Latest / Job Hopping with Fexingo: Tenure, Loyalty, and the Modern Career Resume / How Job Hopping Changes Your Vendor and Partner Relationships
Transcript
- Lucas: You've been at a company for eighteen months. You just landed a great relationship with an outside design agency — they know your brand voice, your approval process, the quirks of your creative director. Then you give notice. Luna: And that agency is suddenly wondering if they should have invested so much time in you. Lucas: Exactly. Today I want to talk about something that almost never comes up in the 'should I stay or should I go' calculus: what job hopping does to your relationships with vendors, agencies, consultants, and strategic partners. Luna: I've never really thought about that. I've always focused on internal relationships — your boss, your team, your skip-level. Lucas: Right, and those are critical. But if you're in a role that manages outside partners — and more of us are every year as companies outsource more — your job tenure directly affects how much trust those partners are willing to extend to you. Luna: Are we talking about the kind of trust where they give you better pricing, or more like they share inside knowledge about their business? Lucas: Both. I spoke with a procurement manager at a mid-size tech firm — she asked to stay anonymous — and she told me that when she sees a new marketing manager who's been at three companies in four years, she flags the account internally as 'high risk for turnover.' That means her team holds back on offering volume discounts or giving early access to new product lines. Luna: Wow. So the vendor is essentially hedging against your departure. Lucas: Exactly. They're making a rational business calculation. If there's a fifty percent chance you'll be gone in twelve months, why would they invest in teaching you their proprietary workflow? Why would they introduce you to their senior leadership? Luna: It's like a reverse tenure premium — instead of getting paid more for staying, you get less service for leaving. Lucas: That's a great way to put it. And the effect compounds. If you've hopped three times in five years, you've essentially burned through three sets of vendor relationships. Each time you start over at a new company, you're not just building trust with your new boss — you're also starting from zero with every external partner that company works with. Luna: But you bring some relationships with you, right? I mean, if you had a great PR agency at your last job, can't you hire them at the new one? Lucas: Sometimes. But there are complications. First, non-solicitation clauses are common in vendor contracts — they might prevent you from bringing a specific agency if they're already working with a competitor. Second, the new company might have preferred vendor lists or existing contracts. Third, even if you can bring them, the agency now knows you're a serial hopper. They'll be less likely to invest in that long-term strategic relationship. Luna: So what do you do if you're a job hopper but you still need strong vendor partnerships? Lucas: There are a few strategies. One is to explicitly address it. When you start a new role, schedule a call with key vendors and say, 'Look, I know I've moved around. Here's my commitment to this role — I plan to be here at least two years, and I want to build a real partnership.' Even if it's not guaranteed, it signals that you understand the dynamic. Luna: And if you're not sure you'll stay two years? Lucas: Then be careful about over-promising. But you can still build trust by being transparent about your timeline and by introducing your replacement when you leave. If you hand off the relationship to a capable successor and brief them thoroughly, the vendor remembers that. It builds your personal brand even after you're gone. Luna: That's smart. It's like you're investing in relationship capital that follows you even if the specific commercial relationship doesn't. Lucas: Exactly. And there's another angle: job hopping can actually expand your vendor network. Each new employer exposes you to a different set of partners. If you're intentional about it, you end up with a kind of Rolodex that someone who stayed at one company for ten years wouldn't have. Luna: Yeah, I can see that. You might know three different payroll providers, two different PR agencies, four different cloud service vendors. That breadth itself becomes valuable. Lucas: And it makes you a more strategic buyer. Because you've seen how different vendors operate in different contexts. You know what questions to ask, what hidden fees to watch for, what service levels are actually achievable. Luna: So there is an upside. It's just not automatic — you have to manage it actively. Lucas: Right. And that brings me to another practical tool: keep a personal CRM. Not a company-managed one, but your own spreadsheet or contact database with notes on every vendor you've worked with — what they did well, who your main contact was, what the pricing was, how they handled problems. Luna: Do people actually do that? I feel like that's one of those things everyone intends to do but no one does. Lucas: More people than you'd think, especially in procurement and marketing operations. I interviewed a digital marketing director who has a Google Sheets doc with tabs for every vendor she's ever used — she updates it every Friday. She says it's saved her hundreds of hours when she starts a new job because she can immediately identify which vendors to reach out to and which to avoid. Luna: That's a concrete win. And it's portable, unlike the company's own vendor management system. Lucas: Speaking of portability — one thing that job hoppers sometimes overlook is the value of vendor references. When you're applying for a new job, a strong reference from a vendor who's seen you operate across multiple companies can be incredibly powerful. It says you're not just a good employee — you're a good partner. That's a different kind of signal. Luna: That's actually a really good point. I never would have thought to ask a vendor for a reference. But they've seen you under pressure, they've seen how you handle negotiations, they've seen you manage crises. Lucas: Exactly. And they can speak to your integrity in a way that internal references sometimes can't, because they're not part of the same political ecosystem. Luna: But what about the flip side — when you're the one hiring vendors? Does job hopping affect your credibility as a buyer? Lucas: Absolutely. Vendors do their homework. If they see that you've been at three companies in five years, they may assume you won't be around long enough to see a multi-year project through. That can make them less willing to offer you favorable terms or to assign their best talent to your account. Luna: So you're at a disadvantage before you even start negotiating. Lucas: You can overcome it, but you have to be proactive. One approach is to bring in your boss or a more tenured colleague to key vendor meetings early on. It signals that the relationship is institutional, not just personal. Another is to structure contracts with shorter renewal periods — say, quarterly instead of annual — so the vendor feels less exposed. Luna: That's a clever workaround. It reduces their risk, which might get you better service in the short term. Lucas: And if you do leave, you've set up the relationship to transition smoothly. The vendor already knows your boss, the contract is already flexible. That kind of professionalism builds your reputation even after you're gone. Luna: This whole conversation is making me realize how much invisible infrastructure there is around a job. It's not just your resume — it's your entire web of external relationships. Lucas: Right. And if we've helped you think through any of that — whether it's vendor relationships, salary negotiation, or any other career move — a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these shows going. Buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Luna: Yeah, it really does make a difference. We keep the show ad-free, and that's because listeners chip in. Lucas: So back to the vendor angle — there's one more strategy I want to mention. If you know you're planning to leave, give your vendors a heads-up before you announce it internally. Not in a way that breaches confidentiality, but something like, 'I'm exploring opportunities, and I want to make sure our partnership continues smoothly.' Luna: That takes a lot of trust. And it's risky — what if it gets back to your boss? Lucas: It is risky, and I wouldn't recommend it unless you have an exceptionally strong relationship with that vendor contact. But I've seen it work. One senior IT manager I know told his key software vendor about his departure two weeks before he announced it. They helped him document all the custom configurations and train his replacement. The vendor earned his loyalty for life — and he ended up hiring them at his next company. Luna: So it's a high-risk, high-reward move. But it shows how deep these relationships can go. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the core of what we're talking about. Job hopping doesn't have to mean shallow vendor relationships. It just means you have to be more intentional about building and maintaining them — and about leaving them in good shape when you go. Luna: I think the big takeaway for me is that your vendor relationships are an asset you carry with you, but only if you manage them that way. Lucas: Right. And the more you hop, the more important that asset becomes — because your network of external partners can be your competitive advantage in your next role. Luna: Alright, that's a solid place to leave it. Thanks, Lucas. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. See you next time.