No, I am not changing jobs yet. But my brother is. And so are a lot of other people. After about three months of work, I already got my first call from a headhunter who was sure that he had found the perfect job for me. What the heck was that guy thinking? Of course, people in engineering and computer related jobs probably get their first calls three weeks after starting their first job, but...

So today was the last day for my brother. He has been working at his dream job for about three years now, I think. All through school he always wanted to work at this bicycle company and design frames for them. When he graduated, he got what he wanted. It was a great job for him, I guess. He got tons of discounted bicycles out of the deal, including the one that I rode across Europe. He got tons of experience. He got decent pay, but in the end it wasn't enough.

Tons of people are switching jobs like crazy these days. Turnover at my company is over 20%, I think, meaning that the average person stays less than five years. This is partially scewed by the few people who stick around to become managers and partners and work for more than twenty years. The majority, it seems, stay for the standard two or three years. At that point they are totally marketable to all kinds of other companies, and the temptation grows too strong.

What is my point? As usual, I feel like I really have no point other than that this phenomenon is insane. I mean, I guess, I have never done one single thing more than three or four years in my life, so why should I suddenly settle down in one place for forty years. But at the same time, the insane amounts of money that companies spend on recruiting and training new people is amazing. And that doesn't include all the indirect costs involved in trying to serve old clients with new staff who know nothing. People move up and out of our company so fast that I sometimes wonder if anyone really knows how to do any specific job really well. Anyway...