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Brittany Harris-Nelson likens her professional path to “a frog moving across lily pads,” emphasizing the non-linear nature of her career progression. At 32, she currently holds a mid-level administrative role at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a position she aspired to for a long time. Her journey to this role involved nearly a decade of hopping between various college jobs, each one helping her acquire specific skills essential for her continued advancement.
Throughout the past ten years, Harris-Nelson has worked in ten different roles across six universities. Starting with several positions during her student years, she eventually took on three full-time jobs. Her titles have ranged from office manager to admissions counselor and student advisor, culminating in her current position as assistant director of student engagement. While her salary increases were modest as she switched jobs, she gained additional perks such as more paid leave and larger employer pension contributions. Reflecting on her experiences, she notes, “Each role helped me build skills and perspectives that I didn’t yet have, and together those experiences prepared me for the work I do today.”
This pattern of strategically moving between jobs to enhance skills and career prospects reflects a trend known as “lily padding,” particularly common among Generation Z workers. This demographic, born between 1997 and 2012, tends to change jobs frequently to accelerate their employability and climb the career ladder. According to a 2024 global survey by recruitment firm Randstad, Gen Z employees typically remain in their roles for just 1.1 years during the early stages of their careers, contrasting with longer tenures for millennials and older generations. This job mobility is also linked to higher earnings; for instance, a 2025 UK study found that individuals who changed jobs multiple times over ten years earned 31% more on average than those who stayed put.
Adam Smiley Poswolsky, a 42-year-old public speaker and author from San Francisco, illustrates this mindset well. Rejecting the traditional, linear career ladder, he sought meaning and purpose by working across diverse sectors including government, non-profits, creative industries, and corporations. Over a span of 15 years, his varied roles included project leader for the Peace Corps, English teacher at Harvard, location scout for Warner Bros, film producer in New York, staffer on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, and youth leadership speaker, among others.
Experts in the field observe a broader shift in career expectations, especially among younger employees. Nicola Grant, Chief People Officer at UK insurance firm Hiscox, notes that many early-career professionals now seek a rapid accumulation of diverse experiences instead of sticking to a single trajectory. They are eager to move on if their professional growth stalls, prioritizing variety, speed, and relevant skill-building. Grant asserts, “Expectations have changed; people want variety, pace and to build skills that will remain relevant. It’s about a desire for growth.” A similar view is shared by Lucy Kemp, an employee experience specialist at IT company La Fosse, who believes lily padding is more than a trend—it’s the future of work. She highlights younger generations’ skepticism about loyalty paying off and their intention to shape careers around acquiring valued skills. Kemp points out that with the pandemic reducing in-office peer learning and AI automating routine tasks, employees now proactively seek experiences that will keep their skills relevant, often through new roles or industry switches. Harris-Nelson encapsulates this outlook: “I see my career as an ongoing journey rather than a destination. I’m always learning and growing.
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