爱思英语编者按：某些面试官认为，做一份工作许多年的人，比频繁跳槽的求职者更值得怀疑。

Dear Annie:I’ve been working for the same company for 17 years and, now that we’ve been acquired by a former competitor, some of us are being offered voluntary “early retirement” severance packages. I’m tempted to take one, even though I’m nowhere near ready to retire.

But here’s my problem: When I first heard about the merger, I thought there would be significant overlap between the two companies’ employees, so I started a job search “just in case.” It’s going okay — I’ve gotten several interviews so far — but I’m running into an obstacle I didn’t expect, especially with younger interviewers. Every time someone notices I’ve been at one company for almost two decades (albeit with two promotions to bigger jobs and titles), he or she looks at me as if I have two heads. Is there a stigma attached to longevity now? How do I deal with this? — Loyal to a Fault

Dear Loyal:“No one should apologize for staying with a good company for ‘too many’ years,” says Patricia Siderius, managing director of executive outplacement services at global HR consulting firm BPI group. “These days, not many people have the opportunity to do it.”

Too true. In a weird reversal of the old, unwritten rules, frequent job changes have become not only more acceptable to hiring managers than they used to be, but “almost expected,” she adds. This is for three reasons. First, during the recession, necessity obliged so many people to move around that the old job-hopping stigma all but disappeared. At the same time, the information technology industry — where frequent job changes have long been the norm — has become the job market zeitgeist.

But the most interesting part of this shift is that it’s also partly based on a myth. Millennials, that huge (and hugely influential) generation born since 1980, are widely believed to switch jobs far more often than their parents did. It’s easy to see where that idea came from. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last year that the average 25-year-old has already held 6.3 jobs since age 18.

That sounds like a lot, and it is. But a new BLS report sheds different light on those statistics. The National Longitudinal study of Youth 1979, a survey of 9,964 men and women who were polled in 1979 and most recently (at ages 47 to 56) in 2013, shows that this group had held 5.5 jobs between the ages of 18 and 24 years. If people who were 25 in 1979 had been included in this project, these Boomers would almost certainly have matched or exceeded Millennials’ much-vaunted 6.3 jobs.

So Millennials aren’t as different from their elders, at least in this respect, as people tend to think. But, now that the oldest among them are in their mid-thirties and interviewing job candidates, how do you persuade them that 17 years at one company isn’t “too long”?

Siderius has three suggestions. First, write down everything you learned and achieved at your current company. Making sure you don’t overlook anything may take some thought. Siderius has noticed in executive coaching sessions that “people tend to underestimate their own accomplishments. You may be taking for granted parts of what you did.” If some of it was a while ago, you may even have forgotten it.

Once you have put together a detailed list, see which items on it most closely match up with the description of the position you want. Siderius helps her clients come up with “a one-page summary that looks like a chart, with specific job requirements on one side of the page and, on the other, the aspects of your experience that can add the most value. Then, hand it to the interviewer, in addition to your resume, and talk in specific terms about what you can do for this employer.”

Second, she suggests, be ready to toss some references to current industry trends into the conversation. “Having stayed in one place for a long time does not make you dreary and dusty. Being sharp and up-to-date on what’s current and new can help demonstrate that.”

And third, but perhaps most important, “be very positive and upbeat about the company you’re thinking of leaving,” Siderius says. “It’s important to emphasize that you’ve had a terrific run there, and that it has been a great place to work, with smart people and lots of resources and opportunities to learn.” Your enthusiasm, especially if it’s genuine, should go a long way toward quelling any skepticism about why you stuck around. Good luck.

Talkback:Has a job interviewer ever questioned why you stayed so long in one job, or at one company? How did you respond? Leave a comment below.

