Job hopping is good for the creative soul

and wallet.

We live in a world where change is routine, why should our careers be different? As every serious job hopper knows, pay raises come faster – and are bigger- with judicious jumps than with old-fashioned loyalty.

Nowhere is this truer than in advertising. For an industry that routinely serves up use-by-date fare change is not only desirable it is necessary. Job hopping is good. It throws you in contact with different people, different working styles, different processes, different clients, different ideas and, not least, different expressions of familiar ideas.

Who would you rather work with: the eclectic who’s seen and done it most of it, if not all, or the old faithful whose expertise comes from a familiarity with his own individual rut?

Forget loyalty, it’s not just outdated; it’s a one way street. When times are bad, who do you think gets dumped? The job hopper who blossoms productivity with fresh ideas or the old-faithful who studiously ploughs the same barren patch?

St Augustine describes the world as a book and the non-traveller, an ignoramus who reads just one page. And what is a change of jobs if not a form of career-travel? Employers claim to love employees who display the most loyalty, I say, “If you love them set them free, if- and when- they return they will come bearing gifts of productive creativity.”