Ask HN: How much job hopping is too much?

When I review a resume I look for short stints where the person was an FTE (or freelancer) as generally it is a sign they have a hard time being a team player, or they look for any small reason to self eject versus work through issues. Companies aren't perfect, not one of them, so there will always be one or more reasons people can use to eject, but you need to stick it out some and learn how to work through issues.

In general (specifically in tech), if you stay a minimum of 2 years no one will really care much if you move on, under that and you have to be more cautious how you present and discuss it. I'm not saying I wouldn't interview someone with 1-2 stints under a year. But if you have ~3 years of experience and have had 3-4 jobs it better be clear to me that the jobs were planned as short term gigs or something specific like 1-2 of the companies failed etc.

One strategy you can try is to arrange your resume not in chronological order but about skills and projects you've worked on specifically. This sometimes gets you past the resume review stage though the short stints will come up and you'll need to have a good reason why you are worth taking a risk on. The first one that was because of relocation is fairly easy to justify so I doubt anyone dings you for that, but the others will raise some eyebrows and potentially concern.

The first two roles seem long enough. The 5 month one is rough and following it with a 7 month one may get some ignores but the market is hot and if you can't land something you could wait until the summer when you have a year.

Aside from all of that, you are putting yourself in a pressure situation at your new role because if you don't like it leaving right away will be much harder. Stick it out a year.

You don't need a mentor with 2 years more experience. You need 2 more years. Give yourself time to fail and grow. That means sticking it out somewhere even if it sucks just to build that cred. If you want better work a startup might be better but if you want more mentorship a big company might be better. If you want neither a middle size company is the way to go.

It is a red flag, but employers are in no place to be picky. Most would hire contractors for the same position if they couldn't find a full time person. And if they can get a FTE for half the cost of a contractor, and that employee leaves in 9 months, that's not a bad deal.

I would draw the line around 3 months though. At that point, you haven't really hit the ROI of training and onboarding and such.