Ask HN: What's the best way to leave a new job | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's the best way to leave a new job

14 pointspenguinlinux12 comments

I need some advice. For the past 3 years I have worked at startups as a devops engineer. I have made a big difference right away.

I am able to see visibility to my work right away. I have worked in large projects scaling applications in the cloud, AWS, databases and using Ansible, chef to automate a lot of the server configurations, and deployments. I also like working close with developers and help them with their dev environments, also with issues with scaling or helping them to debug code. Right now I am working for a large corporate company. They are using a lot of interesting technology docker, coreos, kubernetes but though the technology is really cool, it is not setup properly, it is hard to get something done because there is so much process to get changes into production, so things that at a startup would take me a week it takes 2 months to see them here in production at this new job. Most of the time the Ops team is putting out fires , we also don't have any type of architecture meetings or one on ones, So I am struggling to see visibility to my work.

I just got offered a role at a startup as the only DevOps engineer so they want someone to come in and start solving problems and we went through some of the problems and it is stuff that I can do with my eyes closed. The team is nice and they truly believe in working towards DevOps principles, at my current job there is still that separation between ops and developers and I don't think either group trust each other.

I feel like they are paying me and I can't be the best or do the work i am good at. Because there is so much process. I would understand if the process was in place because things are working but most of the time even the ops people don't trust their own configuration systems and cause outages.

how can I leave this job without saying all these things to them as the reason for me leaving.?

It are right that it is a good idea to leave a job without saying negative things about them.

The line "I felt like it was time to move on" is an adequate reason for leaving, and it's not something anyone is going to argue with. After all, leaving is a personal decision. In addition to that, three years is an above average length of time to stay in a technology job.

If someone directly asks you what you don't like about working there (such as in an exit interview), simply state that you don't want to answer the question. If they push you, simply state that you have no comment. It's a good idea to decline to answer all the questions in an exit interview. They don't have the right to force you to answer such questions.

If you a nervous about the initial conversation with your boss, kick off the resignation by sending a short email to HR saying that you wish to resign and you are giving your notice from that day (or whenever you prefer). HR will fill you in on what the procedure is and notify all the relevant people for you.

>It's a good idea to decline to answer all the questions in an exit interview.

Definitely. The exit interview is far too late to start caring about what your employees are thinking.

This is what I understand: you work at a big company. You got offered a job at a startup. You want to take it.

It's easy. Tell your boss, "Listen, I love the work I've been doing here, but I have the chance to join a startup and it's an environment I'm really interested in exploring."

Some notes:

* Big companies lose people to startups all the time. This is a narrative they totally get.

* Companies never expect departing employees to give them the full story.

Leaving a job is a totally normal thing to do. You don't have to worry about hurting anyone's feelings.

Don't sweat it. The simple general way to handle these kinds of exits is to just walk up to the appropriate person and say, "So, I have some news for you. I've decided to pursue an opportunity at another company." And then if they ask, you can start going into the various factors you've listed above (all of which sound perfectly legitimate). In fact there's one little nugget in your writeup which cuts to the heart of the matter, and while they may be a bit disappointed to hear you say it, it's a perfectly fair view for you to hold:

I feel like I can't be the best or do the work I am good at.

The basic point with this approach is you don't have to hit them over the head up front with your laundry list of negatives. By waiting for them to ask, you're making sure you have their permission first before telling them things that might hurt their feeling.

(Not that you should worry so much about hurting their feelings. After all, it's just business).

Thanks for the advice. I believe in following my heart and just feel bad I wasted their time this 3 months but basically i felt i had my hands handcuffed as I could not really do much

thank you

All exit interviews are the same.

   It's not you, it's me.  I got a better offer elsewhere.  No, I won't discuss it.
   
   Here's my email if I can help you with anything after I leave.
   
   Thanks and good luck.

I see zero areas where detailing the things you didn't like lead to a better outcome for you than keeping your mouth shut. After all, if they didn't like ops running around like a scalded cat, they'd fix it. Leave this job off your resume.

Just put in your notice and say you had a better opportunity come along. You don't owe them any explanation. Start having lunch with any coworkers you want to keep in touch with after you leave, and make sure you keep your network warm.

thank you for your advice.

Understand that the systemic problems in your present job are a function of poor leadership.

Your direct boss (worse still, HR) likely does not have the brains/inclination/juice to change-up things.

Leave on a friendly, professional basis-- no parting shots necessary. Volunteer to put together a transition document. The industry is actually quite small, networks overlap.

In my experience most (maybe even all?) of the times I've had to leave a job and I think about how to do so, I end up realizing that the best course is to be honest.

In your position I would pretty much just tell them everything you just said. It's not even close to what I would consider bridge-burning reasons.

What exactly don't you like about saying all those things?

If the reason is along the lines of "because I don't want to", then just say like others have said "I have found an opportunity that I would like to pursue"

Best of luck!

Slip out the back, Jack

If you can honestly say it's a shorter commute that's also a good reason to give (although I'd avoid telling them were you are going).

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