How long do you need to work in one company

Less than eight months

If you cannot explain such a short presence at work as an objective reason, it looks horrible. Because it seems that you have failed the trial period or the first verification of the results.

It is better not to mention this experience, but to record achievements in other career periods. For example, you can mention that you performed work as a freelancer, you were offered other projects, but you refused. Sometimes it's better to gloss over a resume. Some events are so unpleasant that it is better to keep silent about them. And employment shorter than eight months is just such a case.

Over time, you compensate for this experience with other achievements, so do not consider this a lie. You do not mislead anyone, but clean up your past so that the interviewer does not have to spend time figuring out irrelevant details about you that are far behind.

The exception is the loud cuts that caught you in your first year of work. If you fall into insignificant reductions (less than 5% of your department), then this leads to thoughts about your low productivity, and it is better to keep silent about this. But if you were affected by a resonant contraction (for example, closing a plant), there is nothing shameful about it. For example, if you lost your job due to a large-scale reduction 7 months after employment, it is better to include this experience in the resume than to hide it.
18 months

This is a generally recognized minimum. It is understood that you have gone through at least one verification cycle. Typically, employees are evaluated annually, and not based on half-year results, from which the 18-month rule is derived. To achieve something in the company, you need to linger there. You can specify 9 months, but then for the justification you will need a serious reason (corporate or family) that influenced the work.

If your resume contains only one line about the company where you came from, believing in sweet promises, and after eight months left, this is understandable. But when there are five such cases, the problem is most likely in you. Similarly, if you leave whenever the nature of the work changes, HR also takes this with skepticism. Selectivity at work is fine, but if your resume is full of “quick cares”, then HR has the impression that you are starting to work with unreasonable expectations.

If the work is not entirely terrible, you should try to cover at least 15 months so that they fall in three calendar years or 18 months in two calendar years. Many companies do not accept applicants with experience of 6-17 months (experience up to six months can be omitted from the resume). It may not like it, but such are the realities.

Other things being equal, two years is better than one and a half; three is better than two; and four is better than three. At the same time, the benefits of an extra month should not outweigh the opportunities that open up, but still you should think twice before exchanging for transitions that do not promise special benefits.
Four years (48 months)

You are trusted by your current employer if nothing indicates that your performance is falling or stagnating. If you were able to expand the boundaries of your responsibility and at least once grow in position, this is wonderful. Even if you have not received promotion and your projects have not grown, you are still at a favorable point in your career, and you have two more years to take the next step.
Six years (72 months)

At this point, the lack of promotion or interesting projects is painful for you. Four years, of which the year went into grinding, and the remaining three to horizontal growth, is excellent. Four years means that you did everything you could for the company, didn’t let people down and moved forward. After six years without obvious achievements and advancements, it means that the employee is devoid of ambition and it is not so terrible to lose a job as to be mediocrity. If you are satisfied with the horizontal growth and improvement of your skills, and not with new positions, then a key focus should be on your achievements over this period.


And yet, if you continue to grow up the career ladder and after six years, how long should you stay in one company?

If you hate your job, there is no reason to endure and stay only because there is a “universally recognized minimum”. If HR has questions, tell them the truth, tell us about the lessons learned in past jobs.

The optimal duration of work in one place varies from one sphere to another. It is difficult to compare IT-specialists and catering workers, where the staff turnover is not considered something unusual.