How long should you stay in one job?

If you ask someone in Japan how long he will stay in his job, his answer will be immediate: "I am looking to retire in my current organization". The answer to this question is related to your organization industry, location, market, size, environment, salary, age, and position.

In fact, the US, average time spent at a single company is 4 years and is 5 years for UK workers but it is 3.6 years in the MENA region and 6 years in Africa.

It is a pretty short tenure compared to the old days when people secured a job after leaving school or university and then stayed there until they collected their golden carriage clock; but increasingly, changing one's position every few years is considered the norm. Laire McCartney, an adviser for the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, says there's no such thing.

"It is peculiar to the person. It depends on their profession plans, assuming they have any profession plans and whether they feel they get the right amount of difficulty and flexibility," she says.

Ms. McCartney does, nevertheless, believe there's a minimum tenure, saying just three months in one role before moving on wouldn't look right unless it is driven by a change in personal circumstances.

She also says the size of an organization can often be a factor in deciding how long a person stays, with a small company regularly offering less opportunity for people to progress than a larger rival.

A new survey says more than 40% of baby boomers lingered with their company for more than 20 years. However, it is unlikely that their sons or grandchildren will experience the same job tenure; but so-called millennials, People who born between 1980 and 1999, have very different expectations about jobs. Several surveys suggest that the same factors do not motivate these younger workers as previous generations, such as a work for life, but instead value an excellent work-life balance and a sense of purpose beyond financial success.

What about you? How long should you stay in one job?

It depends on how much you are learning and what the job is doing for your career. Although most companies are looking for a long-term relationship, this is not your father’s job market. Rare are people who become company lifers from yesteryear who spent their entire careers in a single position within a separate company. Today, we are living in a time of job promiscuity, where usually changing jobs is not just tolerated, but encouraged.

This shift is a relatively recent phenomenon that can be traced back to the dot-com rise and fall of the late 1990s. Regardless of the reasons for the change, the current employment climate requires job seekers to be agiler. As such, you will notice that fewer people stay in their jobs for longer than three or five years. 

You can do very well staying at the same company, depending on how you do it. An average person will probably do better moving every few years, you and only you can decide if it is better to stay in the same organization or not. I can only show you the advantages and disadvantages of this decision. 

Disadvantages 

1.  Your salary will not be industry standard. Your pay tends to slip concerning the industry only because the yearly hike will not be equal to the kind of jump you would expect when you switched companies. According to a Forbes.com article entitled “Employees That Stay In Companies Longer Than 2 Years Get Paid 50% Less,” those who remain on the job too long get paid 50% less than counterparts who leave and start anew elsewhere. Over the time your earnings will not be components as of market as you never get a jump in salary, which you used to get by changing company. Staying at the One Company Without Advancing Could Cost You-a higher salary, more benefits, and a better title with more challenging work. You can often get that in the same company through promotions, but in this era of raise freezes and "you are lucky you even have a job" mentality, advancement does not always happen, and we might end up stagnant in the same position for years because of the job security.

2.  Another benefit of switching jobs is that it can open doors to discover and advance in a career. Going up to higher pay and benefits within a firm can take many years while switching jobs can allow workers to get significant increases in pay, benefits, and responsibilities quickly. Changing positions also lets workers escape dead-end employment and continue to learn and grow.

3.  Switching jobs may boost your future earning potential. However, job hoping to maintain your passion, build a network faster, keep challenges fresh, and find what it is you should be preparing for your life.

4.  You tend to become an expert at things within the company, and you lose touch with the industry outside. That is means unless there is some severe self-development, your job opportunities get limited to another part of the company or the competitor.

5.  You get rigid staying in one firm for so long and if you fired from that organization or due to some other reason you need to change than it is tough for you to adjust.

6.  You get perfect exposure of one firm but couldn't get exposure of the whole industry. Your network in the industry is insufficient to one company.

7.  There may come a time when someone at a lower pay grade to you gets hired with more salary because that is the going rate in the market. At the end when you are expecting some considerable role, someone from outside will be hired which is younger to you and become your boss just because he has changed many companies and has excellent exposure of the whole industry.

