What To Expect When You’re Expecting…To Resign — 9 More Tips For Leaving Your Job (Don’ts)

John Hartley
6 min readOct 15, 2021

Part 2 of the “What to Expect” series focuses on the “Don’ts” or things that you should avoid when resigning from a position. Read Part 1 here.

Don’t resign with memes.

Don’t drag everyone else down

You have your reasons for leaving and that’s all well and good, but don’t ruin the experience for everyone else. It is likely that you are the only one leaving, so don’t spend your time bad-mouthing the company, people at the company, or airing grievances.

Instead, spend some time helping others focus on the positives and the things that you are sad to leave behind. Or just don’t say anything at all. It’s like the saying goes, “if you can’t say anything nice, maybe just keep your yapper shut.

Don’t hold back in your exit interview

In most companies, especially those with an HR department, it is likely that you will be asked to participate in an exit interview. Exit interviews are generally 30 minutes to an hour and focus on “what could the company be doing better,” and other questions on why you decided to…

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John Hartley

Engineering leader with a passion for building and growing teams. Writing about leadership and management in the tech industry. Director of Eng @ Curology