Emurse

What to do when leaving your job is an important aspect of your career. Whether you leave a job under your own circumstances or by the company’s, you should be knowledgeable of the correct course of action to take.

We’ll start with leaving on your own terms:

• It is typical in most organizations to give two weeks notice. However, there are some circumstances where one month or less than two weeks is appropriate. Managers usually give one month notice, and two weeks notice is given for entry level positions.
  Do not quit on a whim, it will harm your cause in the future. Prospective employers sometimes ask why did you leave your previous position? You never want to be in a position where you speak negatively about your previous employer.
• Do not burn any bridges, which means on your last day, don’t tell the Vice President how you feel about him. Hopefully, you’ll be leaving a job where you’ve done a good job. If that’s the case, you may want to send a thank you email or thank you card to your colleagues that you feel made you a better employee. Even saying thank you in person with a firm handshake and meaning it, makes a world of difference. Do not tell any co-workers how much you hate this or you hate that about the company, because it could get back to those you may later need as reference. You don’t want to ruin existing good connections you might need later.
• Ask those people you have good connections with if you can use them as a reference and get their full contact information (name, email, address, and phone number). It’s suggested these people be supervisors and managers, but co-workers will work also. Some companies do not allow using supervisors or managers as a reference instead you can usually use an individual from the Human Resources department as the reference (again be sure to inform them). Remember to get any business contacts and phone numbers to stay in touch or for future networking purposes.
• Within your two weeks take any belongings you may have, and clean up your area the best you can.
• Communicate to your team, supervisors, managers any email correspondence you can, or any phone correspondence, and the status of your tasks. Finish as many of your tasks as possible in the time allotted.
• Assuming you already have a job lined up you should be all set. On the other hand if you don’t have a job, you should have your resume updated and you should begin networking through friends or colleagues and let them know you’re searching. Begin applying immediately, for getting hired sometimes takes some time.

Now leaving a job where you are fired or laid off is a different story and requires a much different approach.

• Do not get hasty and do something irrational, such as telling the Vice President something you may regret later. No need to burn bridges, you may need their resources or references in the near future.
• Tell them “thank you” for the opportunity and experience (with the most sincere smile possible).
• Ask if this decision is performance based or a financial decision. If it’s performance based ask them what specific things you could have improved upon. If you have solid reason why you were not fulfilling your responsibilities completely, let them know politely. Listen to these criticisms and learn from them. If this is a financial decision, then are you willing to take a pay cut for the opportunity and experience, if so let them know. Otherwise tell them thank you and if anything changes financially you’d like to be contacted to come back, you enjoyed working with everyone and you enjoyed your responsibilities.
• As soon as you leave, begin contacting and using your network of friends, colleagues and anyone else and let them know of your employment status. Let them know you’re looking, and you’ll send them your updated resume as soon as possible.
• Update your resume immediately. Job searching sometimes takes longer than you expect, which means begin applying to jobs as soon as you can.

No matter what your situation; laid off, fired or quitting, remember not to ruin any relationships, burn any bridges or hurt anyone’s feelings. You might need their resources, reference or help in some form or fashion in the near future.

Having an updated resume on file is always very helpful; Emurse is a great resource to easily do that for you.