8.  The above reasons play in management's favor. You are not going anywhere so bonuses, raises and other 'gifts' are not offered so frequently. At about three years the company has probably taught you everything it can. You can coast for as long as you want after that. Trust me; it is so comfortable to coast. That comfort is the trap.

Advantages:

1.  In fact, staying for ten years or more on a job can be a positive thing, if you have gained seniority and leadership opportunities and had more say in the company. It might say to potential employers that you are dependable and loyal

2.  Early on in a career, switching jobs is universal because it can take time to obtain a job that fits your attention and skills. Changing positions a few times early on in work can help workers find a job that they like enough to hold with for 10 or 20 years without getting burned out.

3.  A potential benefit of waiting longer at the same company is that staying with the equal employer for many years builds a reputation for dependability. A worker who continually switches jobs or starts new ventures may have difficulty getting jobs in the future, because employers have to invest resources to train a worker, and that investment is lost if the worker leaves the company.

4.  Another benefit of staying in the same business for a long time is that it allows for the creation of stable and long-lasting work relationships. If a worker switches roles every couple of years, it may be difficult for him to form healthy relationships that endure after he stops working. Strong work relationships in a particular industry can be vital to success in starting up small businesses.

5.  Staying at the same firm for a long time can allow workers to gain access to unique job benefits that are reserved for long-time workers. For example, some employers offer pensions that require a certain amount of service. Similarly, some jobs are governed by seniority systems, where working more extended grants access to better pay and benefits.

6.  The longer you are there, the less mutually beneficial the relationship will be. (Particularly if both you AND the company has goals to grow and expand in the industry - most companies' business models are structured for them to benefit at the expense of their employees.)

7.  It is easier to develop a comfort-zone in any bad habits that are prevalent within the culture of that company.

8.  It is easier to fall behind in new/current technologies, paradigms, and standards.

9.  It is harder to manage the number of opportunities to negotiate your value. (Every time you go to a new company, you have a unique opportunity to negotiate your compensation.)

10.  It is easier to phase your skill-set out of demand/relevance within the industry. (Ex. Spend an extended period maintaining some super-messy ultra-outdated, anti-architected, & poorly-programmed code, and you could be lulled into incorporating any of those bad habits into your conceptualization of how a project should be done.)

11.  You know the processes and systems so well that things become extremely easy for you. You know where you cut corners and where you just mustn't.12.  You know whom to approach any issue, so new hires gravitate to you for anything they are facing.

13.  If you are good at something you do, you form relationships with people who are growing. That helps if you want to move to another division or need that reference for something.

14.  Life becomes comfortable and manageable with little effort.

15.  People are a lot easier on your "work from homes" and "sick leaves."

16.  You are very comfortable after initial settlement, and that comfort ness stays with you throughout your career. So you enjoy your life, or you focus on growing in the organization.

17.  You have the substantial institutional knowledge, which makes you more valuable than others in the company.

18.  You can reach a very high position in the business.

19.  You get exposure very early in your life.

In my opinion, we need to learn to divide loyalties - remain loyal to your current employer and to your professional goals at the same time. 

The relationship between employer and employee is transactional, and you need to be ever aware of this so that you do not sit there in one position and put all your eggs in one basket and then wake up one day and be unemployed with no prospects or unfulfilled in the same old job.

Don't neglect your future and career goals to continue with an employer that may terminate your contract according to a business situation. Focus, keep your skills updated and key one eye on other opportunities in case your employer cannot or won't provide them. I strongly recommend you do not close your eyes and blindly cling to your job while leaving your future up to your employer. You want to offer your employer steady employment and start to send resumes out if nothing is happening after a couple of years.

I advise people to stay 2-3 years in an Entry-level or bottom line position, 3-5 years in the Mid-level position. However, for Senior and C-levels area it is a different story as changing your organization is related to the opportunities you have so there is no problem if you stay extended period in 1 even if you retired.