Key Takeaways
- Brendan Foody is the CEO of Mercor, an AI expertise and data-labeling platform.
- In a put up on X, Foody stated that he obtained “too many” job purposes from younger individuals who had been “serial job hoppers.”
- These candidates “soar to the most well liked firm yearly” with out constructing “one thing extraordinary,” he stated.
Brendan Foody, the 23-year-old CEO of AI expertise and data-labeling platform Mercor, thinks that younger job candidates ought to keep at corporations for longer stretches of time. When reviewing younger candidates, Foody discovered that common tenure was shorter than he anticipated; they had been staying at jobs for a yr earlier than leaping to the following massive factor.
Earlier this week, Foody wrote on X that he obtained “too many” job purposes from younger individuals who had been “serial job hoppers.” These candidates “soar to the most well liked firm yearly” as a result of they’re underneath the mistaken perception that “it seems good on a resume,” he stated.
“Too many individuals in my era underestimate how a lot relationships, repute, fairness, and belief compound over time,” Foody wrote. He added, “However take a look at nearly anybody who’s constructed one thing extraordinary: they weren’t serial job hoppers.”
Josh Elman, companion at Silicon Valley enterprise capital agency Andreessen Horowitz, replied to Foody’s put up on X.
“You’re proper that going from job to job with out significant contributions nor closure is a nasty sample,” Elman wrote. “However it’s price going deeper with individuals who proceed to work on vital issues at vital instances. That perspective compounds.”
Foody added in an e mail to Enterprise Insider this week that workers ought to pursue new jobs for the “proper causes.” For instance, they may have stopped studying at a selected job.
“Shifting as a result of the work is best could be very completely different from transferring as a result of a brand seems good on a resume,” he famous.
Foody is among the youngest billionaires on this planet, with a web price of $2.2 billion on the time of writing, per Forbes.
Why Gen Z is susceptible to job-hopping
Gen Z has earned a repute because the job-hopping era. A 2021 report from careers web site CareerBuilder discovered that Gen Z employees spent a mean of two years and three months in a task, in contrast with two years and 9 months for millennials, reinforcing the concept youthful employees cycle by jobs sooner than older ones.
In a 2023 survey by consulting agency Oliver Wyman, 70% of Gen Z respondents within the U.S. and UK who described themselves as “loyal” to their employer had been nonetheless actively on the lookout for a brand new position.
Why has Gen Z taken to job-hopping? For years, switching jobs was carefully linked with increased pay, which helped normalize frequent strikes as a rational technique somewhat than a pink flag. For instance, one employment lawyer who spoke with Enterprise Insider final yr grew her wage from $40,000 to $225,000 in six years by strategically job-hopping.
Foody stated he was conscious of the potential monetary upside to job-hopping. “Switching jobs can usually be the quickest technique to get a increase or a title bump within the close to time period, so the motivation feels actual,” he stated within the e mail to Enterprise Insider.
He added that compensation was growing quickly in San Francisco, town he lives in, contributing to the need to change jobs.
“In tech, and particularly in AI proper now, the pull is powerful,” he wrote. “The grass all the time seems greener.”
Key Takeaways
- Brendan Foody is the CEO of Mercor, an AI expertise and data-labeling platform.
- In a put up on X, Foody stated that he obtained “too many” job purposes from younger individuals who had been “serial job hoppers.”
- These candidates “soar to the most well liked firm yearly” with out constructing “one thing extraordinary,” he stated.
Brendan Foody, the 23-year-old CEO of AI expertise and data-labeling platform Mercor, thinks that younger job candidates ought to keep at corporations for longer stretches of time. When reviewing younger candidates, Foody discovered that common tenure was shorter than he anticipated; they had been staying at jobs for a yr earlier than leaping to the following massive factor.
Earlier this week, Foody wrote on X that he obtained “too many” job purposes from younger individuals who had been “serial job hoppers.” These candidates “soar to the most well liked firm yearly” as a result of they’re underneath the mistaken perception that “it seems good on a resume,” he stated.
“Too many individuals in my era underestimate how a lot relationships, repute, fairness, and belief compound over time,” Foody wrote. He added, “However take a look at nearly anybody who’s constructed one thing extraordinary: they weren’t serial job hoppers.”

