The (Hidden) Downside of Switching Jobs You Should Know
While a new job usually comes with additional financial benefits, there is downside of switching jobs.
I spent the first six years of my career in one company.
Then, I moved to another one as their Head of Marketing. I stayed with them for 14 months before moving to a consumer goods company.
30 months after that, I moved to Canada and joined my fourth company.
Each of these steps had its benefits —
- They came with additional financial benefits
- Some of them came with more exposure to leadership and/or global teams
- A few provided the type of culture and work structure I desired
- All of them taught me a lot and made me a better marketer
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However, I didn’t fully know the downside of switching jobs.
The Downside of Switching Jobs
Starting from the beginning
Every company has its own way of doing things. Whenever you join a company, you will need months to fully acclimatize to the way things work.
Your colleagues would be way ahead in their game. While it’s expected that you’d have to play catch up, it gets old if you switch jobs too frequently.
Loss of work friends
I am still in touch with the work friends I made during my first job. I can’t say the same for my second or third one. However, I do miss the culture we had in my first company. Staying in touch and working together are not the same thing.
Not all company culture is conducive to making friends. Some companies are quite political in nature where you need to keep your guard up.
I find that super draining.
I am spending most of my time at work. It’s unfortunate that I can’t be myself due to company culture.
Long-term planning & building
I created a five-year branding strategy based on user data for my first company. Then I executed the first-year plan. That year went so well that some of our work got national and global recognition.
However, I left before I could fully oversee the execution of that strategy.
The same thing happened in other companies as well. The strategies we worked hard to build, I couldn’t be part of its full execution. I missed out on the joy of planning & building something.
Job insecurity
In today’s world, it’s true for almost every company.
However, when you join a new company, you are more vulnerable to layoffs. The company might prefer to keep the proven talents over a newcomer.
In an ideal world, I’d like to stay in a job where I like my work, I can be creative, which has a good culture, a fair progression plan, and competitive benefits.
It wouldn’t be too much to ask a few years ago. But in today’s world, it might be.
This article was first published in Data Driven Investor
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