the two most attractive qualifications for a good employee: low self esteem and no backbone. No wonder you get no offers.

9

You’ve really had ONE job all these years, as a temp. Structure your resume that way, and say now you’re looking for something permanent.

10

Did you even read the OP? I know it was on the long side, but still. Do you know what the word “temporary” means?

Cliff notes version: temping ain’t easy. I’ve been very lucky so far (knock on wood), but I can easily can see similar things happening to me.

Slightly OT ancedote: When I was applying for the job I have now, I was asked to write down every job I had held in the past ten years and given three slots to do it in. Ha! Counting all of the short term jobs I had taken during summer vacations from school I wound up with like 15 jobs. Fortunately, my hiring was all but assured.

Good luck! Job hunting sucks.

11

I would seriously suggest that you may be missing soething like the way you project yourself. Are you a team player? Do you groom and dress well ? etc.

You could work your ass off for a supervisor, and do a top notch job, but if you make him/her uncomfortable they’ll easily find someone else.

12

Yep.

13

Thirded!

14

I have a question, though one that is possibly offensive and completely off-topic, for which I apologize in advance:

You wouldn’t happen to be the poster previously known as nongoog, would you?

I remember **nongoog **admitted that she had a signed up under a different account years ago and was told to consult the mods (don’t remember the thread, could probably find it if needed). You’re about the right age, and when I clicked on “see threads started by NightRabbit,” you posted a thread on 11-30-07, previous to which your most recent thread was from 2004, and nongoog’s last activity was on 11-07-2007 (that account is now listed as guest, which suggests that if you are her, you went back to your previous account and stopped paying under nongoog).

Because if so, I might have to dispute your claim that:

15

Erm, I’m kind of a heel for posting that and then disappearing, but it occurred to me right after possibly outing nongoog, that *I *had two guest memberships that I never used before signing up for my current one (forgot the passwords), and am a raging hypocrite. I will be emailing **TubaDiva *(as per Giraffe’s instructions in that thread I was referring to) and expect that my account will be at least suspended. Karma’s a real bitch, huh? :o

Sorry.

*I’ve never linked to something before and will attempt to link to the post in question, but will quite probably screw up: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9153336&postcount=68

16

It sounds from these comments:

That you do sort of think you’re better than other people. As others in this thread have said, it’s possible that when people say:

That is how they really feel about you as an employee. You might not be the star you think you are.

17

I have no idea what that means. When the board went pay I had a short guest account and then lurked for a while until I had the well-paying job and decided to bite the bullet and pay. I’m not familiar with nongoog.

18

Actually, I think you’ll find that very few employers will give ANY kind of actual evaluation of your performance in a reference anymore. They may confirm that you worked there between this date and that date, but most of them won’t say “She did a good job” or “She did a lousy job”. Personal references, sure, but not employment references…they’re afraid of getting sued for a bad ref, and giving good refs means that no ref is the equivalent of a bad ref, so they don’t do that either.

19

Ah. Sorry about that.

And I realized that my second post (admitting my culpability regarding guest accounts) should probably be reported, and I can’t report my own posts. Would someone mind doing that for me?

Thanks. And sorry again, NightRabbit.

20

Yes, I read the OP. If the OP is really doing GREAT work then she would likely have been picked up full time, or have been able to use a contact at a temp job to get on permanent somewhere.