Resigning professionally | Tips on how to resign from your job | Robert Walters career advice

There is plenty of advice for how to land a great job, but what about how to resign professionally? Whether you’re dissatisfied with your current position, have found something better or are simply ready for a change, resigning can be stressful.

Yet, resigning professionally is paramount to keeping a good reputation in your industry. It might seem that resigning from your job would be as simple as giving proper notice, but it’s not that easy. 

6 tips for resigning professionally

“The resignation conversation is always awkward. But maintaining positive relationships with old colleagues can be really valuable down the road if you are looking for references or connections to other firms,” said Suzanne Feeney, country manager at Robert Walters.

1. Follow the resignation rules of your company

Check your contract or your employee manual for the expected notice period, be it two weeks, a month, or more. It’s a professional courtesy to honour these guidelines, and it isn’t just good manners; your termination benefits may depend on it. No matter how much your new employer is pushing you to start “ASAP,” you have a commitment to your current company to see out your contract.

If your new job is with a competitor, make sure you are not breaking your contract by accepting the position. If you decide to move forward with the new job despite any contractual boundaries, be prepared to be asked to leave the premises of your current job immediately.

"The resignation conversation is always awkward. But maintaining positive relationships with old colleagues can be really valuable down the road if you are looking for references or connections to other firms."

2. Resign face-to-face

Always give face-to-face notice, then follow that up with a letter. Never quit a job over email, and it can be seen as incredibly disrespectful.

3. Be gracious

During your resignation meeting, make sure to take the opportunity to thank your boss for the experience and the opportunity you’ve had at your current job.

4. Keep it positive

Never gripe to co-workers about your dissatisfaction at work. Never bash your current job or bosses during an interview with a potential new employer. And never, ever, ever denigrate your current job on social media. Even after you’ve given your notice and moved on, refrain from public zealousness about how excited you are to get out of there. 

When asked why you are leaving, the ideal answer is “for a better opportunity.” If you don’t have another job lined up, you may have to be more honest, but always put a professional spin on it: “This isn’t the right environment for me” sounds a lot better than “I hate my co-workers!”

Suzanne said, “Your resignation should be short and direct. Be confident about your decision to move on, yet appreciative of the opportunities you’ve had. It is always best to resign in a face to face conversation. And make sure word doesn’t get our beforehand.”

5. Maintain the status quo until your very last day

While you’re contemplating giving notice, and even perhaps actively hunting for another job, maintain the status quo at work. Do your very best to leave your colleagues, your replacement, and your clients as prepared as possible for your departure. It’s easy to have a “last day of school” attitude, but wrapping up loose ends and setting your colleagues up for success is a sign of a consummate professional.

6. Secure good recommendations

Ask for recommendations before you go. If you already have a job lined up, this might not seem imperative, but it’s a good idea to always have a few people from every past job who you can turn to for recommendations if and when you need them. Asking in person while you are still fresh in their mind will mean they are more likely to respond favourably to reference requests later on.

Unlike past decades, it’s common, and many believe prudent, to change jobs every five years or so in order to keep one’s experience fresh and one’s learning alive. Knowing how to handle a job transition professionally is a valuable career skill.

Read our top tips to help you prepare for a job change.

So you’ve been in your job a good while, and you’ve noticed motivation is dwindling. Maybe you don’t feel challenged enough, or maybe you feel like you’re not moving in the direction you want any more.

Your interests and goals naturally change over time, but how do you know if you’re ready for a job change?

Here are a few indicators that it might be time for you to make your move.

6 signs it might be time for you to resign:

1. You often feel stressed and tired

Do you find you’re dragging your feet on the commute to work, and are lacking the spring in your step that you once had? Are you sleeping less well than you used to, or are you more often prone to bouts of irritability or low spirits?

Any of these could be symptoms of rising stress levels – a kind of bodily early warning system that things with you aren’t quite as they should be. Stress can affect your mood and your immune system, making you more susceptible to colds and low moods, and impairing performance; left unchecked, more serious health issues can develop too.

So if you're getting the feeling that your body is trying to tell you something, it’s worth taking a moment to try and understand the message.

