I read today on Secrets of the Job Hunt, referencing a Bureau of Labor Statistics study, that the average college graduate can expect to hold between 10 and 14 jobs by the time they turn 38. C.M. Russell, author of the blog, suggests that job hopping and free agency are the way to get ahead in today’s job market, and that loyalty to employers is a thing of the past. I’d have to agree…and with so many jobs in such a short period of time, I think the term “jobette” (like “kitchenette”) may be a good term to describe this mini-employment situations we all have.

He also goes on to list the jobs he’s held since college, which led me to an interesting evaluation of my own career path. As an entrepreneur, I just say I’ve been an entrepreneur for the past 10 years. But that’s not entirely accurate. So here’s my REAL career list over the past ten years, some of which I’ve done concurrently and some of which I’m still engaged in (I’m still 5 years shy of 38, so we’ll see how this pans out well into the future):

1) Bureau of Labor Statistics, Field Economist (how coincidental is that?)
2) Finance Associate
3) Writer/Editor
4) SEO Specialist/Manager
5) Microsoft Site/Server Administrator
6) LAMP Application Architect
7) Real Estate Investor
8) Property Manager
9) Business Strategist/Manager

I think that, more than anything, this illustrates not that I jump from job to job, but that so-called entrepreneurs are really “jacks of all trades”, or at least involve themselves in many different aspects of a business or investment. Regardless, there are parallels between the traditional career and that of an investor/entrepreneur - that being that many different “jobs” is the norm.

Tags: career advancement, employer loyalty, entrepreneurship, job hopping, jobette

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