Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the relationships between learning opportunities, person-organization fit, self-directedness career attitude and job hopping among generation Y employees in Malaysian small medium enterprise (SME) service sectors. Design/methodology/approach Research data was gathered from a sample of 203 generation Y employees from SME service sectors in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modelling is used to perform the data analysis in the present study. Findings The results demonstrated that person-organization fit and self-directedness career attitude correlates significantly with job hopping among generation Y employees. However, there is no significant relationship between learning opportunities and job hopping. Research limitations/implications This study provides an empirical framework for explaining the job hopping among generation Y employees in SME service based on the review of related careers. Originality/value This study offers new insights into the predicting factors of job hopping among generation Y employees in the Malaysian context specifically.