Ask HN: How long to recover from a stint of job-hopping?
Here is my rough timeline:
1st Job (Company A): ~2.5 Years
2nd Job: ~5 Months
3rd Job (Company A again): ~2.5 Years
4th Job: ~3 Months
5th Job: ~6 Months
6th Job (FAANG): 1 Year
7th Job (Current): 1.5 Years
From 2 -> 3, Company A decided they regretted letting me go and offered to hire me back as a manager with a team under me. Not ideal to leave after only 5 months in the new role but how could I say no?
In the 4th job, I was misled as to the nature of the role and it was a toxic work environment. I left pretty quickly after realizing the situation, no regrets honestly, and found job 5 pretty shortly for a huge pay bump anyway!
From 5 -> 6, I didn't want to leave but I had an opportunity to go work in FAANG which was 2x higher than my new pay (and for personal reasons I could really use it). Plus the experience/name on my resume, seemed like a great move.
From 6 -> 7, I got caught up in FAANG layoffs in early 2023 (my whole division evaporated, unlucky).
I'm moderately happy in my current role, and I will have no problem staying here for a good while longer, but how long should I ideally stay in the job before I lose the reputation as a job hopper? How should I frame the whole thing to employers? Usually when I explain the individual situations it becomes more understandable, but that doesn't stop very negative "first looks".