2. You don’t believe in the company like you used to

When you began working in your current job it seemed full of possibilities, and you felt proud to identify yourself as an employee of your organisation. But recently you’ve noticed a change in the office atmosphere, and your belief or confidence in the organisation isn’t what it was.

Perhaps the company has taken some commercial or strategic decisions that don’t sit well with you? Perhaps a management reshuffle has not been a change for the better in your view? Or perhaps it’s just that your own thinking has evolved, and you’re starting to feel that the company’s values don’t align closely enough with your own anymore?  

A lack of shared values can be a powerful motivator. If this sounds like you, it might be time to start looking around for a new company that you can really believe in.

3. You're watching the clock

You used to wake up in the morning excited about what you might achieve during the day ahead. You'd even take on extra projects and stay late voluntarily to get extra work done. Now, you're counting down the hours until you can log off and hit the street. You find yourself tempted to just take on the minimum workload, rather than look for opportunities to stretch yourself or go the extra mile.

Everyone deserves to work in a job that they feel enthusiastic about doing and that keeps them eager to make a difference. It may be that your job doesn’t stretch you any more, or your current employer doesn’t have an adequate development path for you. Either way, it could be time to move on to something that ignites your passion again.

4. Your skills don’t match up to your personal interests

Sometimes people get hired for things they’re really good at but don’t necessarily especially like doing. Perhaps you’re skilled in software sales but would prefer to be in marketing. Maybe you’re great at creating spreadsheets, but you’d prefer to be out meeting clients instead of sitting at a computer screen all day. Perhaps you’ve found yourself practising in one area of law when you’ve always really fancied another.

Though it’s not always easy to make it happen, it’s natural to want to align your personal interests with your career activity – and the longer you leave it, the harder it can be to switch as you become more and more specialised in a field that you don’t feel is really you. As Steve Jobs once said, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.” So now could be the time to take the opportunity while you can, and see what you can achieve if you try.

5. You feel invisible

Do you feel that your opinions and contributions sometimes go unacknowledged? You may have been overlooked for a promotion or an important project and you’re finding others get the credit for things you suggested months ago. Perhaps relationships within your team aren’t as cordial or collaborative as they used to be and team members aren’t socialising together anymore. 

You spend a significant proportion of your time every week working in your team, so it’s important that you feel a valued member and that the atmosphere is friendly, productive and encouraging. If you’ve done everything you can to improve the dynamic but things still don’t feel right, then it may be time to find something new to challenge you and where you feel you can make a real difference.

6. You’ve just grown out of your current role

Sometimes it can be hard to accept that a role – however much you like your company, and however well you get on with your co-workers – is just not substantial enough for you anymore. But staying in a role that you’ve grown out of, out of a sense of loyalty or hesitation to change, could become a demotivating experience in the longer term. 

You’ve developed skills and experience over time, and you’re ready for new challenges. Sometimes an employer may simply not have the resources or business case to be able to develop you adequately, and sometimes what your career needs is the sort of step change that only a job switch can really provide.

If that sounds like you, don’t be afraid to start exploring your options. You owe it to yourself, after all.

Read our job switch checklist for 12 things you can do now to prepare for changing roles.

When you finally land that offer you really wanted, it’s easy to get swept up in the excitement of the new job and take your eye off the old one. But the manner of your leaving matters, to you and your employers – here’s how to do it right… 

It makes good sense to resign from a job in the right way. Relationships are vital in any successful career, and you never quite know what the future holds, so it’s vital to leave on good terms with your soon-to-be ex-colleagues and managers.

These are people who already know and rate your work, and of course you never know when your paths might cross again, whether as future colleagues, managers, referees or just valuable business connections.

And then of course, resigning professionally is just what professional people do. So here’s your countdown to doing it right…

Step-by-step guide to resigning professionally

1. Inform your employer

It’s in both your and your employer’s interests to communicate that you have accepted a new offer as soon as possible. Face-to-face is obviously best: set up a meeting where you can talk in private and think ahead about what you’re going to say, and what questions your manager is likely to ask you.

