When I was interviewing, I was very excited to join this company.

My resume tells I am a job hopper, they told me why should we hire you?

I convinced them, but I explained why I want to change during interviews.

Therefore, the conditions that encouraged me to leave the previous company should not be the same in the potentially new job.

When I was hired, I've been in a period of uncertainties: I was supposed to be staffed with a week or two, but the involved company didn't accept me, so I was inactive for almost three months.

When I finally was staffed, the manager on site didn't make a good impression. He didn't do the necessary to make feel welcome (like how to make your badge, he is your perimeter of intervention, what is your responsibility ...).

I was in the dark for a 3 or 4 weeks, and, while I was idle, he revoked a permission to attend a training session organised in HQ.

Later on, I had a casual conversation with a colleague, whom I told I am doing absolutely nothing, to which he replied that the guy I replaced was also doing nothing before he resigns.

This caused me an insomny that evening. The next day I told this colleague I didn't sleep.

Somehow, this colleague transmitted this to top managed (maybe he is familiar with them), and suddenly my boss's boss came to me and asked how I felt in this new environment (we were in a closed room).

I told him I didn't like here, and, at the same time, I was thinking I was going to be fired or something (out of pessimism, maybe).

He then convoked the manager and told him that he needs to do the necessary to "welcome" new people etc.

Now, I am doing better, I am working on something, but the rythm is very slow.

Meanwhile, when insomnia hit me, I called a previous employer and triggered a hiring process.

Now, I am having an interview with my previous employer who is ready to hire me back.

Is it legitimate for me to leave under such circumstances, or are they not going to understand my reasons for resigning?


We are 2 on the task I am working on. My colleague, who is old enough in this job, has been setting up meetings and kept me out of the loop.

I tried to talk to her today, and she became cold lately.

She talks on a daily basis to an architect who doesn't answer my emails, but answers others (when I am CCed).

closed as primarily opinion-based by Dukeling, solarflare, Michael Grubey, gnat, rath Nov 26 '18 at 12:12


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  • Just out of curiosity - What did you do to let your manager know you had nothing to do? Did you take any personal responsibility for determining what it is you were supposed to be working on? – NotMe Nov 26 '18 at 15:36
  • @NotMe, I spent the first couple of weeks probing my manager if there was anything to do. He kept telling me there will be a training and he is preparing for it, in the mean time, he is waiting for a topic to pop up. I spent days trying to review code, install this and that etc. On another week, I asked to give me some documentation to read, then he told me, the most laconic way, to look at some function. So, when I asked for documentation again, he told me did you look at that function? Like giving me micro tasks ... instead of answering me, he was replying with a question. I stopped asking. – Leonidas Nov 26 '18 at 21:16
  • @JoeStrazzere, what everybody misses here, is that I am not planning to hop, but I am more preparing for a plan B, because what I've been through feels like they don't want me and are probably going to let me go at the end of probation. Who knows. I was hired to work for a client in Africa, and the client rejected my resume ... – Leonidas Nov 26 '18 at 21:19
  • @JoeStrazzere, insomnia meant like I a panic attack. – Leonidas Nov 26 '18 at 21:24

The people whose understanding you need to worry about are not your current managers, but potential future employers. You have already been asked about job hopping in an interview.

You may be getting into a habit of reacting to dissatisfaction with your work by quitting, rather than by putting significant time and effort into working through the problem. If you do get into that habit, you are going to accumulate a lot of job hopping because perfect jobs are very rare. Ultimately, you could get to a point where your job hopping history outweighs your skills and qualifications, and employers will stop hiring you.

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    “You may be getting into a habit of reacting to dissatisfaction with your work by quitting, rather than by putting significant time and effort into working through the problem.” +1 – Brian Nov 25 '18 at 4:39
  • I’d add that maybe now by job hopping he has gotten himself into a pickle by reaching a dead end. – Brian Nov 25 '18 at 4:40
  • I've noticed that employers themselves lie to candidates. I explicitely described in the interview why I would leave my job. It is not acceptable to meet the same reasons. I cannot work in an environment without management, and I will leave because I did sign up for something else during interview. Employers got to respect employees. – Leonidas Nov 25 '18 at 14:27
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    @Leonidas Even if you have what seems to you to be a perfectly good reason for every time you quit a job, too many jobs too quickly will become a negative on your resume. – Patricia Shanahan Nov 25 '18 at 15:11
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    Quitting at the slightest bit of dissatisfaction limits your future options every time you do it. Sooner or later you'd be left with only a handful or at worse, none. – Noir Antares Nov 26 '18 at 3:00

You've been angling to quit this job for months now for whatever the Reason of the Week is.

It really doesn't sound like you're ever going to be happy there, no matter what happens it sounds like the porridge is never going to be the right temperature in your mind, now whether that's correct or not is unknowable for me (and largely irrelevent anyway) but what does matter is that as you say yourself you are already in Job-hopper territory with your recent employment history

Job-hopping can happen for many different reasons - and is not always the fault of the hopper. Sometimes you can have a genuine run of bad luck that can look for all the world like hopping.

The thing is that potential employers have to play the percentages in order to mitigate their risks when hiring staff - the potential costs, both operationally and financially are just too high not to and since the odds are good that if you hire a hopper they are going to do the same to you then you need a compelling reason to hire one over someone who lacks that stigma.

