How Long do People Stay at Top Tech Companies?

Back in the good old days, you got a job – any job you could get – to put bread and water on the table. The job was about what it could do for you when you weren’t at the job. Now, the job is about what it can do for you when you’re actually at the job. It’s become essential for so many of us to love our jobs, to feel like we’re making an impact and like we’re being valued. After all, to live for the weekend and our days off is to waste away 71.43% of our lives (or so Beau Taplin says).

But finding that job, the one you’re absolute passionate about is like trying to find a four-leaf clover in a field of clovers: it takes going through quite a few before you’ve found the one. So, we job-hop. And job-hop. In an epic pursuit of the job we love. Don’t believe us? Here’s how long people stay at at top tech companies:

Average Sales & Marketing Employee Tenure at Top Tech Companies

How long people stay at top tech companies

So how long do people stay at top tech companies? Of these 15 companies, the average duration of employment spans from as little 10.7 months to as long as 26 months (just over two years).

Probably one of the most noticeable trends is that the oldest companies on this list – SAP, Cisco, Oracle and BMC – are the companies with some of the longest average employment duration. Among these SAP, the oldest company (founded in 1972) has the shortest average employment duration at 18.5 months. BMC, founded in 1980, has the longest average employment duration at 26 months.

In contrast, the youngest company on this list, Uber, has the shortest average duration of employment at 10.7 months.

So what’s the deciding factor on how long people stay at top tech companies? Well, it could be due to many reasons, including (but not limited to): company culture, national culture, age of company (if the company is only a year old, then the employees could have only been employed for 12 months at most), average age of employees. Note for example, Groupon, the second youngest company on our list – has an average employment duration of at least 20 months – double the amount of Uber despite only being a year younger.

Your Four-Leaf Clover

Finding the right fit between you and the company can take a while. You may not find passion within the playground-like offices of Google, but with the movers and shakers of Uber. Maybe it’s SAP, not LinkedIn that fits. Maybe it is LinkedIn. Or maybe it’s none of these companies. But if you’re still searching for the four-leaf clover, don’t worry – you’re in good company.

Working at one of these companies and wondering what your next steps could be? Check out where the sales and marketing employees of these companies usually leave to:

written 1/12/2016 (before Microsoft’s official acquisition of LinkedIn)