What to do before resigning from a job

TechyDan

Well I've been on some interviews and I believe I found a new home! Now the nerve-racking part.... resigning.

I just signed an offer letter and returned it with a noted start date in the offer. I don't have any fishy feelings about the new job and have been provided information on anything that I have asked for. I also went on 2 interviews and met with my soon to be team and other layers of mgmt. I'm told that many people are asking about me and when I can start. I feel pretty confident it's a done / settled deal but there is still that scary thought in the back of my head of the worst case scenario...

That being the potential of signing the an offer letter and the job somehow going away leaving me unemployed. Should I wait for background checks to complete before informing my current boss? I have nothing I feel will come up in those checks but I feel sometimes you never know until your butt is in that new shiny seat! I feel though if I wait on other items like background checks it's going to tightly limit my notice time for my current employer and I don't want to do that.

Mide

First off congratz on the new job. You'll get used to the whole 'leaving an old job and old team'. A few things of note:

1) Yes, wait until the background check and everything is A-OK before actually giving notice. You want to protect yourself in case something goes South. Don't think about your company because if push came to shove they wouldn't go the opposite way.

2) I would write down any important phone numbers/email addresses of people at your company you want to keep in touch with or whom you may need to refer to in the future (old supers).

3) Get any important files that you created and you think have value (minus proprietary company stuff). When you leave, access to all of it will be cut.

4) The golden fact that always keeps me smiling is this: All the stress of your current job, all the concerns that kept you up at night, all of the projects and tasks on your list.....all of that gets erased the second you drive off that parking lot for the last time. Your AD account gets disabled, your email work email account is no longer yours, and bam, no more responsibility. Usually, a huge weight is lifted and so goes the stress of it all. Next you get to prep for a brand new job where you can write your own story again with added experiences and a newly developed Outlook. It's a great thing.

5) Don't get tricked into telling the full truth during the HR offboarding process. They sometimes will trick you into spilling the nitty gritty of the department and why you are actually leaving. A lot of the time, this info leaks back to your managers so you don't want to burn any bridges. Just say the bare minimum and jet out of there.

6) Don't burn any bridges since you never know what happens in the future and what co-workers will wander to what company and have what positions.

7) After the background check clears, put in your 2 weeks via written and email-pdf (usually supers have to submit electronically to HR) and tell your boss in person. Then just assist with the transition off of projects and such. Remember that anything you do is just helping them out; no need to bend over backwards because it won't have any real value (some companies try to take advantage of you during this period) in the long run. You are a resource and they are trying to get the most out of you. Most folks just take it easy during their last 2 weeks.

Cisco Inferno

Extremely great info. Also, just go in and say you want to resign. You wouldn't be the first person telling them!

joelsfood

Make sure you update the login email address for any sites that you've used your work email address for. You won't have access to that account anymore for password resets, etc.

yoba222

Write down the names of software you worked with for future reference for when it escapes your mind many months later.

jelevated

take some time out today or tomorrow when you return to the office and box up all your stuff. Even if you think your employer is the nicest your relationship has been great so far, there is a very real possibility that you will be shown the door immediately after handing in your notice. How nice would it be to simply grab your coat and walk out the door?

ande0255

The hardest part is handing the resignation to the letter to the boss, especially if you are very close.

I handed mine over not saying what the letter was, but told him I finally found a chance to move up towards my goal, and he knew I'd been studying CCNA and kissing networking departments ass for years trying to catch a break only to get roadblocked by my own director.

If he is cool with you he will understand, but the moment of anticipation of walking that letter to his desk once I knew I was leaving, that was really hard cause I really liked him as a person and supervisor but he understood I needed to cut loose for opportunities.

If he is an a hole then f him and just say "Two weeks and I'm gone sucker"

^ Also that idea about writing down the programs you've worked with is a really, really good idea. I think I might do that tomorrow for my current job just in case. +1 for good idea yoba!

OctalDump

Take a copy of any scripts, code or documents or other things that you've written. If you haven't already, make a list of the technologies you've worked with, the software, and any projects you've been involved with.

