Job Changing Strategies 

There are many deeply personal reasons to change your employment situation. But from a purely strategic point of view, there are four good reasons to change jobs multiple times within the same or similar industry during your first ten years of employment:

Broader experience
After about three years you’ve learned most of what you’re going to know about your job. But over a ten-year period, you will gain broader experience from embracing different tasks, learning new skills and taking on more responsibilities.

Greater demand for your skills
A varied background makes your skills more valuable to employers. You’re not only familiar with your current company’s product, service, procedures, quality programs, inventory system, and so forth, but you also bring expertise from your jobs with other companies.

Upward movement
A job change results in a faster promotion cycle. Each time you make a change, you go up a notch on the promotion ladder. You jump, for example, from project engineer to senior project engineer or national sales manager to vice president of sales and marketing.

Salary growth
More responsibility leads to greater earning power. A promotion usually comes with a salary increase, and since you’re being promoted faster, your salary grows more quickly.

Many people view a job change as a way of putting themselves into a better position. However, you should always be sure your new job offers you the means to satisfy your values and goals. While there’s no denying the strategic virtues of selective job changing for the purpose of career leverage, make sure the path you take will lead you where you really want to go.