The Art of the Exit
One thing that you should think about while you’re seeking a new position is your exit strategy, for a couple of reasons. First, it lets you focus on the real reasons for your departure, not just the dust-up in last week’s status meeting, or the early release of your project without your knowledge. You should be able to formulate in one or two concise statements your reason for leaving. Once you have this firmly defined, reframe it in a way that isn’t disparaging to your soon-to-be-former employer. For instance, instead of “That rotten jerk lied to me” could be couched in more positive terms: “I feel I was mislead regarding the responsibilities that were assigned to me“. Don’t mistake this for political correctness; you will be asked why you’re leaving your position in almost every interview you participate in.
Another reason for getting to the root of your dissatisfaction is that it helps you come to terms with it all and allows you to attain your zen. An inner calmness, knowing that you are doing the right thing, doing what’s best for you, will allow you to be at the top of your game during your job search. Which would make a better impression during an interview, a calm, well-spoken, confident candidate or an angry, discordant, disenchanted person who speaks ill of their employers?
The final reason for defining your reason for leaving is for your exit interview, if you have one. Exit interview are a tricky beast; a quick google on the subject will show you the pros and cons of participating in one, from both sides’ perspective. It’s tempting to leave a trail of devastation in the wake of your departure, venting all your pent-up frustrations but you should rethink that particular stratagem. It does a great disservice to your reputation and your career. Instead, if you decide to provide feedback at all, be nice about it. Use constructive, positive language to have the most impact. Don’t let your insights be dismissed as merely the angry words from a (another) malcontent.
I recently went through this exercise, leaving a rather large company after only 11 months. It was the shortest time I’ve ever held a position in my career. It was very interesting; the exit interview by HR was the best, most thorough interview I’ve ever
had. Among the more interesting questions asked were:
- What’s your general sense of moral in the company?
- Are we in danger of losing more employees?
- Do others feel the way you feel?
Unusual, but the sense I had was that the HR person was interested in helping the company improve.
The other odd bit was that once I gave my notice I became persona non grata. No longer a team player, I was dead to both my manager and his manager. That was very interesting to me!. The only other manager to speak with me was the guy who hired me. In my experience, your manager takes an active role in your departure in order to avoid losing more employees. Not there though, but that’s another story.
Filed under: Editorial
Very interesting, great post!
It’s a very common phenomena in big companies that a large amount of the employees have their own agendas. Thus it’s hard for them to grow team cultures, leading to a spiral of death for enthusiasm.
One problem is that the ones who are hired to prevent this, the managers, often themselves are not inspired enough to do a good job. They should be more like the HR-person you experienced.
Thanks Hans, I had fun writing it. Personal agendas do get in the way of a good team culture, as you say but what I experienced was a place that professed to have a great culture but it was only in theory, not practice. The developers were pretty much united in a common cause of making the code, and thus the product better, but were not allowed to do so.
There are big changes in the air there, and it will be interesting to see how it all shakes out.
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