Employee Empowerment | Job Hopping to Increase Salary

According to Robert Walters, job hopping can increase salaries by 20 to 40% depending on position and skill sets. Meanwhile, professionals who stay in their current companies can expect a salary bump by 10%.

During my first career, senior officers offered me advice revolving around loyalty and tenure. Many of them had stayed for over a decade and rose through the ranks.

Then one day, I found out that my colleagues whom had recently changed companies had increased their salary by almost 2x overnight and achieved six-digit incomes.

In this article, we explore the concept of job hopping and how it can be an effective strategy to grow your income.

What is job hopping?

Job Hopping takes place when a person has established a pattern of staying in an organization for a short period of time. While the exact time frame is subjective, switching jobs frequently after less than a year usually falls under the definition.

Employees have numerous reasons for switching jobs:

• Lack of work-life balance

• Misalignment with company culture and values

• Bad direct managers

• Resignations of work friends

• Remote work arrangements

While job hopping can be good strategy in achieving higher income, it’s not all about the money. Changing companies can positively impact your mental health and work environment.

Job Hopping for Salary Increase

Leverage offers by switching jobs

When you have multiple job offers or the ability to leave your current job, you have greater negotiating power in terms of salary and benefits.

Let’s say you have a job and want to switch. Here’s a sample scenario of what could happen:

1. The offer -an interested organization offers you a higher package compared to what your present employer offers.

2. Counter-offer – to get you to stay, your current company makes a raise above the potential offer. This manifests in an immediate promotion and/or salary bump.

3. Second counter-offer – the interested party increases their previous offer to seal the deal.

A bidding war for your skills and services takes place.

This works particularly well in niche industries such as Web3, where there is a shortage of talent. 

Skills gained from changing jobs

Coming out of my first traditional banking job, I switched to the financial technology industry. This paid dividends down the line as companies looked for candidates with solid banking experience with the agile mindset of startups and fintech companies.

Changing jobs frequently can expose you to new technologies and industries allowing you to become a more well-rounded employee, positioning yourself for higher salaries.

Here are soft-skills that you’re bound to learn by switching jobs:

• Communication – working in various organizations requires you to build networks everywhere you go. This forces you to communicate and build connections with whomever you work with. The breadth of your connections can play a big role in terms of long-term career success.

• Adaptability – job hopping requires you to enter a new environment, learn the ways of working of both the institution and the people, and succeed. Humans hate change. Professional job hopper embrace it.

• Industry Learnings – you only learn certain things when you try it out directly. If you stick to the government sector, you may never learn about blockchain or cryptocurrency. You would have to study it outside of work and on weekends. There’s no better way than to work in the industry directly.

By accumulating various skills and knowledge at each new company, you make yourself more valuable in the market.

Career advancements from job hopping

Moving to new roles and companies can allow you to climb the career ladder more quickly, leading to higher salaries and greater responsibilities.

Advancements can manifest in the following ways:

• Promotion – whether by moving to a people-management position or a higher individual contributor role, the increased responsibility usually equates to higher income.

• New Role – while a new function may not lead to higher income at the start, it could lead to greater self-fulfillment. The happier you are in your role, the higher chances that you do well and eventually land those salary increases.

• Fresh Start – changing environments reduce trauma from your previous work place. At the same time, you remove the weight of past mistakes or proving yourself to superiors and colleagues. This allows you to work to the best of your abilities.

A friend of mine moved from a marketing role in Insurance to a human resources career in the startup space. It had been his dream for quite sometime. He became very fulfilled and advanced his career multiple times since then.

Job hopping is not for everyone

Before you change jobs, remember that job hopping is not for everyone. It comes with certain risks.

For one, you could end up in an extremely toxic environment. That could explain why they’re willing to offer premiums to candidates. Make sure you do your due diligence before signing with any company.

Additionally, you can join a financially unstable company. Especially in these uncertain times, there’s no telling which companies could layoff employees or suddenly withdraw job offers. If you’re with family and thinking of more stability, job hopping may not be for you.

Regardless of whether you choose to job hop or not, The Mega Maxi is here to guide you. Make sure to checkout our newly released job board!