The Benefits of Job Hopping

In a study of 8,700 employees, Cornell and Rutgers researchers find "job hoppers" have an edge over other new hires, getting up to speed more than twice as fast

"It looks like you've moved around quite a bit."

Some hiring managers are wary of applicants with a history of changing jobs, fearful that they are unreliable and will have an eye on the door. But new research in the Academy of Management Journal reveals these candidates bring a hidden skill to the table: they hit the ground running faster than anyone else.

"Workers are more mobile than ever before," said Scott Bentley, an Assistant Professor of Human Resource Management in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. "Millions of people already have changes on their resume from the job hopping phenomenon of 2021 and 2022, and now AI is causing more turnover. What this study shows is that people who move around often get really good at it, and that's a valuable skill in this labor market."

Starting a new job is rarely easy, even when the work itself is familiar. New hires must form relationships with co-workers, learn organizational norms ("how we do things here"), and adapt to the unique culture of the workplace. This takes time and costs productivity.

Bentley and lead author Rebecca Kehoe from Cornell University analyzed data on 8,700 hedge fund managers employed by 2,100 U.S. firms over a 27-year period (1992 to 2019). They found that 72% of fund managers experienced a decline in performance after starting with a new firm. However, when they drilled down on the data, they noticed something interesting.

While most new hires needed an average of five months to get up to speed, those with a history of changing jobs needed just two months, and they had smaller performance declines. By six months, the gap closed and both groups performed similarly. This suggests that job hoppers might have the edge in organizations that demand immediate results.

"Think of someone who's always moving from one apartment to the next," Bentley said. "They have the art of packing and unpacking down to a science. The rest of us would be totally disorganized and living out of boxes for a long time. But eventually, we all unpack and settle in."

Strikingly, job hoppers excelled in situations that are notoriously challenging for most new hires:

• Moving to a new geographic region, where customs and social contexts are different;
• Joining a firm with many tenured employees (they tend to be less welcoming); and
• Taking on a role that requires high collaboration with colleagues.

The researchers chose the hedge fund industry because job titles and responsibilities are similar from one firm to the next, enabling an apples-to-apples comparison, but they argue that the findings apply to employees in all industries and occupations.

"Whether it's a teller moving to a new bank, or a nurse changing hospitals, there's always a period of adjustment," Bentley said. "Those who move around frequently can be more effective and more productive right out of the gate. This is equally, if not more, true in blue-collar professions where roles are often standardized."

The study challenges the long-held belief that everything we learn about the unique cultural and social landscape of a workplace goes out the window when we go someplace else.

Kehoe and Bentley's findings suggest that employees who "lily pad" from one job to the next are quietly building adaptability skills and "sophisticated behavioral repertoires," enabling them to read and react to social cues, even when the names and faces are different. And, the diversity of their experiences makes it easier for them to tackle challenges like a cross-country move.

For managers sifting through resumes, this suggests that a long list of different jobs and industries could be a hidden benefit, not a red flag.

"The knock on job hoppers is that they're a flight risk, and while that's true for some, there's this whole other side to the story," Bentley said. "If you're hiring, and you don't want to lose a few months of productivity while someone gets up to speed, job hoppers deserve a second look."