Long-serving employee wants to move on after 12 years

Working for the same company for over 10 years does show loyalty but you may have to explain why you stayed so long when you apply for a new job.

I have been with the same company for 12 years and am now considering a move, mainly to freshen up my working environment. I have already had a few interviews and the fact that I stayed for so long at one company – even though I was promoted three times during my tenure – seems to be an issue. One interviewer questioned how motivated I was and asked if I lacked ambition. Does staying with one firm really send out this message? I thought it showed loyalty. BB, Dubai

I am with you on this one, BB. When I am reviewing CVs for students and I see they have had four jobs in eight years, I tell them to expect questions around their lack of commitment to an organisation. Whatever the reasons behind their moves, it may look to an employer that the applicant is too self-centred, focused on building a career to get to a predestined goal, rather than joining a company and helping it to meet its objectives.

That said, when I see someone who has been in one place for 12 years, I wonder what has happened to cause them to move. My suspicion would be that the individual has met a glass ceiling generated by climbing to the top of their ability pole.

The way to approach both these situations is the same: be honest about how your CV may be seen by others. Prepare yourself for the sort of questions you think you will be likely to get having been hyper-critical of your own CV. Then prepare answers that are thoughtful, credible and show a depth of self-awareness.

Turn a potential negative into a positive. For example, the job seeker whose CV is a little too busy needs to have a thoughtful answer to the challenge that their career is too peripatetic. One such reason might be that the applicant wanted a broad range of experiences before settling down.

Conversely, the individual who has stayed in the same organisation for a long time needs to justify that career development path. It may be that the organisation constantly refreshed the challenges the individual undertook (you speak of regular promotions, for example) or gave opportunities to work abroad or in different parts of the organisation.

Show that your choices and your actions are not random but are part of a thought-through plan, or are not the result of a lack of assertion or self-confidence but rather are the result of having been well managed in an organisation where you thrived.

Your stated reason for looking to move after 12 years is to “freshen up my working environment”. Do you want new faces, new relationships? Or a promotion and more responsibility? A change of industry or simply a change of scene?

You also say on the one hand that you are “considering a move” but on the other that you have already had “a few” interviews. That sounds like someone who has decided to go, not someone contemplating a change. If you are leaving under a cloud, or if your progress makes it clear that your career is in stasis or, worse, freefall, you must expect some pointed questions at interview.

It is far more of a buyer’s market than it was 10 years ago. People with jobs to offer can afford to set the bar high. So rise to the challenge and have good answers to their questions. If you worry about how to deliver these answers, then rehearse with a friend. Don’t over-rehearse and sound glib, but don’t under-rehearse and sound unconvincing either.

Doctor’s prescription

I always tell students entering the job market that they need a personal brand – a way of representing who they are and what they stand for which makes a positive and lasting impression on the interviewer. It must capture and communicate the essence of themselves, and it must, when challenged, be supportable and credible. That’s your personal brand. Develop it, communicate it, then it won’t matter if you have been in one place for 12 years or never for more than 12 months – because they will want you to be with them.

Roger Delves is the director of the Ashridge Executive Masters in Management and an adjunct professor at the Hult International Business School. He is the co-author of The Top 50 Management Dilemmas: Fast Solutions to Everyday Challenges. Email him at [e-mail] for advice on any work issues.

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