What's your definition of "short stint"? Less than 1 year?
Asking because I've worked for several startups and tech management has changed several times in a year for both of them, they loose and gain huge streams of revenue rapidly, have worked burnout hours at times at all of them.
All factors that have made me seriously question my employment there at times but the knowledge I'm gaining makes it to good to give up for now.
Suggests median tenures at small tech companies can be as low as 1.5years.
For me - it depends on the stage of career a candidate is at.
If you're not job hopping every 2-3 years in the early stages of your career (say, first 8-10 years out of school), you're without doubt losing out monetarily (which may indicate a lack of ambition).
On the other hand, if you've not managed to hold down a job for over two years (or any job for over 18 months), you ring bells in my head of maybe just having managed to not get let go for lack of performance and bailing out before it makes it to your record.
Those are both offset of some of your roles are listed as contracts (but rest assured I'll be getting your references or LinkedIn or network-sourced ex-colleagues checked to make sure they don't describe them as permanent full time roles).
An outlier versus a pattern is where I see a bad situation versus a concern for hire.
Personally, spending <18 months in a company or on a team doesn't yield enough time to accomplish much. It also doesn't afford you ability to learn from your mistakes and mature.
This is a great way of explaining why I think lots is short stints reflect poorly.
If someone has a number of longer stints, then a short one here or there is no big deal. But I want their resume to tell a story.
Don’t be afraid of explaining circumstances in a cover letter.