When weighing up the merits of a career change, we should look beyond immediate aims, such as a pay rise, and consider broader objectives, says Joseph Bikart
‘Job-hopping’ has been defined as spending less than two years in a position. This trend is becoming increasingly popular among employees: 64% favour job-hopping as a way to increase their income, according to a 2018 survey by the US recruitment firm, Robert Half International. That’s up from 45% in a similar survey conducted four years earlier.
This approach to career management is particularly popular among millennials. The obvious risk, however, is that by changing job too frequently, candidates may damage their reputation.
In this context, when considering the opportunity of changing career, people should not merely focus on the short-term benefits, but also consider the long-term implications.
Of course, the concept of ‘career change’ covers many different realities: at one end of the spectrum, it can mean changing department within the same company, or doing the same job for a new employer. At the other end of the spectrum, it can imply a radical shift: I have seen people give up a career in finance to become priests, school teachers or artists.
Deciding on a career change: should you put passion ahead of reason?
I left a promising career in investment banking when I was only 28 to follow my passion for communication. This was a very difficult choice to explain to my colleagues – not to mention my parents. They struggled with the idea that I was abandoning a prestigious career in the City to join a small communication coaching firm – something they had no idea even existed.
In fairness to them, I had replied to an advertisement in the Financial Times on a bit of a whim. I wasn’t seriously considering leaving my banking career. Still, I engaged with the interview process. When, against all expectations, I received the job offer, I started struggling with my choice. Should I really follow passion over reason? I couldn’t come to a conclusion. As Christmas approached, I decided to take a trip to the Middle East, hoping that the long walks around Petra, Jordan, would provide the inspiration I needed. I returned from holiday none the wiser. The company gave me an ultimatum and said that if I didn’t accept the job within a week, they would extend the offer to another candidate. On the final day, I signed my contract.
This is the kind of struggle, repeated many times over the years, that made me decide to learn about decision making, and ultimately, create ‘Decisiology’, the approach that I have outlined in my book, The Art of Decision Making.
The fears that lie behind career change indecision
At the heart of this approach is the concept that our indecision always originates from a place of fear. In relation to career change, it can be, among others:
- Fear of identification, if I believe that this new job will define me, and determine my future career.
- Fear of failure if I leave a job where I am doing well, but fail to achieve better status or remuneration in my new career.
- Fear of missing out, also known as FOMO, if I am concerned that I may miss out on a future promotion in my current company; or if I have to decide between two equally attractive job offers.
- Fear of selfishness, if I am concerned that my current colleagues will resent me for moving to a better career elsewhere.
- Fear of heights, which I define as the opposite of fear of failure. This is the fear of succeeding and having to live with the consequences of such success.
The first fear, identification, is particularly common when people consider a career move: What if I get stuck? What if this choice defines me and limits my future choices?
This attitude relies on the illusion that our choices are binary and that they involve, necessarily, a right and a wrong option. Most often, there is a third way – one that is neither absolutely right nor entirely wrong – that maximises our potential for success.
Sometimes, we need to decide between two equally attractive options, and it is precisely in those situations that our choices become truly identity-shaping moments. For this reason, the US philosopher [and University of Oxford Professor], Ruth Chang, calls these choices ‘normative’.
An important lesson from decision science is that when facing challenging choices, we should consider a broad range of objectives and not limit ourselves to the few obvious ones. Applied to career change, we should go beyond immediate objectives such as a pay rise, or seniority, and explore all the other objectives we may have (for example, the supporting team, growth opportunities, proximity to home and so on). This way, our decision is more likely to be successful.
How regret plays out in the short and long term
Finally, one of the greatest fears we may face is the fear of having regrets, if we feel we have made the wrong choice. However, it is worth noting that we do not handle all types of regrets in the same manner. There are:
- Regret for the things we did do and wish we hadn’t. In psychology, these are known as ‘errors of commission’, for example, accepting a job offer without having done our due diligence on the company.
- Regret for the things we did not do and we wish we had. These are known as ‘errors of omission’. This could be, for example, not accepting a job offer, out of fear of failure in the new job.
Research by Thomas Gilovich of Cornell University, Victoria Husted Medvec [formerly of Cornell University and now at the Kellogg School of Management] and Serena Chen, concludes that, in the short term, regrets for commission – the things we did – affect us more than regrets for omission. However, over time, the exact opposite happens, and we end up regretting our errors of omission more than our errors of commission.
Therefore, when we reject an attractive option by choosing the status quo in preference to change, we may think we are making the conservative choice. What research shows is that the opposite happens, as it is precisely these moments of negative/passive choice that create the most enduring feelings of regret. This doesn’t constitute a manifesto for job-hopping. However, it should bring in a useful perspective when considering such choices.
Joseph Bikart is the author of The Art of Decision Making and is a Founding Partner and Director of the international consulting firm, Templar Advisors. He holds an MBA from ESCP.
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