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Hopping too many startups in a row?

20 points 15characters | 2 comments | 21 Oct 24 01:07 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source

The last 3 positions I've held have been SWE at relatively small startups. Within 2 years of being at those companies, big changes occurred prompting me to hop for job security (didn't secure next round of funding, C-suite got replaced, etc). For me, this is the nature of startups- fast turnaround and turnover. I thought this was normal until my last interview where a recruiter was looking for stronger explanations as to why I haven't held a position for 3-4 years recently. Being clear that it wasn't a positive sign to them. Is it really that strange, or were they maybe used to bigger company culture and expectations? Not going to risk my own security riding a sinking ship.
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joshstrange ◴[21 Oct 24 14:11 UTC] No.41904377[source]▶
I would not recommend that you go down with the ship but you will want to have a good story for why you switched so often. It's hard to see "1-2 years for the last 2-3 jobs" and not get nervous as someone hiring. Even more so if I hear "The culture wasn't good so I left" or something vague for all reasons of why you left. It's going to take a month or so before they are contributing to the team and then a few months to a year before they fully understand the platform they are working on fully, it sucks to invest that time and energy into someone just to have them leave after a 1-2 years.

The old adage of "If everywhere you go smells like shit then check your shoe" applies here. That's not to say you couldn't have worked at 3 actually bad companies that you should have left but it's at least a warning flag. I've had people with short job tenures back-to-back explain the reasoning and I've been perfectly satisfied with it but I've also had people give me reasons that sound very fake. Interestingly, the people that come across as "fake" are also the ones that give off a slight whiff of "I'm better than this job" or "This is only a stepping stone for me". Those things can both be true but if can't at least pretend to care then I'm not interested.

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1. giraffe_lady ◴[21 Oct 24 15:26 UTC] No.41905199[source]▶
> I would not recommend that you go down with the ship but you will want to have a good story for why you switched so often.

I mean have the story ready but you'll likely never get a chance to tell it. In this job market this is a "screen out without a phone call" criterion. I think it's shitty but it will likely be very hard to get interviews with this sort of recent employment streak.

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2. joshstrange ◴[21 Oct 24 17:07 UTC] No.41906124[source]▶
> I mean have the story ready but you'll likely never get a chance to tell it.

Potentially, depending on where you are interviewing. I didn't write off anyone with multiple short tenures when I did hiring earlier this year but it was a red flag that I addressed in the first interview.