By: Debbie Taylor
Forever is a long time.
A long time to work for one company. A long time to stay in one industry. A long time to build a career in one function. And an especially long time to rely on the same knowledge and skills.
There is tremendous value in longevity. Staying somewhere gives us time to build relationships, develop expertise, make decisions and, importantly, live with the consequences of those decisions.
But longevity isn’t automatically evidence of success.
And seeking change isn’t automatically evidence of risk-taking or job-hopping.
Yet in hiring, we often treat them that way.
“That Person Is a Flight Risk”
I hear it regularly from hiring teams:
- “That person moves around too much.”
- “They’ve only been there three years.”
- “I’m concerned they’re a flight risk.”
My response is usually the same:
Every great person you hire should be a flight risk.
If you’re attracting exceptional talent, other companies should want that person too.
The objective isn’t to hire people who won’t leave. It’s to build an organization where talented people have compelling reasons to stay.
That doesn’t mean tenure is irrelevant. A career filled with short stops deserves questions. But so does a career spent entirely within one company, function or industry.
Neither tells the whole story.
Depth or Breadth?
There is real value in staying.
Spend 20 years in an industry and you can develop knowledge that can’t be accelerated. Stay with an organization through different leaders, economic cycles, strategies, successes and failures, and you learn something else that’s valuable: what happens after the decision is made.
It’s easy to arrive, make changes, put some wins on a résumé and move on. It’s harder to build something, adjust when it doesn’t work and live with the long-term consequences.
Tenure can create depth.
Movement can create breadth.
Different companies expose us to different cultures, operating models and leadership styles. Different industries challenge assumptions. Different functions teach us to see the business through another person’s eyes.
Both have value. And both have risks.
Breadth without accountability can be just as limiting as depth without change.
Forever Doesn’t Mean Things Stay the Same
Today’s conversation about AI is a good reminder.
Some jobs will change dramatically because of AI. Some may disappear, while entirely new ones will emerge. But AI isn’t really the story.
Change is.
Consider the Baby Boomer generation. They grew up without personal computers, cell phones or the internet. Many started their careers with paper files, landlines and typewriters. I doubt many executives are preparing their board reports today on an IBM Selectric.
Those who continued to succeed didn’t spend their careers working exactly as they had when they started. They learned computers, email, the internet, smartphones and countless new systems and technologies.
They adapted. They learned. They found opportunity in change. AI is another chapter in that same story.
So rather than simply asking, “Will AI replace my job?” perhaps there is a more useful question:
What am I intentionally learning today that will keep me relevant tomorrow?
Learning can’t begin only when our job is threatened. Staying relevant requires us to be intentional about developing new skills and seeking new experiences throughout our careers.
Stop Counting Years. Start Measuring Impact.
Hiring executives should apply the same thinking when evaluating talent.
It’s easy to look at a résumé and count years three here, five there, twenty somewhere else.
But time is not impact. Instead, ask:
- What changed because this person was there?
- What did they build or improve?
- What decisions did they make?
- Did they stay long enough to see whether those decisions worked?
- How did they respond when something didn’t work?
- How have they adapted as their company, industry or role changed?
- What have they intentionally learned along the way?
And perhaps most importantly:
Do they have the capacity and commitment to learn what they don’t already know?
Because we’re hiring people for what comes next, not simply rewarding them for what they’ve already done.
Map Your Career the Same Way
We should ask equally tough questions about our own careers.
- If you’ve spent 20 years with one organization, have you accumulated 20 years of evolving experiences or repeated essentially the same experience 20 times?
- If you’ve worked for six companies, did each move intentionally add something to your capabilities or were you simply moving?
- If you’ve spent your career in one function or industry, has that depth made you more valuable? And have you developed enough breadth to adapt when things change?
There is no perfect number of years to stay in a job. There is no ideal number of companies to have on a résumé. And there is no single career path that guarantees success. What matters is whether you are continuing to learn, adapt and create impact.
Change is inevitable.
Industries consolidate. Technology evolves. Companies restructure. Leadership changes. Business models disappear and new ones emerge.
A long career doesn’t require staying in the same place. And staying in the same place doesn’t require having the same experience year after year.
Whether we stay or move, the challenge is the same: keep learning, keep adapting and keep creating impact.
Forever is a long time.
The risk isn’t staying somewhere too long.
The risk is staying the same too long.
If you’re thinking about what’s next for your organization, your leadership team or your own career we’d welcome the conversation.
Reach out at info@TTSGSearch.com.