This week I have been reading a lot of different posts and articles that try to answer the question how many jobs is too much on an applicant’s resume? I run into this topic all the time with our clients. Some clients will even try to disqualify a candidate if they feel they have held too many jobs based on their resume.
Let me be clear, I am not saying that you should ignore their work history, but don’t use it as the sole means for disqualifying. That statement usually leads me to answering this question from our clients — How many jobs is too many? I never really had a third-party reference point to give them. Well, now I do. In Monster and DDI’s webinar titled Thanks but No Thanks, they found that 63% of all Job Seekers have had multiple jobs over the last 5 years. Here is the breakdown of those surveyed on how many jobs they have held in the last 5 years.
37% have held 1 job
52% have held 2-3 jobs
8% have held 4-5 jobs
3% have had 6 or more jobs
If you are looking for someone who has only had 1 or even 2 jobs in the last 5 years, you are going to eliminate a significant portion of the talent pool. I recommend that you use the number of jobs as a discussion point. Ask questions regarding why they changed jobs, did the jobs live up to their expectations, what skills did they learn, etc. You will learn far more about them as a person and a potential employee by asking these questions than by attempting to divine answers from their resume.