Gabriel Petersson, a researcher at the OpenAI artificial intelligence lab, advised young IT professionals not to stay in one place at the beginning of their careers. In his opinion, long-term loyalty to one employer is pointless, and frequent team changes help specialists determine their real market value more quickly.
Gabriel Petersson, a researcher at the OpenAI artificial intelligence lab, advised young IT professionals not to stay in one place at the beginning of their careers. In his opinion, long-term loyalty to one employer is pointless, and frequent team changes help specialists determine their real market value more quickly.
The developer wrote about this in a series of posts on the social network X (Twitter). He believes that engineers at the beginning of their careers need as much diverse data as possible — about the specifics of research projects, corporate culture and the level of pay at different companies — before making long-term commitments.
Recruiters traditionally warn against so-called «job hopping» (changing companies every one to three years) because it is supposedly a sign of low employee commitment. However, Petersson categorically disagrees with this stereotype.
«Please don’t listen to the advice that at your first jobs you should stay in one company for a long time and 'not move from place to place,'» he noted.
Instead, the researcher suggests that engineers focus on building a career quickly and openly negotiate flexible formats of cooperation: offering internships, agreeing to a test drive in a team for a month, or registering as independent contractors. Petersson is convinced that this approach brings huge benefits to both parties, as it provides a clear understanding of the market.
Petersson’s own career path supports his position. Before joining OpenAI in 2024 at the age of 23, he worked as a software engineer at startup Dataland and the well-known AI lab Midjourney, staying at each for less than two years. He also dropped out of school in Sweden at 17 to devote himself full-time to launching AI startups.
