How Do I Avoid Looking Like a Job Hopper?

Dear Experts, I was in a large enterprise IT shop for about seven years and left about a year ago to join a small company. However, with the state of the economy and the state of management, the company quickly turned into a very unstable environment with an incredible amount of stress (I like stress, but the environment was hostile and very negative). My old employer kept reaching out to get me to come back, into a different role, and finally I decided I'd had enough and returned. Now, the scope of my job has changed significantly since being hired (it was a somewhat of a bait-and-switch) and I'm not happy with the direction. My manager can't do much about it so I feel stuck. I'm highly motivated, ambitious and have a desire to make an impact in an organization and my ability to accomplish that in this role has become quite limited. The good news is that I'm making great money and have tons of flexibility but not a lot of job satisfaction. I'm not a job hopper (prior to my large enterprise IT experience, I joined a start-up out of college and helped grow it over 6.5 years to an exit in 2001) and have a very attractive history of stability and growth. I'm at a loss of what to do -- do I stick it out for a year to show stability, but stay in a role where I won't grow and will have low job satisfaction, or do I start looking and if so, how to explain the last year to play-up my stability, ambition and value without looking like a job-hopping loon (which I'm not!)? Here is how our T.A.P. experts answered this question:Q#265 Gr8 that emp'r rehired u, demos gd relationship; say looking 4 next "right fit" & Y their job is it. (@juliaerickson) Q#265 ...(4) 2 help draw attention fr shorterm pos, U cn use functional resume: accomplishments 1st & jobs after. (@RTResumePro) Q#265 ...(3) w/ 6+yrs under UR belt in startup a move fr no-growth job not likely 2B frowned on... (@RTResumePro) Q#265 Theres many ans 2 ths ques: (1) waiting 1yr isnt a long time (2) in ths econ UR less likely 2 look lk UR hopping... (@RTResumePro) Q#265 I'd look at you less favorably for staying at a job you hate than if you went to find something you love! (@beneubanks) Our Twitter Advice Project (T.A.P.) is no longer an active campaign. To find an answer to the above question, please use the "Search" box in the right-hand column of this website.