"So long and thanks for all the fish"
How do I quit nicely without burning the bridges?
11–20 of 37 posts
Re: How do I quit nicely without burning the bridges?
#12[deleted]
Re: How do I quit nicely without burning the bridges?
#13Continue doing your best at your work at your current job as you will need your employer for future references. At the same time, do your research as to what you want to do as well as what is on the market out there. Once you have identified your target companies/roles, start the recruiting process. The period from between when you start exploring other options and until you land an offer you like and want to accept is going to be stressful and the challenge is to manage your emotions and behavior in your interests. Politics exist largely because people who own the company and those who run the company are not the same. Owners want profits and efficiency and managers want titles and bonuses.
Re: How do I quit nicely without burning the bridges?
#14Continue doing your best at your work at your current job as you will need your employer for future references. At the same time, do your research as to what you want to do as well as what is on the market out there. Once you have identified your target companies/roles, start the recruiting process. The period from between when you start exploring other options and until you land an offer you like and want to accept is going to be stressful and the challenge is to manage your emotions and behavior in your interests. Politics exist largely because people who own the company and those who run the company are not the same. Owners want profits and efficiency and managers want titles and bonuses.
Re: How do I quit nicely without burning the bridges?
#15The big problems for most the world's organizations are not software bugs in corner cases. The business of most the world's organizations is not producing software, even if they have in house development staff.. Good software solves a client's actual problems. That is entirely orthogonal to best engineering practices.
There is lots of great advice on quitting here. For completeness I'm suggesting what staying another year might teach:
1. The listening skills necessary for figuring out what matters to other people.
2. Interpreting non-technical language and translating it a technical solution.
3. Asking good questions to find unarticulated constraints.
4. The understanding that every business is a sausage factory (even software businesses). Get close enough and there's no avoiding seeing what goes into the sausage.
I'm not suggesting staying at a job you hate. I'm not suggesting working with mediocrity. On the other hand, it's no accident that many software badasses come out of consulting - and an inhouse development team is akin to an inhouse consultant: paid to solve problems not make products or problems.
Good luck.
Re: How do I quit nicely without burning the bridges?
#16People leave developer jobs all the time; it's expected. You haven't been able to change the process working "from the inside" so resist the urge to give them any "helpful" advice on your way out - it won't be appreciated. Find your next job. This is important: When your new employer asks you when you can start, tell them depending "on how fast your can wrap things up" 1 to 2 weeks. If you current employer walks you…
I'll sound like a broken record for saying this, but unless you are under contract you can leave at any time. Two weeks is a courtesy YOU extend and nothing more. If you were to be laid off or fired you wouldn't get two weeks notice, would you? You'd be out within the hour. If this place is as dysfunctional as it seems, staying two weeks after giving notice will be a nightmare. So clean your house now as you search f…
If the bugs don't change the bottom line, then the company is not dysfunctional. There's simply a mismatch between the expectations of an employee and the employer.
That is normal for someone working below a Senior Developer, a manager, and some unknown portfolio of VP's, Executive VP's, and C-level staff. A person that far down the food chain doesn't have a medium size picture, let alone the large one...i.e. the perception that the company is dysfunctional is not based on business metrics but "how I've always done stuff before."
Re: How do I quit nicely without burning the bridges?
#17I'm iterating what's been said here already, but want to make sure you realize it really is the best way: Just find another position, give decent notice, and move on. If anyone asks, it's always about how much better the new opportunity is, not about how crappy the current job was.
This is the way to go and well worded. One comment, politics will be at every company you work at, especially the larger ones. Even those who swear they don't have any, so you have to accept there will always be some but find the ones you can live with and learn to navigate what remains. Good companies do their best to control and eliminate bad politics but some will always exist. I am one who doesn't do well with po…
I agree. Politics is how people negotiate power without violence. So it is everywhere. It always helps to understand politics even if you don't want to engage in it as it can help make seemingly irrational behaviors appear concretely rational once the motivation for it is understood.
Re: How do I quit nicely without burning the bridges?
#18Dale Carnegie wrote: ... even in such technical lines as engineering, about 15 percent of one's [...] success is due to one's technical knowledge and about 85 percent is due to skill in human engineering-to personality and the ability to lead people.
Even if you find a great job where you can focus on the "15%" there will always be other departments / managers / competitors, who doesn't play by your rules. You better get used to it and continue doing a good job & read the book "How to Win Friends & Influence People".
If I were you I would stay at least for one another year in my current position and quit first when I know how to handle politics.
Re: How do I quit nicely without burning the bridges?
#19If you are in good standing with your current employer, the very first thing I would do is get a letter of reference.
They are very valuable, and hard to come by. I wouldn't leave without getting a letter of reference first. It does signal that you are looking for another job, but that is okay. It's not a big deal. Everyone knows it happens, and if they are at all reasonable they will go ahead and do it for you. People leave jobs nicely without burning bridges all the time.
Re: How do I quit nicely without burning the bridges?
#20I'm iterating what's been said here already, but want to make sure you realize it really is the best way: Just find another position, give decent notice, and move on. If anyone asks, it's always about how much better the new opportunity is, not about how crappy the current job was.
Definitely agreed. Dont be an arse, be polite, move on and upwords. You never know when you might need to cross a bridge you just burned down!