Between Feb 2007 and March 2008, Sean Aiken completed an epic journey around North America, working 52 jobs in 52 weeks. Sean Aiken graduated from college and didn’t know what he wanted to do for a career (or what he wanted to do with his life).

Instead of take the first job that came along, he found a unique way of figuring it out: the One Week Job project.

How it worked: Anyone, anywhere, could offer Sean a job for one week. Any money he earned for the work, he asked the employer to donate towards the ONE / Make Poverty History campaign.

On his inspirational quest, Sean tried everything: Bungee Instructor, Dairy Farmer, Advertising Executive, Baker, Stock Trader, Firefighter, and more. Wherever he could find work, he’d go there, find a couch to crash on and immerse himself in whatever profession was at hand. And then he’d move on.

Well, the excerpt above is actually taken directly from the oneweekjob.com’s ‘about the project’ website.
You can check it out and see all the 52 jobs he undertook during those times and what he has achieved.

Soon, his experiences will be shared with the whole world with a published book too!
You can also check out all the 52 episodes of his job hopping experiences here.

This guy is my HERO and is pure inspiration to me. I wished I could have done the same thing straight after graduation, finding my true passion and never settle for less. Well, at the moment, I’m already embarking on that journey and I believe one day, I will be able to also do what I love and enjoy and still creating personal wealth. If job-hopping 4 times a year like what I did seems extreme to you, then think again!

What really inspires me about Sean is his conviction and promise in the beginning as outlined on his site:

Shortly after graduating from college, I made a promise to myself:

I will not settle for a career that I am not truly passionate about, I will not allow yearning for weekends and the illustrious two week vacation a year to define my life, I will be in a positive work place situation and I will love what I am doing.

Well, right now, I’m making the same promise too and I hope you will also do the same!
Maybe I will emulate what Sean did in the US back here in Malaysia and find a good cause to support..

Hhhhmmmm.. that sounds like a wild idea, isn’t it? My wife and daughter might starve a year then!
Anyone care to support my journey?

Some, rather most organizations reject his CV today because he has changed jobs frequently (10 in 14 years). My friend, the ‘job hopper’ (referred here as Mr. JH), does not mind it…. well he does not need to mind it at all. Having worked full-time with 10 employer companies in just 14 years gives Mr. JH the relaxing edge that most of the ‘company loyal’ employees are struggling for today. Today, Mr. JH too is laid off like some other 14-15 year experienced guys – the difference being the latter have just worked in 2-3 organizations in the same number of years. Here are the excerpts of an interview with Mr. JH:

Q: Why have you changed 10 jobs in 14 years?
A: To get financially sound and stable before getting laid off the second time.

Q: So you knew you would be laid off in the year 2009?
A: Well, I was laid off first in the year 2002 due to the first global economic slowdown.
I had not got a full-time job before January 2003 when the economy started looking up;
so I had struggled for almost a year without job and with compromises.

Q: Which number of job was that?
A: That was my third job.

Q: So from Jan 2003 to Jan 2009, in 6 years, you have changed 8 jobs to make the count as 10 jobs in 14 years?
A: I had no other option. In my first 8 years of professional life, I had worked only for 2 organizations thinking that jobs are deserved after lot of hard work and one should stay with an employer company to justify the saying ‘employer loyalty’. But I was an idiot.

Q: Why do you say so?
A: My salary in the first 8 years went up only marginally. I could not save enough and also, I had thought that I had a ‘permanent’ job, so I need not worry about ‘what will I do if I lose my job’. I could never imagine losing a job because of economic slowdown and not because of my performance.
That was January 2002.

Q: Can you brief on what happened between January 2003 and 2009.
A: Well, I had learnt my lessons of being ‘company loyal’ and not ‘money earning and saving loyal’.
But then you can save enough only when you earn enough.
So I shifted my loyalty towards money making and saving – I changed 8 jobs in 6 years assuring all my interviewers about my stability.

Q: So you lied to your interviewers; you had already planned to change the job for which you were being interviewed on a particular day?
A: Yes, you can change jobs only when the market is up and companies are hiring.
You tell me – can I get a job now because of the slowdown? No.
So one should change jobs for higher salaries only when the market is up because that is the only time when companies hire and can afford the expected salaries.

Q: What have you gained by doing such things?
A: That’s the question I was waiting for.
In Jan 2003, I had a fixed salary (without variables) of say Rs. X p.a.
In January 2009, my salary was 8X. So assuming my salary was Rs.3 lakh p.a. in Jan 2003, my last drawn salary in Jan 2009 was Rs.24 lakh p.a. (without variable).
I never bothered about variable as I had no intention to stay for 1 year and go through the appraisal process to wait for the company to give me a hike.

Q: So you decided on your own hike?
A: Yes, in 2003, I could see the slowdown coming again in future like it had happened in 2001-02. Though I was not sure by when the next slowdown would come, I was pretty sure I wanted a ‘debt-free’ life before being laid off again. So I planned my hike targets on a yearly basis without waiting for the year to complete.

Q: So are you debt-free now?
A: Yes, I earned so much by virtue of job changes for money and spent so little that today I have a loan free 2 BR flat (1200 sq. feet)
plus a loan free big car without bothering about any EMIs.
I am laid off too but I do not complain at all.
If I have laid off companies for money, it is OK if a company lays me off because of lack of money.

Q: Who is complaining?
A: All those guys who are not getting a job to pay their EMIs off are complaining.
They had made fun of me saying I am a job hopper and do not have any company loyalty.
Now I ask them what they gained by their company loyalty; they too are laid off like me and pass comments to me – why will you bother about us, you are already debt-free. They were still in the bracket of 12-14 lakh p.a. when they were laid off.

