Getting your resignation right is critical for your career

Resigning from your current job is a big moment in your career - it’s important to get it right. Emotions are high. Getting and accepting an offer from another firm is flattering and exciting. At the same time, actually going into your boss’s office and resigning may fill you with dread. So, as you consider accepting the offer and before you resign, there are some things that are well worth considering. In doing so, I’ll be drawing on my decades as an Executive Search Consultant, where I helped dozens of candidate go through this process.

Be clear about why you want to leave

Be absolutely certain that you’re leaving for all the right reasons. Many professionals will want to move on because they are systematically underpaid, chronically overworked, and generally under-appreciated. Those are valid reasons if there’s no chance that they might be addressed. But are they issues that could be resolved by the leadership if you voiced your concerns?

If it’s pretty clear that there’s no path for career progression and that you can’t see a way to get off a career plateau and continue to grow, that might be a good reason to look for options outside your current firm.

Be clear about why you want to join the new firm

Before biting the bullet, do some due diligence and ask the right questions. Are you convinced that the promises made during the offer discussions will be honoured?
Have you spoken to people who have left that firm recently to gain their opinions?
Are you absolutely clear about who you’ll be reporting to and precisely what your performance expectations are?

Treat any counteroffer with great caution

It’s expensive and time-consuming to replace high-performing professionals. Also, there’s both the loss of expertise particular to the firm and the opportunity cost of having that empty seat. For those reasons, the leadership will often want to understand the reason for your departure and make a counteroffer. It’s easy to fix some of your issues by, for example, bumping up your salary by 10 or 15%, or making promises of jam tomorrow.

If they can do these things now, why did they not do them before you resigned? Experience tells me that, more often than not, if you go in to resign, then do it and shut down any conversation around a counteroffer. It’s not good for you, and it’s not good for your employers. You should have deeply considered all the reasons to leave and all the reasons to join, and that must surely be able to withstand the smallest degree of pressure in the resignation conversation.

Consider your reputation going forward

This is a ‘difficult’ conversation. After all, you probably (hopefully!) really like and respect your boss, and you may have a sense of letting them down. So do what you can to handle yourself as the consummate professional: politely, professionally, and with a high degree of calibration and EQ. Be able to explain your reasoning without being negative or going into too much detail. Leave well.

Some final thoughts

As I’ve mentioned, your resignation is a big deal. It’s a critical moment in your career. Know in your head and in your heart that that you’re making this decision having really gathered all the due diligence information and deeply thought it through from a variety of angles. Leave with your reputation not only intact, but also enhanced by the way in which you handled the various conversations and conducted yourself throughout.

If you are starting a new role and would benefit from a conversation on how to hit the ground running in the First 90 days, let’s talk. Use this link to book a call at a time that suits where we can run through how you can maximise those precious first three months in a new role and firm.