Short time in a job - does it matter

enzolondon1

I'm posting on behalf of my niece and curious myself.My niece generally is in job roles anywhere between 2 and 12 years.

Post covid she was in a role for only 10 months which she took as it fit in with her caring responsibilities at the time and was a role she felt suited to. She decided not to stay in the role as caring responsibilities had changed and she didn't feel the role was fulfilling.

She is now in a role where the environment is awful and she is being what i would class as bullied.She is a hard worker and has never had such bad luck.

My question is if she leaves the role (when she finds another) will a future employer frown upon two short job stints. One was due to caring/family responsibilities change and she was doing two other temporary jobs alongside this current one is just simply toxic and awful (all public sector jobs so she can easily move around). Advice please, cheers 🍻 

Spendless

Not necessarily. You don't say how long she's been in the current role for though. The first short term one is easily explained - taken due to caring responsibilities  that have now finished. She might want to find something a bit more positive to say about her reasons for the current place not working out. Who knows with employers though, I once attended an interview where they already had my CV. I have gaps due to raising children plus several jobs that ended Dec 31st (places closed down/lost contracts). The interviewer later reported to the agency that had sent me that they decided against me due to the gaps - which I pointed out they knew about before deciding to offer an interview (as did the agency!) After that I tailored my CV to explain them.  

elsien

I interviewed someone who’d had a number of short time job very close together. They had a reasonable explanation for that so I decided to give them a chance on a part time role initially and they turned out to be one of my best workers.

tizerbelle

Find a "positive" reason to explain why she is looking to change jobs - it doesn't have to be true just realistic/reasonable. 
It could be the potential new job:

• is closer to home so reducing her commute time and reliance on car; 
• means she gets to spend more time each week working directly with service users and that's what she enjoys most; 
• provides an opportunity to build on her existing knowledge and experience and develop her skills in a specific area 

You get the idea, she is seen as taking positive steps to move forward with her work life rather than "running away from a bad situation" - bad mouthing your current employer to a potential new employer is rarely if ever something they want to hear regardless of the truth of it - if you are that disloyal to your current employer, what will you say about us if we employ you?  So you put a spin on it and look for the positive reasons for changing and omit that the toxic culture was the reason you started looking in the first place.  

TheElectricCow

Naturally it mostly depends on the role/industry she’s in, but I wouldn’t say it’s that much of a issue these days especially if a suitable explanation can be provided (such as caring responsibilities). More likely to be a cause for concern if it’s only a matter of weeks between changing jobs, but at 10 months unless we’re looking at more senior level positions I wouldn’t be too worried.

I’ve had several jobs that lasted under a year on my CV and not once have I ever been questioned about short lengths of service in an interview. Even with one job lasting just a month, a simple one sentence explanation about changing circumstances was adequate for any pre-interview questions asking for reasons leaving previous employment.

Of course this may not hold true for everyone, some employers might decide to be far more thorough in investigating applicant’s employment history especially if it’s a sector with more rigorous background checks.

theoretica

If she gets a new job and stays longer in it, few employers will care about a previous patch of short term jobs.  So her issue might be finding a new job now - but hopefully it won't be too bad.  The first job with caring has a good explanation, and for perhaps why she took her current job in a bit of haste.

enzolondon1

Thanks for your replies 🙂 @Spendless she has only been in the role 5 months. The jd was vague and she visited the workplace but most were wfh.

She asked in my opinion all the right questions and felt she had the skills for the job but was very much misold the role and the manager has pretty admitted this. It basically isn't what she thought or hoped it would be. Along with a bullying and toxic culture its just miserable for her. Such a shame she's had a steady stint of long term jobs. I

I'm worried for her in case the next one turns out even worse. She's a very kind, loyal and caring woman who can easily get taken advantage of through no fault of her own and I'm concerned what the damaging impact this is all having on her. I'm keeping everything crossed the next one is a bit of nicer place to work.