a year should be fine. 5 mos is probably ok if you tell your next interviewer exactly the reasons you shared here.

I got offered a job after working a similar gig after 3 weeks. Scared my current employer into not treating me like a total bitch and actually paying me properly.

don't "quit"...rather, i'd suggest setting goals for yourself and after acheiving them move onto your next challenge (whether it's with the same employer or not)

if you approach your career with some semblance of a plan then you are much more likely to be respected. if, however, you simply quit everytime you get tired with the shit that you're working on, then it's much easier for others to sniff out your lack of ambition. it's hard to take quitters seriously.

Have you discussed the situation with your current employer? If not, it might be a good idea to find out if they would be willing to give you a more broad-based experience if you just ask for it.

As an employer, I can tell you that I am usually very impressed (primarily because it is an extremely rare occurrence) when an employee comes to me with a well-thought-out plan (or even a half-baked plan) of what they want to achieve and ask for my help in achieving it. I am willing to bend over backward for that employee.

In the day-to-day running of an office, it is easy to get caught up in assigning work on a sort of assembly-line basis and putting individual employees on that line wherever their current skill set fits best. However, any employee that has ever said a word to me about wanting a different experience has gotten my best shot at trying to give it to them. Frankly, I think the majority of employers out there would (and do) act the same way.

I would also say, as an employer, that a certain amount of job-hopping in the early years of your career is acceptable, but five jobs in five years (as an example) is a huge red flag to any potential employer. I say this having experienced the situation. I have hired some individuals in the past that had a strong portfolio, said all the right things in the interview, and also had a list of former jobs a mile long. I overlooked that long list of previous jobs because everything else seemed so right. I got burned on every single one of those hires. But even if that were not the case, I would caution against changing jobs too often for another very practical reason. If you stay in any given job only a year, or so, you are not getting a chance to see many, if any, projects all the way through from start to finish. Unless you are working at a firm that does extremely small projects, a year (often even two years) will not allow you to be there for the entire life of design and construction of a project. You might argue that "I don't get to work on all phases of the project anyway." Well, that is most likely true, but I would counter that being in the office, seeing what is going on and asking questions about what is going on is very beneficial to your growth. If you are there, you are going to get at least a sense of what is going on in every phase of a given project.

I read a lot of posts on this forum that seem to indicate that an individual is unhappy after only a few months or weeks in a job. While I would not argue that you should stay in a situation that truly makes you unhappy, I would suggest that you seriously try to figure out what it is that makes you so unhappy and try to find a way to fix it at the job you already have first. Try and stick with it and see if you can maximize your learning experience before moving on. Most employers look at a resume that shows a work history of five different jobs in five years and understand that person has probably achieved the actual equivalent of two, or maybe three years of experience, not five. Build a work history that indicates you have ambition, but that you also have real experience.

If your employer wants to start doing Personality Profiles....red, blue and whatever....Pick up and run! Cause you will be pigeon-holed from now to eternity.

So Ledoux,

What do you say to the employee who comes up to you and says, "I'm working here to get experience so that I can someday start my own firm." As opposed to, "I'm working here to get experience so that I can someday be a Project Manager." Get my license, finish IDP, whatever.

In the perfect world I know you will say, "I'm 100% behind you and will do everything I can to help you acheive that goal."

But in reality you are now employing someone who is going to be your competition, has access to confidential information and potentially a conflict of interest.

I just don't see to many people telling their bosses the whole truth. That's probably why it is such an extremely rare occurence for you.

i agree with ledoux but employers and young employees operate in totally different time frames.

i had such a conversation on my first job out of school and the boss was very appreciative of my desire for a broad range of experience. she said i could work on another project to get c.a. experience 1 year down the line. she honestly thought it was reasonable. i honestly thought it was lame.

those that have the job hopping itch might be better off working at small projects to get a well rounded experience. you can get a lot of variety while staying in one job.

I just recently quit from a job for similar reasons. I got pigeon holed doing BS work for the sake of mass production. After serving time thier as an intern for a year (which I enjoyed very much) and completing school, I was expecting more that just doing grind work. I felt the same as a[ron]ation in a sense that I was no longer gaining the experience to become a "well rounded architect". There were other factors involved that made it an unpleasant environment, but the main reason for leaving was the project and the work.

By the way, I did make an effort to talk to the boss about this issue, but he ended up setting a meeting for something like 5 -6 weeks out, so I skiped it and took off. - Which brings up another issue of how non-personable a working environment can be.

Sorry, actual work got in the way of me responding sooner. Wurdan, I doubt there are any employers out there that are not keenly aware that whatever experience they provide to an employee may well leave with that employee at any moment. Frankly, that is a strong incentive for an employer to try and find some way of accommodating an employee's needs and desires. Every single day employers worry about one or more of their best people leaving for another position or to go out on their own. Frankly, that same risk exists for law firms, medical practices, whatever.

Actually, my direct experience has been that when a younger (defined for this discussion as somebody recently licensed) has left a firm in which I have worked, the firm has actually supported the former employee by forwarding projects that would otherwise be too small or of little interest to the existing firm. I have typically witnessed a great deal of support for the newly independent architect. Remember, owners, principals, managers of architectural firms have been in exactly the same situation as you. They had dreams, they wanted to some day open their own shop, etc. In some cases I have seen a firm respond by making an heroic effort to keep the employee by accelerating their elevation to a more senior position within the firm. This usually does not work because the employee has made the decision that they are truly ready to go on their own and no amount of money or promotion is going to change their mind. Note: I am not suggesting this as a strategy to get a raise or promotion. If you announce (or threaten) that you are going to leave, you better be prepared to do it. You may be surprised to find out your firm does not consider you as essential to their survival as you thought you were.

The problem of confidentiality, direct competition, etc. really only comes into the picture when a very senior member of a firm leaves to join another firm (much less so when the senior member leaves to start their own firm). In some cases, principals, partners, etc. are required to sign non-compete agreements as a way of mitigating this risk.

All of this gets me back to my original point, however, which is that it is typically in the employer's best interest to get younger employees the best experience they can possibly provide so that employee's effectiveness will be increased/maximized for whatever length of time the employee continues working with the employer. And, should the employee stay long enough and advance far enough, that experience and training will result in a new principal or partner for the firm.

And, to respond to jorge_c, I would certainly not deny that there are some a-hole employers out there, but I think that is just bad business practice for them. As far as your "time-frame" reference, the type/size of firm you choose to work with can make all the difference. A small firm doing smaller projects will almost certainly be in a better position to provide exposure for you to a much wider range of experiences than a large firm working on projects that have a life anywhere from 2 to 10 years long. Now, there may be plenty of valid reasons why you would still want to work for that larger firm, but if getting the most experience under your belt in the shortest period of time is your goal, then I suggest going the small firm route.

Seems like a lot of young grads (myself included) wanted to be doing everything right out of the gate. When that doesn't happen (in the first two months) they get restless and start looking around.

I can say from experience that when you reach that crucial 7-10 years experience mark, if you've worked six jobs versus two, it makes a difference to potential employers. If you've moved around every year, they'll tend to see you as a liability, someone who's in it only for themselves and will add no value to the firm.

Unless the job is insufferable, I'd say stick it out for a year minimum. Set it up so you're getting what you want out of it: IDP, managing a small job, something that will benefit your career later. Every day, think of that goal and dream of one day having your name on the door.