“I think if you have ability and talent in one way, you have it in all ways. I’m not a jack of all trades; I’m a master of many. I don’t feel there is anything I can’t do if I want to.” — Evel Knievel
I am a serial job hopper. I made it six years — once — and in that case, I owned the business. What can I say? I get restless. Some, maybe even most, potential employers initially viewed my — shall we say busy — work history with trepidation, but when given a chance to explain the merits of my varied professional background, I’d land the job more often than not.
Assuming you left your past jobs in good standing, you don’t have to hide from your job-hopping or defend it. If you frame it correctly, it’s actually a positive. It starts with rejecting the idea that staying in one job — or one specialty — for years automatically makes you a better candidate. It doesn’t.
You’re Not a Job-Hopper — You’re a Polymath-in-Training
Often referred to as “Renaissance men/women,” polymaths are generalists who develop expertise in a variety of areas, usually a combination of left- and right-brained disciplines (e.g. painting and physics), and invent entirely original ideas, products, or fields of study by threading them together.
Polymaths…
… are restless; their minds never stop running
… are endlessly curious and bore easily
… master concepts quickly
… see correlations that others sometimes don’t, or won’t, or can’t
… combine multi-disciplinary knowledge in groundbreaking ways
Sound like you?
Early polymaths are labeled as flaky
Polymaths exist on a spectrum. Burgeoning polymaths appear flaky or unfocused, while accomplished polymaths are highly-respected one-percenters (think, Elon Musk and Steve Jobs). They’re eccentric. They zag when everyone else zigs.
The problem is, many of us are discouraged from pursuing a wide range of interests because it’s mistaken for aimlessness, so we conform. We pick a single major in college. We follow a predictable career path. We get the house, the kids, the picket fence. We abandon our multi-disciplinary tendencies for societal conformity (or relegate them to weekend hobbies), which is exactly why accomplished polymaths are rare.
Put simply; conformity is the death of polymathy.
Unfortunately, defining a polymath as a polymath only after achieving greatness disqualifies those in pursuit of it. But they had to get there somehow. They weren’t born electric car manufacturers or smartphone designers.
My theory is that more of us exist on the polymath spectrum than research suggests; we just don’t allow ourselves to run with it.
What if your job-hopping habit is an early sign that you’re on the path to polymathy?
Leonardo DaVinci was the first polymath
“Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses — especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
— Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo DaVinci was the original polymath. An accomplished painter and sculptor, he is also known for his discoveries in architecture and science. He saw the connection between art and science, and his genius mind used both to advance concepts that formed the foundation of modern aviation. Oh, and he painted the Mona Lisa.
That man held so many jobs. He was a painter, then a sculptor, then an engineer, a festival planner, an inventor, a sculptor, and a painter again. Can you imagine potential employers turning him down for a job? Who wouldn’t want to tap into that genius, even if only for a short time?
Frequent Job Changes Hint at Hidden Genius
You become a polymath when you learn to synthesize a jumble of varied experience into a singular fresh, unique skill set. This is what you bring to the table, and it’s significant.
My own professional background includes this crazy and [seemingly] incongruent mix:
- Administrative assistant
- On-air talent for a local news channel
- Automotive journalist
- Event marketing agency account director, automotive
- Event marketing agency account director, cosmetics/beauty
- Business owner, outdoor movie production company
- Sales, commercial playground equipment
- Sales, residential and commercial OEM pool equipment
- Business development, chemical containment systems
- Event planner
- Wedding planner
- Sales, food brokerage
- Professional freelance writer
Crazy, right? If you look more closely, though, some patterns emerge. I love producing events. I love the automotive industry. I can sell. I can write and speak publicly. I’m a generalist, yet I applied the same skill set — curiosity, persuasiveness, marketing strategy, communication — to each role, eventually landing here:
I’m a professional communicator and relationship-builder. I am a planner, a salesperson, and a writer. I tap into my sales skills all the time. I use them to persuade in my writing. I use my communication skills to land freelance gigs. I have applied my relationship-building skills to multiple industries and understand how effective communication undergirds every successful business pursuit, regardless of industry or discipline.
Reframe your restlessness as an asset by linking the knowledge you gained at each position and demonstrating how that knowledge compounded, grew your confidence, and propelled you to embrace new — and sometimes unrelated — challenges… and how you’ll add value because of it.
Benefits of Frequently Changing Jobs
The next time you’re asked to defend your varied work history, remember your position on the polymath spectrum and reframe the negative by pointing out these key benefits:
You’re more curious. Most of my job-hopping happened because opportunities came to me. When I worked as an administrative assistant at a piano and organ store, a manufacturer’s rep recognized my skill set and nominated me for a sales position. From there, I joined a start-up. A year later I was reviewing cars on TV for a local news channel.
How has curiosity propelled you to take risks and seek new opportunities? Share your experience through the lens of wonder. Tell your story with excitement.
Your experience is varied. My work experience is chaotic and random. Or is it? I simply responded to opportunities with a resounding YES, rather than choosing a more predictable path. Either is fine, but for me, the unknown held tremendous appeal. I see this as a seriously valuable skill.
Discuss how your enthusiasm for new ideas and experiences allows you to take risks. All that exposure to different environments and life experiences means you bring a unique and unbiased — an almost unaffected — perspective to your work.
You pick up valuable industry-specific skills. I’ve had to learn how to do voice-overs without popping my Ps, become a pool chemistry expert, and understand complex plastics manufacturing methods. I can hit the apex of a turn on a race track. I taught myself how to read architectural drawings, work with landscape architects, and pass tricky industry certification courses. I’ve led teams that activated pop-up beauty experiences for a global cosmetics company. I even met Beyoncé.
What unique skills and experiences have you acquired? Are you better at customer service? Do you work well with kids? Which subjects or industries do you now understand in-depth? How do these experiences apply to the job you’re currently seeking? Every experience has relevance. Correlate seemingly unrelated skills with your prospective employers’ job requirements.
You are used to being the underdog. Since I changed jobs a lot, I was always the new girl, which meant I was constantly proving myself. I did that by finding success early, like exceeding sales quotas and coming in under the deadline. I tried to shorten the learning curve every way I could, so I’d add value quickly and earn the trust of my bosses.
Talk about your ability to catch on quickly. Remind employers how hard it is to be new and how that first few months are critical to proving yourself. Mention specific early achievements and contributions that got you recognized and earned you the trust of your superiors.
You assimilate well. There’s nothing quite like the first day on a new job. I’ve adapted to some crazy corporate cultures — some became instant family, and others were toxic and unwelcoming. The common denominator was me, though, so I learned how to adapt to co-worker quirks and strange company policies. I discovered who I could count on, who got things done, and eventually, I became an expert at reading a room and the people in it.
Tell employers how you tapped into your well-honed observation skills to learn company culture fast and figure out how to add value in multiple corporate cultures, as a part of several different teams, or as a contributor to inter-departmental initiatives.
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