Neil Butler
29 June 2026
==========
… why are you asking about all of the short-term roles on a candidate’s CV?
You think I’m joking, don’t you? I’m not. It happens regularly.
One of our most talented associates is someone who specialises in change and transformation, completing projects and then moving onto their next assignment. Twice in the past few weeks, she has been put forward by a recruiter for short-term project roles – in each case, six months with the potential for that to extend out to 12 months, once the scope of the project had been finalised.
In both cases, the feedback from the recruiters was the same – there are too many short-term roles on the CV. It seems that these two potential employers / clients had decided that she can’t be very good if she has to keep moving on to other organisations.
Stop and think about this for a moment. There are change experts out there who flourish in new roles and in new organisations. They understand the scope of an assignment, complete the assignment successfully and rather than hanging around looking for something else to do, they cut ties and move on to the next organisation / challenge / project. And by doing that, they are collecting ideas, experiences, contacts and sorts of other valuable assets, making them even more valuable as a change professional.
Rather than assuming that she can’t be all that great in her work, take a different view – that she is so good at what she does, she is in really high demand and has the confidence to proactively look for other roles.
I know for a fact that these two potential employers have missed the boat big-time. She would have made a massive positive impact on their project and their colleagues but instead, have made assumptions that are really bad assumptions.
She has now been engaged by another client (in one case, a direct competitor) and is making a difference for that new organisation.
Acknowledge that there are really competent people (in her case, REALLY competent) who choose to work this way.
Get on board or miss out!
==========
Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and/or Instagram as we work on changing change.