• Have a letter prepared to formally give notice of your resignation once you’ve discussed it in person.
• Make sure you know what your contracted notice period is, as the subject of the best way to manage this period is sure to come up in the meeting.
• Always start by expressing thanks for the opportunities you’ve had in the current role.
• If asked about your reasons for leaving and/or feedback on your experience in the job, stay positive and professional, and don’t go into too much detail at this point. You can set up an exit interview later to give more detailed, constructive feedback.
• If a face-to-face meeting isn’t possible, Skype or a phone call is the next best option. Resigning by email is seen as a discourteous approach.
• Ask your manager when and how they’d like to communicate your news to the rest of the team. It’s a professional courtesy to put them in charge of this decision. 
• Be prepared for any counter-offer…

2. Address any counter-offer

Employers would generally rather try and hold on to good people than start to hire all over again, so you might well expect a counter-offer. This could include more money, better benefits, a new job role, or even a transfer to a different role or division.

A counter-offer is flattering, it’s a sign that you are valued. At the same time, however, always remember that your response needs to be a careful business decision, not just an initial emotional reaction. Our research shows that many people who accept a counter-offer go on to leave quite soon after anyway. So ask yourself:

• Why did I want to leave in the first place? Will the new offer address those frustrations or are they likely to crop up again?
• Would you have received a pay rise or promotion soon if you hadn’t decided to leave?
• Are you convinced that your current employer has a genuine development plan for your long-term future?
• If you do stay, how are your relationships with your current manager and colleagues likely to be affected by the fact that you wanted to leave?
• What will you miss out on by not taking the new offer?

If you are considering staying, make sure that your employer is prepared to commit to the counter-offer in writing, with all the details of the terms that have been offered you face-to-face. 

3. Complete your notice period and handover

So let’s say you reject the counter-offer, typically there may be some negotiation over how much notice you are to work. Your outgoing employer will want you to stay for as long as possible and your new employer will be keen for you to start as soon as possible. 

Even if you don’t get your ideal outcome from this conversation, it’s vital to stay focused and see the period out. If you try to leave earlier without agreement, you could of course jeopardise any termination benefits (or future references).

But in any case you should try to be as flexible as possible with your current employer in the interests of goodwill and maintaining the relationship – you never know when you may cross paths with them again later in your career. Your new employer will wait for you as they obviously think highly of you.

So once this issue has been resolved, it’s time to take proactive steps to hand over your role.

• Ask your line manager how you can best support them in handing over your work to other colleagues and/or your future replacement.
• Work out which projects and tasks need your urgent attention, and detail all those which you can commit to seeing through within the timeframe of your notice period. 
• Even if not asked to, start preparing a detailed handover document which will allow others to pick up your outstanding projects and responsibilities. Think hard about what people will need to know in your absence.
• Find solutions for how the rest of your team can cover for you in the short-term, and make suggestions about which team members can take over some of your responsibilities.
• If there are specific client relationships or operational responsibilities you need to hand over, arrange some one-to-one meetings to go through these in more detail with the right person.  
• If appropriate, you could also offer to help your employer in the hiring process for your replacement. You have the first-hand experience to know which skills and traits matter most.

4. Keeping in touch

Think about the people you work with now and who especially you want to keep in touch with after you’ve left, both socially and professionally. After resigning but before leaving, you can start putting steps in place to make sure you can maintain contact.

• Circulate a personal email address where people can reach you.
• Link with and follow soon-to-be-ex colleagues via LinkedIn, Twitter and any other relevant platforms.

When keeping in touch, always stay professional:

• Don’t share any sensitive information about your new employer.
• Look out for interesting industry news, views, research and events that give you a good excuse for getting in touch with key contacts from your old job.
• When speaking with former colleagues, avoid criticising your previous employer or comparing conditions at your new job with your old one.

5. Get ready to hit the ground running

Even before you’ve left your old job, there are things you can do to build up a good impression for your new role and give yourself a head start on the exciting new challenges that lie ahead:

• Start to connect with appropriate new colleagues on social media and accept any invitations that come your way.
• Drop your new line manager a line and ask if there’s anything you can read or do to help prepare for your new role.
• Do some general desk research about your new role and employer.
• Start to plan your new route to work.

Finally – stay calm and confident. Starting a new job can feel daunting, but remember that you were selected by your new employer out of many candidates as the best for the role.

Remind yourself why you wanted to move on, and why this new opportunity appealed to you. Now all you have to do is get out there and make the most of it!

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