My career trajectory after undergrad:
4 months: Project manager at a bank. Management development program that I left to join a startup in Berlin.
5 months, internship: promising startup in Berlin that I joined as intern. Founder passed away so the company almost went down under and they couldn't support me with visa.
1 year: Well-known German startup, notable turnkey projects. Left to home country due to family issues (closer to ageing relatives)
2 years 8 months: Rising Asian unicorn, notable turnkey projects, some good impact here. Left after a while to switch industry
3 months: Remote role at a US-based startup. Loved the time here and was actually able to scale a program. Laid-off along with half of the company due to investor pulling funds.
There are reasons behind every move. But this is not immediately evident to a recruiter and raises questions, more so in this market.
Now I'm job-searching while simultaneously freelance consulting on the side but as a generalist, non-tech, I'm somewhat jaded with job-hopping and want to aim for longer run at a stable company.
But even at those 5-6 years recruiters/hiring managers start to notice, you better have some good story to explain since they will ask. They do care much more if hopping is recent compared to 5-10 years ago. For more senior roles its simply a no-go, I mean think about it - it would be a net loss for the company to hire such a person, and if its obvious from the start why cause this to yourself.
Companies want stability, especially on senior level. If they change, they want to be in control of the change and not the opposite. Instable persons won't bring that, you don't need 30 years of management experience to realize this.