Thinking of Quitting Your Job?

This article was published in Harvard Business Review, a credible and valuable source in the field of business.

Author: Priscilla Claman

Odds are, at some point in your career, you’ll feel like quitting your job. Maybe it will be because of a negative experience—a toxic boss, unfair pay, burnout. But maybe you’ll just be eager for a new challenge or ready to move forward in your career.

Regardless of why you may want to leave your organization, don’t just quit. It’s important to think through how you’ll make the move before you make it. Where will you go next? Should you let your boss know what you’re planning? How candid can you be about your search?

If you feel ready to quit, ask yourself the following questions to determine the best approach:

What Are You Looking for in Your Next Position?

This is the first or second question any recruiter will ask you during a job search. If you ask your friends to help with your search, they will likely ask you the same question, too. You may not be 100% sure about your answer, and you may not be aiming to land a particular job title, but take a half hour to come up with some specifics.

Fold a piece of paper into thirds, and then write at the top of each third:

• Things I want to know how to do

• Things I enjoy doing

• Things I never want to do again

Don’t agonize over your choices; just fill in whatever comes to mind, like “helping clients solve problems” or “preparing reports” or “mentoring new employees.”

You likely won’t have a complete picture of what you want, but you will have enough to start your search process. Don’t worry if your list changes as you search; just update it from time to time.

➤ PRO TIP: Write down some skills required for a higher-level job in the “Things I want to know how to do” column. This will help you look for a job at a higher level than your current one, advance your career, and get higher pay.

Can I Find the Job I Want in My Current Organization?

For people who just can’t stand the organization they work for, it may make sense to skip this question; but if you think your boss might help you, try to meet with them and ask for new responsibilities or new advancement opportunities. If you can get what you want where you are now, you will get results much more quickly and easily than going through an entire search.

Ask your boss, “Can we meet to talk about my career direction?” Don’t just wing it for this meeting. Take some time to think through what you want to say. For example, if you want more responsibility where you are, you might say, “During the pandemic, I had the chance to help with the hiring and onboarding of our new hires. I feel I could make a greater contribution to the department if I had management training and had a chance to be an assistant to you.”

Or, if you are interested in making a change outside your department, you might ask for classes or job shadowing opportunities in the area you are targeting—or even an introduction to a manager working in that area of your organization. During the discussion, bring up the potential job transition. If you’re interested in accounting, for instance, you could say, “As you know, I’ve been taking accounting courses for a while now. If I were to target moving to more of an accounting position in a year or so, who do you think I should be talking to? Is that something you would support?”

If you are looking to make a bigger career transition—say, from marketing to finance or from operations to accounting, it’s always easier to do so at your current employer, where people know your work, you have direct access to hiring managers in other departments, and you can more easily make the case for your transition.

In the meeting with your manager, don’t say you’ll leave or threaten to do so; just ask to talk about your career. If your manager is unresponsive to your interests, that’s a clue that you should look elsewhere.

Should I Tell My Boss I Am Looking for a New Job?

In nine out of 10 cases, the answer to this question is: Don’t do it. You would be taking a huge risk. Your manager might think, “This person isn’t loyal to me or the team” or, “This person isn’t here for long, so I’ll give the best assignments to people I can trust to be here to complete the work.”

If your boss doesn’t expect you to be around long, there is a likelihood you will be treated like a temp employee and be given less engaging assignments or excluded from important meetings—all of which may make an already unfulfilling job more difficult to cope with.

By all means, get support from your close nonwork friends while you search, but watch out what you post on social media—it could come back to haunt you. Also, avoid telling any of your colleagues at work. The word is bound to get around your workplace and back to your manager.

How Can I Get References from My Current Organization If I Am Keeping My Search Confidential?

Usually, you will need three references, including your current manager. But you can ask the organization that is recruiting you not to contact your current manager until they have given you an offer. This is a very common thing to do, but you probably will still need to give them three references up front.

Ask someone who knows your work, like a more senior colleague or team lead, perhaps from a prior job, professional association, or even a client. If you are leaving your first job ever, use references from your most relevant internship or a professor. Or just use the references you used to get your current job. Prepare your references by giving them your résumé. Tell them about the new role and what points you want them to emphasize about you and your work, and give them a heads-up that the recruiter will be in contact via email or phone. And don’t forget to thank them and tell them if you got the job.

What If I Land a New Job and My Current Boss Offers Me a Great Counteroffer?

Think it through carefully before agreeing to stay. It’s usually a bad idea. Your boss now knows you’ve been looking for a new job. This means, moving forward, they may distrust your commitment to the organization. They might fear you will eventually change your mind and leave again, putting you in the situation where your manager treats you like a temp.

Remember that it’s easy for your manager to hire a new person to do your job for less pay and lay you off once the new person is fully trained. The only time when it might make sense to accept a counteroffer is if you are immediately offered a new higher-level job, along with a pay increase or some other benefit you really want (like a new location). That might be a good move if the change is immediate, but if you have to wait six months to get it, the world is changing so fast that this may be a promise your boss won’t be able to fulfill. So, in my experience, it’s best to just say no.

How Do I Actually Resign?

Resigning in person is the most professional way to quit. Set up a meeting with your boss to discuss your plans, and be sure to give them at least two weeks’ notice. After meeting with your manager, follow up with a formal email that includes your current position, a nice thank you, and the date you will be leaving. You don’t need to include where you are going or what you will be doing, but you can if you want to. Here’s an example:

I am resigning from my position as Computer Programmer in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, office in two weeks. My last day of work will be October 15. Many thanks for all the guidance and encouragement you and the team have given me at Amazing Corporation. We should arrange a time to go over what you want me to do in the time I have left with Amazing.

There are times when you aren’t going to be able to resign in person, like when you work remotely or your manager is away or in another location. In that case, a call or a virtual meeting will be fine. Either way, you will need to talk to your manager about what you should prioritize in your last two weeks and how to let your colleagues and customers know you are leaving. It’s the professional thing to do, and it will preserve your reference the next time you change jobs.