Many Years with 1 Employer

While job-hopping can create concern among prospective employers, having worked for only one employer for a long time — say, 10 years — can also elicit a sense of alarm when a hiring manager looks at your resume.

Many of us have changed jobs several times in our careers, with career experts saying that the current younger generation of workers — Generation Y, or Millennials — will only accelerate that pace, making it seem as if they're constantly looking for the next opportunity.

So, while it's not common today for someone to have worked for only one company for a decade or longer (it was common among the largely retired parents of Baby Boomers), it may impede your career advancement just as much as having worked for an abnormally high number of companies could.

If you're one of these individuals and looking to go elsewhere, ask yourself the following five questions and consider the advice on how to answer each one:

Were you promoted, or did you hold different titles during your tenure? If so, separate each role on your resume as if it were a different job at a different company. And list your accomplishments in each role, as well as any relevant duties. Succeeding in a variety of roles would show an employer that you're flexible and adaptable, which is probably their chief concern if you've spent many years in a particular company culture.

Were you given increasing responsibility? If you weren't promoted or didn't hold different titles, did your employer give you more challenging work at which you were successful? For instance, if you held the same title but did the work of a project manager successfully (without the "project manager" title) after being an assistant in many projects, that's something you should emphasize on your resume and in an interview.

Do you have experience in more than one functional area? If you held different roles in different departments or divisions, make sure that's clear in your resume. If, for example, you spent five years as a sales representative, then moved over to distribution for another five years, that tells an employer that you understand two very critical parts of a business: how to boost revenue and how to save on costs. Don't forget to attach numbers to your accomplishments, such as: Boosted sales 25% among clients in first two years, or Reengineered a distribution process that saved the company 10% in distribution costs in spite of rising gasoline prices.

Did you thrive — or just survive — after a change in ownership? If your company was sold, were you able to adapt to any changes easily? Or did it hinder your career growth? If your would-be employer asks you about it, it's OK to say that you believe you can't grow anymore under the new owner, or that your company is going in a different direction that doesn't mesh with your long-term goals.

How would working for a different employer impact your career goals? (You DO have goals, don't you?) First, be able to articulate — in your cover letter and in an interview — where you are in your career and where you want to be. Be clear about your skills and experience and how they can help the employer. While they're more interested in what you can do for them, they would probably also be interested in finding out why you would want to leave "familiar territory" in favor of another company after many years. Before you answer that, research the company you're targeting and determine how it might help you reach your career goals. Then, be able to articulate that if the recruiter or hiring manager asks you.

Other Things That Could Help

To demonstrate that not all of your accomplishments are focused on just one employer, play up your roles elsewhere, such as volunteer work in the community or any active roles in professional associations.

It's not fatal to have only one employer listed on your resume in a long career. But don't be surprised if a hiring manager asks you why you haven't worked elsewhere. However, you can blunt any concerns from a would-be employer by being clear that you can handle such a drastic change, that your experience would be an asset, and - at least to yourself - that taking a job with the new employer would help your long-term career goals.

I welcome your thoughts and perspectives on this issue.

Hi Donald!

Thanks for your question and for prodding me a bit on this.

Meredith's point - as I saw it - referred to each and every position, no matter whether it was an incremental promotion (e.g., sales associate to assistant floor manager in a retail environment) or positions of a different nature (e.g., Assistant Director of Finance to Chief Technology Officer). It's the latter in which I would suggest two different entries with two distinct sets of accomplishments and responsibilities. To allude to Meredith's comment, I would not consider that "job hopping." So, to distinguish between the two, you could have something like this:

(A: One company, two similar roles)

2002 - 2006: ABC Co.; Somewhere, USA * Sales associate, 2002-2004 * Assistant floor manager, 2004-2006 . Accomplishment 1 . Accomplishment 2, etc.

(B: One company, two distinct roles)

2002-2004: ABC Co.; Somewhere, USA * Assistant Director of Finance . Accomplishment 1 . Accomplishment 2, etc.

2004-2006: ABC Co.; Somewhere, USA * Chief Information Officer . Accomplishment 1 . Accomplishment 2, etc.

Now, would I consider either option "job hopping?" Not in the least. If you have a bunch of incremental promotions or job moves, and they take place every six months or annually, then I would try to group them together logically and not create a separate "company and dates" heading for each small move.

Hope this helps. Thanks for pushing me on this.

~ Rick

What about dates? I keep seeing different dates for different roles. My various roles were pretty much from the beginning to the end for the three years that I was with the company: Photographer: (I took pictures of the products and edited them), Data Entry: I uploaded the products / pictures to the website and I listed their descriptions and prices, Customer Service: I answered the phones to take orders, provide customers with updates on their orders, answer their questions, etc.,; when customers would come in I would once in a while take care of them by answering their questions and taking their orders (this part was often times handled by someone else as he was better at selling and convincing people to buy things); Order Processing: I printed the orders, called the customers, printed the shipping labels [someone else, the same better seller, got the products together and pasted the labels, I would once in a while do this if he was busy with the other company--see below--or if another customer came in who needed their order to be taken); Web Marketing: I worked minimally with Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing and towards the end of my time there, a little SEO, which though I now no longer work at the company, I now still do (the SEO part), and finally, if the boss had computer or printer problems or if I did, I would take care of them. It was a small company of basically 3 people, one being the boss, with temps brought in on the day we were receiving merchandise.

To make matters worse / I think weirder, the owner then opened up another company that had nothing to do with the first, inside the same building, and I would do things for that company as well, such as print contracts, print tags, take people's monthly payments and provide them with receipts and explain to them what was listed there, remind the boss whose payment is due and explain to him the figures the program was giving me. Both companies had similar starting names, such as XYZ purses and XYZ motorcyles.

So, is this the best way to list this:

Company 1: Somewhere, USA; 2006 - 2009

Role 1: * Accomplishment or responsibility * Accomplishment or responsibility

Role 2: * Accomplishment or responsibility * Accomplishment or responsibility

and so on?

Company 2: Somewhere, USA; 2007 - 2009

Role 1: * Accomplishment or responsibility * Accomplishment or responsibility

Role 2: * Accomplishment or responsibility * Accomplishment or responsibility

and so on?

Another point / question: I know that one should tailor their experiences on their resume to the job that they are looking for (i.e. emphasize your experiences / skills that can be applied to the job you are seeking). In my case, I want to look for a job in technical support, but I didn't do much that involved me solving computer problems or repairing computers. I have had the experience of talking to people on the phone and in person and helping them out though (customer service). Extra Fact: My degree is in computers though. So, should I still mention all the other things I did at the two companies or omit most? The reason I don't mention anything else (other jobs) is because that was the only job I had after college. It started out as an internship for a semester and I stayed longer. I did do some workstudy at my university, but the things I did were nothing major and I barely remember what I did.

How to Build a Resume after Many Years with 1 Employer