I have been told that intelligent people have many interests and hobbies. When I was in college, I participated in hackathons, led the student government, rising to the rank of president, conducted a research study, completed three internships, and volunteered with several external organizations. These all gave me depth and experiences, which set me apart from my peers as we graduated.

After you graduate, the world becomes a different place. The things you did in college that helped you stand out are reduced to one page instead of the entire book. Employers care more about how you will add value to the organization, either by furthering the mission or by generating revenue.

Staying in one job shows several things. The first is longevity; nobody wants to hire a flight risk who will jump ship in a few months. Another is the ability to increase your salary. As you gain experience, one year becomes two; two years become five; five years become ten, and so forth. Someone with ten years under their belt is typically worth more than someone with less. Each time you switch jobs, if you cross the boundaries of your industry, that timer resets.

My first job out of college was working as a child abuse caseworker. I found this job particularly overwhelming with the abysmal pay, extensive documentation, home visits, testifying in court, and removing kids from their parents’ custody. At this job, I learned the value of mentoring and having steps written out.

Having several jobs helped me to think in different domains. When I was a background screener, I had to develop a process and learn when to stop in the middle of my work. You could not complete Step 2 if Step 1 was not done first. This job taught me to slow down and ask questions.

I also worked for a while in finance at a trucking and logistics company. In this role, I juggled over 80 client accounts. The little details matter! Some clients wanted to have their invoices sent over email with a certain subject line. Some wanted one invoice per PDF, while others were happy with one file containing multiple invoices. Other clients wanted to have only a certain quantity of invoices in one email.

I returned to social work after the finance gig, serving as a therapist for adults with intellectual disabilities. This job was also a challenge because I learned the hard way that I like to have some (even minimal) structure. This was my first time routinely working funky shifts and weekends. It takes a toll on you when you cannot connect with clients, and you never reach 40 hours a week, no matter how hard you try. I liked my title, but that was about it.

For just one day, I worked at FedEx as a driver. I really thought this would be my final resting place. About one-third of the way through the day, I realized that the job would be too overstimulating for my vertigo. I didn’t realize there would be so much bending and so much up and down from the truck. I knew we would be making multiple stops, but I figured we would be making 20 or 30 stops. We did 83. I didn’t have the heart to ask my trainer to take me back to the terminal when I began feeling dizzy.

While this list is not exhaustive, it gives you some insight into my employment history.

I work as an analyst now, but I would not have learned these lessons if I had spent seven years in one job (the approximate time when I became a child abuse caseworker). Learning skills across domains taught me how to think. When I worked in finance, my boss said that my time as a social worker made me a far better troubleshooter than my peers.

When I was a therapist, I used what I had learned from my gig in finance to build spreadsheets, provide search engine optimization consulting, and draw flowcharts.

Like anything in life, it takes some time to find your niche. There is probably a reason that a job hopper leaves jobs. They are building something for tomorrow.

This was written by our contributing writer, Joshua Nussbaum.