Don't resign (or even talk about possibly leaving) until you know for sure 100% that you have a new job to go to. Give notice as a courtesy (or as required), but be prepared to be asked to leave as soon as they have your resignation - so pack your stuff before you give the letter

knownhero

I've left many jobs in the past and never been shown the door that day. Is that just an American thing?

hurricane1091

I recently cleaned out my desk and made sure to take everything important home - and I haven't given two weeks notice yet. The background/drug test cleared yesterday, so I guess I will be doing that notice soon.

Edit: About backing up files and what not. If you're like me, you probably have personal things and notes on your work computer. Do keep those, but pass on sensitive stuff as other's suggest.

paul78

@TechyDan - congrats on your new job. I hope you enjoy it.

Just my 2 cents - I realize that several folks have suggested taking files, configs, etc. And I've seen that suggestion on TE in the past. I am absolutely not a proponent of that advice. For one - any work product while you were tenured is property of your employer.

And some companies which are risk-adverse will take action. I've worked at companies where DLP investigations have resulted some messy conclusions. Both for new hires coming into the organization and for former employees.

tunerX

OctalDump wrote: »

Take a copy of any scripts, code or documents or other things that you've written. If you haven't already, make a list of the technologies you've worked with, the software, and any projects you've been involved with.

All of that stuff could be considered company IP unless you have some kind of pre arrangement.

You might as well tell the guy to download trade secrets and proprietary data/applications while he is at it.

OctalDump

tunerX wrote: »

All of that stuff could be considered company IP unless you have some kind of pre arrangement.

You might as well tell the guy to download trade secrets and proprietary data/applications while he is at it.

Yeah, it depends on the specifics, obviously. But, for example, in previous jobs I wrote snippets of code for public systems based on open source (copyleft), so it would be totally legit to take copies. And more generally, the companies I've done work for have been rather more relaxed about these things. There's stuff like where you might write documentation that isn't in itself really useful to anyone but the originating company, but the templates are useful. And little snippets of things for automating tasks that no one would seriously care about (normally).

Obviously walking out with the complete source code to the new Office 365 update would be a no-no, but that script you bashed together to get version numbers for software via powershell, which is probably based on something scraped off a blog you read and a stackoverflow hint? Or maybe a **** sheet you wrote for Excel pivot tables or Emacs shortcuts or something... Hell, I'd say it might even be reasonable to keep a few generalised snippets of switch/router configs, since that is likely things that are publicly available anyway.

It's all those little bits and pieces that you don't want to do from scratch again.

And going to the point about "technologies you've worked with and projects you've been involved with", it would be rare that you couldn't talk about that since it is standard stuff for resumes and interviews. I suggest making sure you have a list before you leave, since you do forget this stuff over time.

But this also raises a good point about starting a new job, and making sure you understand their policy. Particularly if you have linkedin or a blog or whatever and want to post info about what you are doing. It's quite common for people to speak (generally) about a technical problem that they've encountered and how they fixed it - things they might have learnt on the job. I'd hope an employer can provide guidelines for this kind of stuff.

I suspect that there'd be some kind of legal exclusion for some of this stuff since no employer can reasonably expect you to forget everything you've learnt on the job.

hurricane1091

Interesting story - my friend worked at a major place and was developing something "on his own" that the company wanted. He basically was forced to quit to keep it. It is true, that whatever you do at a company becomes property of the company. Such is the way of the world.

cyberguypr

I was about to comment on the taking of "personal" stuff. I back up what paul78 said. YMMV depending on the maturity of your employer's security program and any agreements you may have signed when joined the company. As a general rule I suggest you thread carefully. I've personally handled cases along these lines where the ex-employees ended up doing anything probation to actually serving jail time.

tunerX

knownhero wrote: »

I've left many jobs in the past and never been shown the door that day. Is that just an American thing?

It's an individual employer thing. Two weeks, or any extended period, isn't a requirement. It is a courtesy you extend to your employer to assist them as they transition. The time can be used to complete any projects, train/interview your replacement, or assist with adjusting workloads to other employees/teams.

If they don't need you to stick around and don't need to replace you right away, then why keep you.

Chev Chellios

knownhero wrote: »

I've left many jobs in the past and never been shown the door that day. Is that just an American thing?

I think so, every job I've ever resigned from in the UK has made me work until the last minute of the last day.