Are You A “JUMPER PROFILE”​ In The Startup Ecosystem?

Last article we captured how startup founders & HR teams are not just suffering from scarcity of talents in the market, but also from the epidemic of “Bandwagon Jumpers” or “Jumper Profiles” which we defined as:

Talents who literally JUMP from one startup to another after very short spans, with the aim of “growth-hacking” their career development by getting better packages, bigger titles OR blindly chasing the trendy startups and industries that are getting all the attention in our ecosystem.

Now I aim to address 2 other questions:

• How to know if you’re becoming a jumper profile?
• How can Founders & HR team detect a bandwagon jumper?

1. How to know if you’re becoming a Jumper Profile?

A lot of my friends and career coaching clients are very conscious about their value systems and really have an ethical issue with the concept of quitting their jobs to move to a new one after a relatively short span. (especially if they’re senior talents in startups). They feel guilty and end up doing a lot of overthinking. Their fears include but are not limited to the following?

• Will it look bad on my resume and LinkedIn profile if document that I worked for this company for just a few months? Should I not include it at all?
• What will my hiring manager think of me if I quit now?
• What about that HR manager that took an extra mile to get me the package I asked for?
• Will my team label me as a quitter or someone who has no ownership for leaving now?
• Is my reputation going to be ruined in the market?
• Am I one of the “Bandwagon Jumpers” that Selouky wrote about in his last article? *Shout out to you my friend*

These fears can eat through the souls of good people who might have made bad or premature decisions!

They just joined a startup but there is super interesting opportunity that suddenly appeared and they don’t want to miss out on!

I will share some questions you can ask yourself to take a guilt-free decision and to evaluate if you’re a jumper profile or not but before that there are 2 major disclaimers:

Disclaimer #1: If you’re leaving that startup you joined because of a toxic environment or broken promises from your hiring managers, leaving them early isn’t necessarily something you should worry about in terms of how it will affect you reputation. If anything, some startups have a really bad reputation in terms of how they deal with talents, and leaving them puts no question marks on you as a talent when talking to recruiters.

Believe me, founders & recruiters of all people know a lot about other companies in the market and won’t be surprised if you quit early from a specific company!

Disclaimer #2: If you’re considering leaving the startup that just hired you because another startup offered you ONLY some sort of increase in your package, then you might need to reconsider the whole thing!

Your decision matrix should include factors like expertise of your hiring manager, learning environment and pretty much other elements that revolve around your career progression and other job satisfaction elements BEYOND PAY!

(I say that because startups would pay ANYTHING to ANYONE nowadays to fill a job)

Take this into consideration: If you move to multiple startups holding more or less the same role and title, this might tell recruiters that you moved only for the money because no significant advancement happened to your career!

This can seriously hold you back! (unless of course there’s a massive increase in scope for example)

Now ask yourself these questions:

• A- Do my quitting reasons sounds so logical and too compelling to any fair unbiased person?

Be upfront as to why you are leaving.

Think of it this way, your line manager and the recruiter of the startup you just joined are both talents in the market and understand a “once in a lifetime opportunity”. I mean if you joined them and then suddenly you got accepted in a company like Google, or maybe at a country you wanted to relocate too, or perhaps at a dream job that you mentioned to them in your interview; they would probably be more tolerant of your decision to quit this early and not add that “Jumper Profile” label on you.

If the story of why you’re quitting is not adding up, you’re probably going to burn a bridge with them and this can potentially hunt your reputation in the market.

P.S. Fair & respectful employers will also respect if you tell them why you believe your current role & package or even their culture can’t provide you with whatever is attracting you in that other opportunity.

• B- What’s the impact of me quitting on different stakeholders in my company?

Obviously, your impact to the company’s targets is directly proportional to how much guilt and how much heat you’ll get after deciding to jump-ship just a few months into joining that new startup!

You need to know that being labeled as a jumper profile isn’t just a label that HR & recruiters will put on you.

Founders: How much of their major plans are built around your contribution/projects? How much investment has been put in you to be able to achieve your targets?

Colleagues: How much synergy has been planned that needs your presence for execution?

Subordinates: How many promises have you made in terms of developing them and accelerating their career progression?

If a lot has been committed from your side and you just decide to leave disregarding all of the above, well, you might work with these people down the road and I’m pretty sure they won’t be happy to meet you!

• C- Did I accomplish what I was hired for? How much foundation have I layed for it?

Think of it as milestones, how many did I finish? Did I set my team to succeed in starting and finishing any of them? Am I leaving them on track at least?

If you find that you’re leaving your startup at a stage that is worse or more critical than when you joined, you might trigger them to put that jumper label on you, rightfully!

2. How do founders & recruiters know that you’re a jumper?

• A- TRACK RECORD.

Experienced recruiters never settle by asking about where you worked. They will “probe” until they make sure you really achieved something there & more importantly “at what cost did it take to achieve this track record?”

If you have a solid track record everywhere you’ve worked, all without doing it on the expense of the well-being of others or the breaking the budget of your previous employer, you have a solid defense line to any question on why you left certain companies earlier than others.

• B- Self-Awareness in terms of Career Values & Motivated Skills.

Leaving a company too early isn’t always an issue when we put into consideration personal factors. If you’re very well aware of your values and you have captured a few situations that show how that company did not match your values (or the values they sold to you during the interview process), then actually this might be a positive remark on your profile from the recruiter’s standpoint. You know what you want & you’re outspoken about it!

Don’t make anything up though, recruiters can read through the BS.

• C- The Story of why you moved.

Recruiters look for a pattern in your decision making, whether positive or negative ones, they’re just trying to decode your profile.

If there is a passion for an industry or perhaps a calling for a certain career path, recruiters will see the maturity in your decision to leave certain companies earlier than others to build your story.

If the story has no clear narrative on why you moved from role A to B or company X to Y, then you might be labelled as a jumper looking for ANY career growth-hack only & someone who has no solid value system!

3. BUT DO JUMPER PROFILES ACCUMULATE WEALTH?

I was asked a hypothetical questions once by a fresh-grad: Can I jump between startups accumulating stocks options from one after the other in a few years and then cash-out sometime down the road?

This is a typical jumper profiles question! (kidding, fair question my friend)

In a nutshell, this is a failing short term strategy that seems like a long-term one.

Firstly, you need to spend at least 1 year per company to pass the cliff year that makes you eligible for your first 25% of whatever small amount of stocks you will vest over 3–5 years!

Secondly, by the time you move from your 2nd company, recruiters will be too cautious when dealing with you because you barely spent 1 year in your past 2 employers.

Thirdly, how would you even know which startup you work for will exit or be acquired? Most startups never reach this point, so your stock options will amount to nothing and you’ll end up with a tarnished reputation in the market!

Finally, some startups add vested stock buy-back clauses in their contracts. This means they won’t let you leave with stocks unless if you completely vest it, otherwise, they’ll pay you a small pre-agreed upon fee for them.

The long-term strategy of temporary work for stock is doomed.

In conclusion,

Founders and HR Leaders should proactively ensure that jumper profiles with “temporary assignments” mentality should never be given a key seat/role at their startup in the first place.

Talents need to be ethical and cautious when jumping too early from a startup to not hurt them or their careers!

If you’re going to jump early, at least give as much leave notice as you can & don’t leave without ensuring a smooth transition has been done to your team or successors.