By Kevin Roth

“She’s only been with one company her entire career. We’d really prefer someone with more diverse experience.”

20 years ago, the statement above would be considered ludicrous. Who wouldn’t want to hire someone with that level of loyalty and stability?

Today, that same loyalty is getting perceived as complacency, thereby promoting the increasingly common theme of changing jobs every 2-3 years. Before you pass on a candidate because they’re too stable, get the full scoop on their tenure at that company.

Although they’ve technically been with that same company for 10 years, maybe they’ve rotated and progressed through diverse roles in a variety of functional areas or subsidiaries. Maybe the company went through multiple transformations, providing a mix of exposure across different models and setups.

Just because someone has been with the same company doesn’t mean they’ve been doing the same job or seeing the same thing over and over again. 10 years within one company can often times provide more diverse experience than working at 3 different (but similar) companies over that same time frame.

Don’t let the increasing level of mobility destroy the attractiveness of tenure and stability. If that trend continues, in 10 years the average tenure will be 6 months.