How long working time for a position before moving to find a new job is suitable? How will employers evaluate your job applications? In my personal opinion, it is determined by the type of employment contract you hold for the position.
Based on the labor contract
When you receive a position I guess most will be signed for a trial period of 1-6 months. Except for some seasonal job positions such as replacing employees who are temporarily unable to continue their work due to illness, maternity leave, etc.
The personnel who are oriented to recruit for the long-term positions will have 1-6 months to get acquainted with the job and see if the job you choose is suitable for you.
This process usually ends with a probationary assessment and if good results are achieved, admission is made as permanent staff.
When entering the official job, usually the first contract signing period that I notice in most businesses is a definite-term contract. Then, when your contract is nearing the end of its validity, the employer may consider signing another fixed-term contract or even providing you with an employment contract that is not valid to determine the deadline.
Here I do not go into too much depth about the aspect of the employment contract because the law is very clear and you can learn it from many different sources.
Notable timelines
Time is of the essence here.
Try to imagine putting in your CV a working time for a business of 2 months (here I am referring to working, not probationary or apprentice, nor seasonal). The first idea that employers will think of is: You have not researched the job carefully before applying, so after the trial ends, you do not continue.
The second thought is even more negative. You didn’t pass the probation period. People might think I’m pinning ridiculous assumptions on a CV, but it’s actually one of the few possible probabilities in any hiring manager’s judgment use. Therefore, a timeline of fewer than 2 months for a CV is often not evaluated very positively.
When you pass the probationary period and enter the official job, the timeline I think should be noted will be the official 6 months. Usually, in a position, in my opinion, it will take you at least 6 months to fully grasp the whole job and the relationships related to that job.
Some positions are senior management or require large specialization and coverage with many complex operations, the time to become proficient with a job is sometimes even longer.
During this period, the majority of the selected personnel still do not feel repetitive or familiar with the daily routines. Especially positions or companies with projects that are regularly refreshed and developed. In my opinion, this period will be the time when you will learn the most in terms of skills and expertise.
After this 6-month milestone, when you are familiar with the work, usually ideas related to improving work or shortening operations, suggesting ideas will take place.
It will be difficult for you when you just entered a business, do not understand the business as well as your job position, can come up with initiatives, and often, if so, most of these initiatives lack practical practice and carry on your personal experience learned from previous businesses.
Innovation is such a key element of almost every industry, that some businesses sometimes use phrases like “today is better than yesterday”, “to shorten the time…”, etc.
Some of you will think that improvement is continuous, so it doesn’t just stop at the 12-month mark.
But my personal opinion, when businesses form business strategies, especially large enterprises, after implementing improvements at the company-wide level, the leaders of the companies will need time to track how the improvement affects results, whether it produces the desired results, or requires further adjustment.
Therefore, it seems that every improvement will have a period of stagnation to monitor results before choosing to continue sticking to the proposed improvement goals or choose a new direction. In addition, it will be difficult for you to always come up with new ideas, when ideas for the same work purpose have not been tested before as possible or not.
And here comes an important milestone I will give that is your working time from 13-18 months (This includes 1-6 months of probation and 12 months of a fixed-term labor contract). If the time you have worked for a company on your CV is longer than 18 months, ideally 20 to 24 months. This number would be pretty amazing.
It shows that you have completely mastered the work at a company and grown with that company. Choosing a period longer than 18 months also shows that you have been recognized by the company for work results and are expected by the company to continue to contribute with a new employment contract.
Ideal time
Why did I give a 24-month timeline as ideal? This is my personal opinion that, if after 2 years of working, your job does not have a change in both profession and position, cannot participate in new projects, or new role. It is evident in the fact that you have nothing new to add to your CV anymore, so you should seriously consider your future career.
In some cases, well-developed or protected businesses create a stable safety trap that keeps many friends working for a very long time but barely learning anything new. This becomes very serious because there is a possibility that you will fall behind in the labor market in the future.
I do not advise you to quit your job and find a new job if your current job is really good.
What I want to say is that you should create opportunities for yourself by learning some new knowledge and skills yourself, finding out more information related to the job or career you expect, as well as not stop upgrading your knowledge to keep up with the times. Only then will you not really fall behind.
And most importantly, let the employer know that you are always trying to learn and upgrade yourself.
