Singaporean asks if job-hopping applicants or those with an employment gap are a red flag
In a post on r/askSingapore on Monday (Jun 30), u/ Fun_Sentence_2546 wrote that they work in a bank, and in the resumes they've received, they've seen candidates who jump from one bank to another, staying in one position for only about six months.
' Even though they've performed well academically, the short stint in each position seems to be a sign that they might have failed all their previous probation.
'What do you think? What are the other obvious red flags that you look for?' they asked.
Conventional wisdom frowns upon job-hopping for a number of reasons, as it seems to indicate a lack of loyalty to a company or seriousness of purpose, or, as the post author suggested, even failure.
However, with the workforce environment today being very different from the time of boomers, Gen X, and millennials, more people, especially younger workers, tend to perceive job-hopping as a natural part of one's career trajectory. The days when a person got employed by a company and then stayed there for the rest of their working life may well be long gone.
Commenters on u/ Fun_Sentence_2546's post were also apt to see job-switching or even gaps in one's resume as not necessarily a negative.
Some wrote that employees could have taken a work gap for health reasons or taken temporary freelancing or gig jobs, and did not mention them in their resumes. Others could have spent time parenting during their child's early years.
'Employment gap is too broad a bias. Maybe the candidate didn't explain the gap in the resume… The gaps are irrelevant — it's how much the person can pick up and contribute,' one wrote.
Nevertheless, a commenter seemed to agree with the post author and wrote that when they see that an applicant has 'more than three short stints in a row,' they would just pass on them.
However, another took the opposite view, writing, ' I don't see this as a red flag. I see this as clear decisiveness in making career decisions amidst a highly uncertain environment. Layoffs are everywhere in banking, and nowadays it's always been last in, first out with firing, it's the easiest for people to get cut during probation, even our locals.
'Even today, Singapore does not prioritise firing foreigners first, even when so many local fresh grads are unemployed. If you were in their shoes, would it make sense to wait till a layoff happens, fall into an environment with zero protection, get screwed or lowballed at interviews thanks to all the layoff stigma in Singapore, which persists because of entitled people who got lucky who have zero empathy for layoffs, or would it make sense to act decisively and protect yourself?'
'A lot of jobs in SG and in banks are contract roles. You work in a bank, how many contract staff are there around you? You should know that not all will be offered permanent roles based on headcount. Six months doesn't mean there's not much to learn. I have done many six-month roles and have definitely learnt a lot in different departments.
'The reason why some employees may not have extended contracts or were converted to permanent roles was due to reasons like COVID or hiring freezes due to the economy. Please give people a chance because I know that the people who have that many contract roles would cherish a permanent role!!!' another weighed in. /TISG
Read also: What to do when you're unemployed and scared of starting the job seeking process all over again
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