Q: What is your advice to professionals?
A: Like Narayan Murthy had said – love your job and not your company because you never know when your company will stop loving you.
In the same lines, love yourself and your family needs more than the company’s needs.
Companies can keep coming and going; family will always remain the same.
Make money for yourself first and simultaneously make money for the company, not the other way around.

Q: What is your biggest pain point with companies?

A: When a company does well, its CEO etc will address the entire company saying,
‘well done guys, it is YOUR company, keep up the hard work, I am with you.”

But when the slowdown happens and the company does not do so well, the same CEO etc will say,
“It is MY company and to save the company, I have to take tough decisions including asking people to go.”

So think about your financial stability first; when you get laid off, your kids will complain to you and not your boss.

As a job-hopper myself, I couldn’t agree more. My wife and daughter are my ultimate boss.
Speaking from experience, even my wife got retrenched or laid-off from the company she worked in for more than 4 years despite having good appraisals and performed much better than anyone else. Not just that, it was done with less than 24 hours notice and I must say brutally. Even till today, she still has not fully recovered from the hurt.

As for me, I am planning my next exit strategy as the current company I’m working for is stifling my creativity and leadership ability.
Furthermore, the remuneration package is not to my expectation. Which is too bad as I do believe in the product and enjoy what I’m doing.

Stay tuned for more updates and job-hopping tips for success!!

Actually, work has taken it’s toll on my blogging life and eventhough I’ve taken a well deserved break to Bali, there are still more dramas happening in my career life. Maybe it’s time to leap again?

So, while still giving my all to what I’m doing now, I’m always on the search of better opportunities or even contemplating of starting my own business.

One of those opportunities that I’ve stumbled upon is this service called:

What is it? Well, from their FAQ page;

PitchYourTalent provides the easiest way for you to stand out to all
potential employers, especially in today’s crowded employment market.
We believe that this will be the most productive way for talented
people to get their next job – just go through a few simple steps to
setup your profile and it will be accessible to ALL potential employers
(who has internet access) in your region.

They’ve also got this cool YouTube TVC.

Looking at it, they seems to partner with JobStreet, Malaysia’s no 1 Jobsite.
So far, the service is still FREE of Charge, hence I’ve already signed-up.

Yet, so far, nobody has yet to discover me.
So, it’s still debatable how effective this headhunting/pitching/jobsite is.
Why not try it for yourself and find out if you can be discovered?

There are so much more I want to share here, especially with the JobStreet review that I did before which never got into any of the JobStreet newsletters as  I believe, the contest never materialised. Well, what can you do? It’s one of those things that you can’t really control.

Maybe their next career fair, they will honour their marketing campaign?

Till next time. Keep picthing your talent!!

Cheers.
Ed

So, now, where were we? Ahh yes; the dream job of a lifetime!

The creative brains @ Tourism Queensland, Australia have come up with such a brilliant and devious way to get people excited about the Great Barrier Reef and all its glory by putting up this job post!

As an avid job-hopper myself, it would be wrong for me not to give this a shot, but heck, I only have like less than 1 week to come up with a more attractive video application as opposed to the hundreds (or even thousands that’s already online!)

Time to squeeze my creative juices and get to work. Well, it’s only a 60s video, how hard can that be right? (VERY!!! as I have soo much to say)

Once I get that up, I will post it here in the hope that more people will see it and vote for me later (if chosen of course..)

It’ll be the best 30th birthday present ever to be selected as the

Cheers.
Ed

It’s basically another widget/gadget that you can put in your site/blog so like-minded people or your contacts/friends can connect with you directly. Looks to me very similiar to the mybloglog service by Yahoo! too but probably with direct links and well, it’s from Google!

So, I decided to give it a try and if you’re visiting this site now, you can see the friend connect box on the sidebar already.

As I build this site even more, I will definitely test out new things and improve the look and feel of the blog.

And soon, I will also give away some freebies, so please do keep reading and visit as often as possible. Why don’t you suscribe to our RSS reader today! It’s just a click away.

Cheers.

Ed

This is only the second post because I’ve only just started writing more and developing this blog bits by bits. But, I just sent an application to MindValley and here’s the link. Check it out and tell me what you think!

http://thejobhopper.net/hopto/mindvalley

Cheers and will update more on the outcome soon…

Ed

Who is thejobhopper you may ask? Well, it’s me mainly and anyone out there who’ve been job-hopping too or aspire to find a career change (i.e. job hop to a better career/lifestyle etc), with little or high success – depending on how you measure success of course.

The idea behind this blog is actually to share my ’so-called’ secret of success or experiences in career advancement via jumping and hopping around jobs, what to do, what not to do, tips on building a great resume, networking, interviews and basically all the lot!

That is the general idea, but I have a lot of plans in the future…

Random thoughts no 1: Job Hoppers will rule the world!! Hahaha (cunning laugh)

I will use blunt language and an honest approach in looking at how job hopping is not actually that ‘frowned-upon’ in this day and age… In fact, I sincerely believe it’s a great learning tool and a fast track way to develop yourself into becoming a full-fledge master of all trades as well as a budding entreprenuer or your own boss in the making.

Let’s face it, everyone wishes to achieve financial freedom and be happy with their life. Hence, if you are interested to seek and learn some simple secrets towards achieving this (& hopefully more), then this is the place is for you!

Of course, I would also love to hear what you have to say on the subject matter and the sharing of information and experience is what makes the Internet soooo great! Don’t you think so?

Well, I guess that’s a good enough 1st intro. Ideally I would love to spend all day writing and making this blog a great place for everyone to hang out. I’m sure hopefully that time will come one day. Until then, enjoy the jobhopper’s blog…….!

Hopping away,

Ed

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