According to an article on forbes.com in 2012, the average worker stays at each job for 4.4 years, but the expected tenure of the workforce's youngest employees is about half that.
Millennials (who are a vague category of people generally born from 1977 to 1997) expect to stay in a job for less than three years, according to a Future Workplace Survey, which means they would have had 15-20 jobs over the course of their working lives.
When we consider that the career of a professional athlete is more condensed, it is no surprise that multi-talented athletes such as Sonny Bill Williams and Jarryd Hayne dabble in a variety of professional sporting "jobs'' while they still can.
The average playing career for an NFL player is 3.5 years and the average professional athlete's career is often over by the age of 33 - which happens to be just shy of the age Richie McCaw was when he decided to hang up his rugby boots. We all know how beat-up his body was at the end of his illustrious career.
Good luck to Jarryd Lee Hayne, a millennial born in 1988, on trying his hand and foot at rugby league, the NFL, and now sevens.
At 28, he only has a few more years left at his peak (unless he has the mental fortitude to push himself beyond physical wear and tear).
Hayne followed in his father's footsteps and excelled in rugby league. His athleticism did not go unnoticed and other codes (Australian rules and rugby union) tried to lure him away from league, to no avail.
It wasn't until last year that he made the huge leap from rugby league to NFL as an undrafted free agent for the San Francisco 49ers. It was always going to be a tough gig making a name for himself in the NFL but at least he gave it a go, and perhaps if the Olympics wasn't a temptation right under his nose, he may have stuck at it a bit longer.
A part of me thinks he may have watched the Eddie the Eagle movie recently and thought: "If an unco from Britain can make his Olympic dream come true, why can't I?''
If there is a criticism of Hayne's latest code switch, it is that he has left his run for a place on the Fijian Olympic sevens team a bit late. Eligibility rules regarding anti-doping may be his undoing because the NFL is not Wada-compliant sport. There may be a small loophole, however, as Hayne could be considered a new rugby player which would allow him to play under the Wada rules.
While we wait to hear his fate, other suitors are waiting in the wings. If Hayne can't earn a spot on the in-form Fijian sevens team, the NRL will likely take him back with open arms and most likely an open cheque book.
Oh, to be young, talented and wanted. Enjoy it while it lasts, Hayne. It is naive to expect young athletes who have transferable skills to stick to one code. Those days of being loyal to a code and creating a divide based on social class and cultural capital are long gone.
He doesn't seem to be chasing the big money here and is driven by the mesmerising Olympic dream that hooks many athletes. Hayne should volunteer to be on the proposed Bachelorette series because he is hot property and everyone wants to offer him a red rose.
Will that rose be from a red-headed English coach or a bunch of eels? Tune in for the next episode of Code-hopping Hayne to find out!
