Resigning after 9 days at new job - how'd you do it?

First off, I'm asking this question for a mate of mine. This is not for me. But I'd like to get TE's take on this.

He moved to a new role exactly 9 business days ago at a much smaller company than where he was at before (he was my colleague at one of the biggest banks in the APJ region). He was at the bank for 9 years. Moving to a much smaller place with lots fewer people to talk to has kinda depressed him a bit. The work is good apparently - pre-sales + consulting in the technology he likes to play with etc. Pay's not bad. He's got this new offer from a very large multi-national with significantly more money doing pre-sales and consulting there too.

Question is how can he best resign from his current role without burning some of his bridges? You may think it's only been 9 days, there cant be much of a bridge to burn. Remember the IT world is small, someone always know someone! These are high-impact, high-vis roles we are talking about here.

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Comments

johnnyqt25

Stop worrying about what others think. Do what's best for you and your family. And nobody cares if you leave as much as you think. Good luck!

cyberguypr

Don't spend too much time weighing pros and cons. It is what it is. Short, professional letter/email right to the point without much detail. They may or may not hold a grudge or take it personal. Nothing he can do about it.

dave330i

Your friend's going to burn some bridges. Just be honest about it. It's always difficult to say no to significantly more money.

thatguy67

I quit a job after 8 days or something like that lol. I don't regret it for a second. I knew at the end of the first day that I would hate it. I got a job offer 4 days in from my top choice when I was interviewing the previous month. I just emailed the head guy my letter of resignation. They cut off my access within 20 minutes and he called to ask what they could do better. The company knew what was up...they have difficulty keeping employees because the environment is depressing. They didn't take it personally. I was just another statistic. For all I know, they probably appreciated that I cut it short so they didn't put too much faith in me to stay or invest 6 months-1 year worth of paychecks just for me to bail. I don't care if I burn bridges (if you consider that I could never work there again to be a bad thing haha).

clouder

I resigned from a job after 8 weeks, and managed to not burn any bridges. I just made it clear that something I'd been wanting for a long time came through that would also cut my commute by 20 minutes, and nobody held a grudge. In fact, my lead wound up in the same place as me (same room, even) a year later. It can be done!

xengoreth

As long as the individual's work history contains significantly fewer than record-holder of 110 different positions over the course of his career and isn't randomly getting fired after two weeks for personality defects, I think there isn't significant cause for alarm. The standard two-weeks notice would be in order and I would keep the resignation brief but professional.

Essendon

Cheers guys. I'll let ya'll know how he fared with the resignation.

UnixGuy

not a big deal mate, he should be as professional as possible but that's no guarantee that the small company won't be upset - it is what it is. Not the end of the world, and he spent 9 years at the bank, im sure he has good connections and good reputation there already

wolfinsheepsclothing

Ask fmitawaps

kohr-ah

Shots fired!!!!!!

Throne

Burning bridges is not the real issue in IT, making sure you have the proper tools and knowledge to build it back. In other words if you are good at what you do you will be coming up to another stronger bridge in no time!!!!

byron66

wolfinsheepsclothing wrote: »

Ask fmitawaps

Lol I see what you did there.

TheProf

Its a hard move to do for sure, I can understand your friends situation. I personally never went through that, the shorted gig I had, was around 7 months or so and even then, it was not easy for me.

But what made me go through with it, was my own happiness. At the end of the day, we have to do what makes us happy. If it's going to burn a bridge well, so be it.

Christian.

Have you seen Fight Club?

byron66

Christian. wrote: »

Have you seen Fight Club?

We don't talk about that.

Essendon

Update - my friend turned in his notice early last week. The employer was aghast to begin with, my friend explained a great opportunity had suddenly arisen which was too good to turn down and was exactly in line with career plans at a big multi-national blah blah. The employer gradually calmed down, asked if there was anything he could do to keep him there to which my mate said there really wasn't much that could be done. He asked for a 1 week notice period which was agreed to be the employer. My mate starts at the new gig mid this week. No bridge burned by the sounds of it.

Thank you for the suggestions!

TechGuru80

I mean 9 days? That bridge is burnt, charred, smoked...if he quits at this point.

fmitawaps

Someone called for me?

Yes, I do have quite a lot of experience in getting fired, but most of that is from my pre-IT life. I've actually done quite well in most of my IT jobs, except where my direct supervisors were clearly wrong and / or incompetent.

doctorlexus

xengoreth wrote: »

The standard two-weeks notice would be in order and I would keep the resignation brief but professional.

I would not give two weeks notice if I'm leaving a job after 9 days. I would tell my boss the job isn't working out for me and leave that day.

TechGromit

Essendon wrote: »

He asked for a 1 week notice period which was agreed to be the employer. My mate starts at the new gig mid this week. No bridge burned by the sounds of it.

He didn't? Would you rehire someone or even recommend them if they gave notice after 9 days? The employer may have been professional about it, but I think he did burn a bridge or two.

TomkoTech

wolfinsheepsclothing wrote: »

Ask fmitawaps

He isn't asking how to get fired after 9 business days lol

scaredoftests

Trust me, the bridge was burned..

DatabaseHead

+ 1 ScareofTest

doctorlexus

DatabaseHead wrote: »

Cut ties ASAP and don't look back. If you are in the industry long enough and take risk you'll have to do this once. It sucks but it goes with the occupational hazards.

Yeah, I agree with this. The quicker you get out, the better. There's no way to make it look good. Giving notice just doubles the time they have to remember you, and puts you in a rather awkward situation for two weeks.

networker050184

Really after 9 days does the person have any projects to hand off? They're likely not an integral part of the team needing to train a replacement. That's basically the point of a notice period. Maybe if they just need a warm body in a seat answering phones or something....

markulous

Heck, I just left a job that I was at for around 2 months and I wouldn't have given a notice if my (now current) employer didn't insist on it. After 9 days, I'd tell them and take off within the hour.

Deathmage

One thing you should always adopt in life is a mindset I've adopted in the dating world and in life, always be in your own reality and never let others dictate your reality. Once you live in this mindset obstacles such as how you feel other feel about you is there own problem and not your own.

Perception is most of the time dictated by thing outside of our control so why dwell upon it.

A book I recommend for your friend Manny is a book on Amazon, it's called "The Compound Effect", read it and have your friend read it, it will answer al of his questions.

scaredoftests

Interesting. However, in the working reality, you kinda have to tow the line or else no job and no references.

EngRob

Deathmage wrote: »

always be in your own reality and never let others dictate your reality.

Sure, you can fake your own perception of reality and mold others perception....however, eventually real reality will come knocking and will demand a late fee.

powerfool

It happens. I have done it. I was in process for a job that didn't seem like it was going to go through... actually they told me they couldn't extend the offer due to some technicality that they wouldn't share. So, I moved on and found a decent job that was still better than my previous job and went to work. About 7 business days later, I get a call back from the original new place and they said that they could indeed give me my offer letter and things could move forward. So, I called the contracting firm that set me up there just to see how they wanted to handle it... I didn't hear back from them all day. Finally, on day 10, in the morning before the work day started, I got a call back and they said that they would give the customer a call and stay tuned. I went in and things seemed okay. I believe, however, that I have burned bridges at both the customer and the contracting company.

Maybe someday in my career this will come back to haunt me, but this has been over six years ago now and my career is in a significantly better place... I made the right decision. And hopefully, any issues that it has caused are far behind me as far as timing goes.