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Question: I’ve been thinking a lot about my career and what my tenure at my current employer means for prospective employers in the future.
I have been mostly happily employed at my current place of work for nine years and, although I don’t intend to stay there forever, until recently, I’ve assumed that nine, ten or eleven years of loyalty would look good on my CV. I spoke with a friend who has a recruiting role, and she told me in some cases that length of time can look like you’ve become “stuck” or “complacent”.
I’m now a little anxious. Do recruiters really look at long stints unfavourably?
Illustration: John Shakespeare Credit:
Answer: This is such a good question, and I’m a little bit surprised it hasn’t come up earlier.
I asked Associate Professor Timothy Bednall from the School of Business, Law and Entrepreneurship at Swinburne University of Technology about whether you should be concerned about coming across as “stuck” or “complacent” in your career. He says it all comes down to how you convey the information.
“I actually think it depends on how the applicant frames their career story. A couple of lines on a resume indicating a role with a single employer can hide a lot of the important details. A person may indeed have been with an employer for a long period, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that their role and responsibilities have remained the same.
“If their employer is like most workplaces, it’s probably undergone quite substantial changes, especially in the context of the pandemic. If the applicant has remained employed after one or more rounds of involuntary redundancies, it reflects the value of that person to their employer.”
Yes, someone in charge of recruiting often (maybe always) needs to read between the lines – it would be impractical to get across every single piece of relevant information in a single application – but Associate Professor Bednall says you can help to make sure those inferences aren’t negative.
“I think if the applicant frames their story in terms of the challenges they have faced and overcome in their current workplace, it can be a very positive message. If their career has progressed within the same organisation – if they have received a promotion or have been trusted with a greater number of important responsibilities – that can also be a very positive message.