亲爱的安妮：我在同一家公司工作了17年，由于公司已经被一家竞争对手收购，我们现在可以自愿选择一笔“提前退休”遣散费。我也想接受这样的条件，尽管我还远没到退休的年龄。

但我的问题是：最初听说我们要被并购，我认为两家公司的员工会有许多职位重复，“为了以防万一”我开始求职。最初，事情进展顺利——我参加了几次面试，但我却遇到了意想不到的障碍，尤其是在接受年轻面试官面试的时候。每当有人注意到我在一家公司工作了近二十年的时候（尽管有两次升职，获得了更高的职位和头衔），他们看我的眼神就像是在看一个怪物。在一家公司工作这么长时间会成为污点吗？我该如何克服这种障碍？——过分忠诚的人

亲爱的“过分忠诚的人”：全球人力资源咨询公司BPI集团高管转职就业服务执行总监帕特里夏•思德鲁斯认为：“人们不必因为在一家好公司工作‘太多’年而道歉。如今，已经没有太多人有机会做到这一点。”

确实如此。她补充道，旧的不成文规则发生了不可思议的逆转，招聘经理不仅比之前更容易接受频繁跳槽者，有人甚至期待着这样的求职者。出现这种情况有三个原因。首先，在经济衰退期间，太多人因为生活所迫不得不四处寻找机会，原先跳槽带来的污点已不复存在。与此同时，信息技术行业已经成为就业市场的引领者，而频繁跳槽早已成为这个行业的常态。

不过这种转变最有趣的部分在于，它在一定程度上基于一种不准确的观念。规模庞大的（并且有着巨大影响力的）80后90后，被普遍认为比他们的父母跳槽更频繁。这种观点的源头很容易便能找到。美国劳工统计局去年报告称，25岁的年轻人从18岁开始平均已经做过6.3份工作。

听起来很有说服力，事实也确实如此。但劳工统计局的一项最新报告，却从不同角度阐述了这些统计数字。2013年，“1979全国青年纵向研究”项目对1979年接受调查的9964名的男性和女性进行了再次调查（此时受调查人群的年龄段为47至56岁）。调查显示，该年龄段的受访者在18至24岁平均做过5.5份工作。如果将1979年25岁的美国人包含在该项目当中，那么，与80后90后引以为豪的6.3份工作相比，婴儿潮一代在跳槽次数方面可谓有过之而无不及。

所以，至少在这方面，80后90后并不像人们想象的那样与他们的长辈有任何不同。但如今千禧一代年龄最大的已经步入35岁，开始面试求职者，那么，你如何让他们相信在一家公司工作17年并非“太长”呢？

思德鲁斯给出了三条建议。首先，写下你在目前公司内学到了什么，取得了怎样的成绩。不要忽略任何可能需要一些思考的事情。思德鲁斯在高管培训研讨会上注意到，“人们倾向于低估自己的成绩。你可能认为你所做的一切都是理所应当的。”如果相隔时间太久，你甚至会忘记自己的成绩。

列出详细的清单之后，对比哪些项目与你希望得到的职位的说明相匹配。思德鲁斯帮助客户想出了“一页纸的总结，看起来像是图表，纸的一边是具体的工作要求，另一边则是你拥有的那些可以增加最大价值的经验。然后将这张纸与简历一同交给面试官，并非常专业地谈论你可以为雇主做哪些具体的事情。”

其次，她建议，准备好在谈话中提到目前的行业趋势。“在一个地方工作太长时间，并没有让你变的沉闷，失去活力。对业内最新动向保持敏锐，可以帮你证明这一点。”

第三，或许也是最重要的一点，“对你正在考虑离开的公司要给出积极乐观的评价。重要的是强调你在那家公司有非常好的经历，那是一个非常适合工作的地方，有许多聪明的人，还有大量资源和学习机会，”思德鲁斯说道。如果你对公司的热情是真诚的，它可以帮助平息为什么你在一个地方工作那么长时间的任何质疑。祝你好运。

反馈：是否有面试官曾经怀疑你为什么在一份工作或一家公司工作太长时间？你如何回答？欢迎评论。