Topics: Advancement · All topics

Career advice: Advancement Question

Henry O'DonnellDetroit, USA

I am a mechanical engineer working in the automotive industry. When I graduated from college I took a job with an automotive-parts supplier ("Supplier A") designing engine components. After working there for a year, my wife and I decided to move to Detroit in a move to advance her career and get her enrolled in an masters program she was interested in. To make the move to Detroit, I took a job as an application engineer for a large competitor ("Supplier B") to my existing company. In this job I have been an on-site engineering rep at our customer ("Engine Manufacturer C"). Now Engine Manufacturer C loves the work I do so much they want to hire me in a senior engineering position. This is very tempting, but my wife and I want to move back to our home on the East Coast in a year or two. At that point in time I'll need to get a job (preferably in automotive), but would it look better on my resume to have taken a promotion from my current customer and worked there two years or to have stuck with my existing employer (in a job with less pay and less responsibility)?

Having worked for 3 different (but similar) companies in my first 5 years out of college may look a little sketchy to potential companies back East. Any advice?

Daniel's advice

Let’s suppose that you didn’t need to concern yourself with what any future employer might think. If that were the case, what would you do now? Would you jump ship for the more challenging and lucrative job or stay put? How you answer that will be a telling sign of what’s in your heart and where you’d really like to spend your time and energy for the next period of time, no matter how long it turns out to be.

Three more things to consider.

We suspect you’ve heard that saying “the best laid plans of mice and men� and understand it’s subtle meaning. You think that your future will involve a move back to the East Coast, but there are lots of factors that might get in the way of turning that into a reality in the time frame you’ve now set. Life, in its infinite mystery, often intervenes in our tidy plans and throws us unexpected turns and events that can change our lives in ways we hadn’t anticipated. So, it’s possible that you wouldn’t move back to the East Coast in that year or two. Would you then regret that you hadn’t done what you most wanted to do? Better to base your decision upon what will bring you the most satisfaction and fulfillment for that time, should it end up being one, two or more years.

Secondly, if you did take the new job with your current customer and then your plans to move east proceeded on track, it would be easy to justify your second job change due to your geographic move. Most employers don’t form negative impressions of a candidate with a history like yours because they understand and accept this as a reasonable explanation of why a person has changed jobs. Additionally, it would be rather easy for you to explain your reasons for taking a job that provided you with a more challenging and lucrative position. Most employers respect a person with ambition and drive and we don’t think you’d be judged harshly for this; quite the contrary.

Finally, don’t forget that any job you take in the future will be based on the tasks, responsibilities and salary level of your last job. That means your decision now could inform your entire career history (and the money you can make), so think carefully about what’s in your best long-term interest, and not what might look “reasonable� on a resume. You define the resume, not the other way around.

Topics: Advancement · All topics