re: Are the days of working the same company gone?

There's something to be said for comfort at work. You know how your current company operates: sick time, leaving early, email response expectations on weekends, and so on. I've seen plenty of people regret jumping at a few percentage points in pay.


Though if it's enough percentage points you can buy a boat to ease your new workplace stresses.

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Sounds like he just has a sour taste in his mouth. The 10-20 yr tenured employees should be the most valuable.

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It comes down to production. Sometimes long term employees can get comfortable and it can lead to dimished production. If you have a senior experienced employee and he's keep his numbers up and growing, then they're almost irreplaceble!

The myth was shattered for me when I was working for WorldCom in the early 2000's. When I was hired (age 23) I seriously proclaimed to my wife I had found a company I would stay with for 30 years and retire.

Worldcom would be out of business 3 years later.

Depends on the size of the companies and the opportunities that affords. I've been out of school 13 years and worked for 4 different companies. Not sure how the career market is anywhere else, but at least here it seems like those that are 2-5 years older than I am have been with one company for a long time, and anyone my age and younger have moved around. I think it had to do with experience and seniority when the recession hit.

I had been with a large regional CPA firm for 3+ years and left it in 2007. I was looking to leave public accounting. The hours and travel were a drag, and we were wanting to have kids. I was talking with a few recruiters, and one of them shared an audit position with a small local firm. At first, it seemed like a good fit. They didn't have much in the middle. 4 partners, and 3 younger staff either still in grad school or just out of school. They basically needed someone like me to run the fieldwork of audits, and be an intermediary between the partners and staff. All of their clients were within an hour of here, so no overnight travel, they paid overtime which was awesome for 3-4 months, and I thought I would be on a faster career path with less competition for those senior level manager positions.

What actually happened was the recession hit in 2007-08, and since they were small they were having trouble making payroll. I was the last in, so I was the first out. They could either keep 2 of the staff or me, and it was an easy choice for the partners.

After that, I realized that unless I was willing to go out on my own, I needed to work for a larger company for stability, get experience, and make myself more valuable. I spent about 4 years working for a contractor in the accounting department, doing project management from the accounting side. It was a great place to work, but like any government contractor, it is usually boom or bust. I could see that the end was coming, so I was already preparing for a change. The owners of the company, and the CFO, were both giving me more work that wasn't related to the company, but to the owners other holdings. I guess trying to delay the inevitable. Finally they laid off about 30 people, and I was part of that. I landed at my current job a couple of weeks later, and I've been here 5.5 years. It is a large publicly held company, and there are tons of opportunities. If I felt like it, I could switch to another position internally in a matter of weeks. Stuff gets posted a good bit, and I've thought about it, but I love the group I support. It almost feels like working for a small company inside of a large corporation.

All that being said, if something came up suddenly and I had an opportunity to make a move externally, I'd jump on it. I'm at that age in my mid-30s where I'm probably going to make a switch soon or be here for another 5+ years.

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I've seen plenty of people regret jumping at a few percentage points in pay.

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This is me right now it seemed like the right move logically, but was a huge mistake.

I've learned to always follow your heart no matter what others say

I'm still at my first job straight out of college. Coming up on 13 years. They've treated me well in regards to raises, promotions, paid life insurance, etc. Only thing that sucks is the hour commute each way.

Many employees at my hospital will try and stay there until they retire. We qualify for membership to our state retirement plan so it’s worth it for that reason alone.

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When’s the last time you switched?

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I've been with my current company for 7 years. Between 2000 and 2010 I worked for 4 different companies. Kept getting better opportunities to move up. Finally got to the point where I was tired of traveling and took what I hope to be my last company until retirement.

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Nah. I am high up in IT. They need me.

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About to outsource this whole dept

29 years at same company, Looking to do about 6 or 7 more years then retire. An old operator baw many years ago told me that the closer you are to the valve, the more job security you have. I left the operator role in 2001 and changed job roles a couple of times but all within the same company and site. Lots of folks with 30+ years here. I have seen a bunch of younger guys in both operations and maintenance leave for another company for a slight raise. Several came back after realizing how unsafe the refineries were compared to here.

I find most people that change companies often are in fields like IT, Sales, and business related things.