I can't say whether staying with your current employer or returning to the previous one is the correct choice, only you can say that but what I can say is that if you are going to leave then you really need to have a good degree of certainty in your own decision that you'll be able to stick it out for a decent length of time (I'd say 18 months minimum) or it's going to be extremely difficult to repair the damage. You might have the best looking Skills section on the market and be the most charismatic, charming interviewee ever but unless all the other candidates are markedly unsuitable your applications are going to get binned left right and centre and if you do get any offers I'd expect potential employers to negotiate any salary offers down significantly to mitigate their exposure.


You have already brought up that you were unhappy with your working conditions. They tried to make amendments and seems like it fell short.

They may or may not be understanding if you tell them you are still not happy with the pace and would like to pursue another opportunity. But from what you wrote seems like you already made your mind, and you have options so I would not worry too much about how they view it


I have some problems with the previous answers, so I'm adding mine.

"Job hopping" is a concept that's hostile to the employee. And whereas there are certainly people who quit too often, when the first, smallest problem appears, for every such a person there are 10 employers that advertise jobs in data entry as data science jobs and that lie to you that this bonus that according to your contract makes out 20% of your salary and is dependent exclusively on the company's performance is normally paid, although it hasn't been paid for years. They all profit from the concept of job-hopping.

The OP's situation - not doing anything, being idle - happens a lot when someone starts a new job. However, it shouldn't last longer than a few days, a few weeks maximum. Assuming the OP is still quite young, it's important for him to learn and gather valuable skills. He won't gather them by sitting and waiting. Not to mention, a bore-out is as awful to go through as a burn-out.

A cautionary tale: I joined my current company a bit more than a year ago. After a few weeks, it became clear that there was no job for me since my team wasn't responsible for what I was promised in the job ad and interviews at all. And the culture was toxic too. So I started to search for a new position... And was told by companies that I wanted to give up too early. It was insinuated it was to be job-hopping.

Now after a bit more than a year, the situation didn't change a bit, it actually got worse. I've wasted a year of my life not learning anything, sitting and waiting and trying to cope with my bosses being aggressive. Fortunately, I've found a new job now, but even now my one-year stay at the current job is seen as "job-hopping" by most employers.

The concept of job-hopping makes it possible for employers to lie in the job ads and to treat employees like dirt.

Not to mention, I know several companies that employ people knowing the conditions are so bad, the people will leave after a year or two since they accept the jobs as the last resort.

The OP should give it a month or two. If nothing changes he should go to the boss and explain his reasons to leave. He should have no bad conscience.

The only problem here is he wants to go back to the previous employer. There were reasons why he left it and whereas an even worse employer makes him think positively about the past, he should take a closer look at whether going back is a good decision, It's like missing your ex when your new relationship results problematic. It might be a good idea to go back, but it normally isn't.

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    I am puzzled by the idea of sitting around doing nothing. All my working life there was something I wanted to learn. If I had had free time on the job I would have been reading about something I might need in the future, not getting bored. As it was, I had to do my studying evenings and weekends. – Patricia Shanahan Nov 25 '18 at 15:59
  • @PatriciaShanahan. Not sure what your point is. Yes, it's good to try to use free time to learn things. But to what extent this is possible depends a lot on the position you have and the company. I know companies you can get fired from if you are seen doing something that is not your tasks. Besides, "reading about sth" is not the same as "learning sth" either. I can "read about programming" a lot, but if I can't install the software I need on my laptop to write code, this is quite useless in the long run. – BigMadAndy Nov 25 '18 at 19:42
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    Also, "reading about sth" is not the same as "gaining experience in sth". If I join a job in A, I expect to gain practical experience in A. Not to read about A. I don't think many companies would be amused if I told them during the interview: "My position war formally in A, but I didn't gain any experience in A. But hey, instead I spent time reading about A, which is basically the same, isn't it?" either. – BigMadAndy Nov 25 '18 at 19:43
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    I am not saying that studying is as good as actual experience, and I am not recommending studying when there is on-task work to be done. I do think it is much better than doing nothing. – Patricia Shanahan Nov 25 '18 at 22:10
  • While I'm not condoning rubbish hiring practices, lying to candidates etc. The notion that companies profit from job-hopping is a stretch IMO. Hiring can be a very expensive process - replacing an IT employee in the UK costs a business nearly £32k on average so if there's employer hostility towards job hoppers it's not without good cause. – motosubatsu Nov 27 '18 at 11:15


You can leave for any reason you want. They will understand your reasons. You're a job hopper, hopping.

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    “Don’t hate the hopper, hate the job market.” – mxyzplk Nov 25 '18 at 4:02
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    @mxyzplk no hate going on here, nothing wrong with job hoppers so long as you recognise them for what they are – Kilisi Nov 25 '18 at 4:18
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    Yeah, that was more of a general observation... – mxyzplk Nov 25 '18 at 4:36
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    After delving into the world of HR, I noticed that there are 2 currents, those who believe in people, and those who believe in companies (your company is right even if you're sad). I promised myself a job will never threaten my wellness. – Leonidas Nov 25 '18 at 10:54
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    Hopper gotta hop – Mawg Nov 26 '18 at 9:32
