Employees have specific career plans which they would like to fast-track if given a choice. Who wouldn’t want a promotion, a pay increase, and privileges to come in the soonest possible time? However, how does a prospective employer look at a resume that reflects a yearly promotion and salary increase with five different previous employers in a span of five years?
The employee can be feeling quite pleased with himself/herself with his meteoric rise, career-wise., and rightly so. Not everyone can manage such a feat without the necessary abilities that are presumed to be the cause of subsequent higher offers. The only thing in question here is the ability to stay on with a company without easily being seduced by an external offer of a higher title and pay.
Companies who invest on their employees through rigid training and education will naturally be wary of applicants having a track record of transferring from one company to another in a short period of time. They are afraid that such employees will not stay long enough to use their acquired abilities for the good of the company. As such, hiring these employees can be deemed risky, notwithstanding the obvious potentials they offer.
In the highly competitive job market of today, loyalty has become a very distant word. It has been relegated to the background by such things as career opportunities. Employees who take advantage of these opportunities are not to be completely blamed because of the continuing pressure to produce more financially to support a modern lifestyle. Although employees are not really expected to stay with one company for the rest of their working lives, companies would not prefer those that appear to leave once their personal goals have been achieved. Proper career development requires people not to lose sight of company goals as they pursue their own goals. Rushing career decisions may affect the accomplishment of ultimate career goals.