Quitting Your Job
There comes a time in every webmasters life when they decide to take the plunge, quit their job and become a full time webmaster. This article is going to explain some good ideas on the proper way to quit your job and not burn bridges. I suppose this article could also be used to switch jobs within this industry as it does seem that this industry has a pretty high turn over ration with employees.
WHAT NOT TO DO
Here’s a true story. A few years back I get an email from a new would be webmaster asking me some questions about some posts I had made on a webmaster board. I gladly answered and he and I started chatting over ICQ. Over the next few weeks I gave him some advice and some ideas on things to do in order to make more money. He listened to me, worked hard and started to do better pretty quickly. Two months later he is doing good and making some money and decides to leave his job and do this full time. I advise him to wait a little while and make sure things are stable, but he leaves anyway. He then tells me that the way he quit his job was that he went in, told them to kiss his ass and left. He then went home, got the paper and got an apartment (he had been living at home), bought a car and started to party. A couple of his friends wanted him to help them get started in the biz and he told them to fuck off. He was 20 years old and worked at a video store and obviously thought he knew everything. As it turns out he had taken the advice I gave him to build free sites and submit them to link lists and to build AVS sites and he went too far. He was using multiple emails and spamming the link lists (something I told him to make sure he didn’t do) and a month after leaving his job, getting an apartment and buying a new car he got caught and blacklisted and nearly all of his income disappeared over night. He couldn’t go back to his previous job because he had burned that bridge. His parents took him back, but his friends were still pissed and not in the mood to help him get a job where they worked.
This is a prime example of what not to do.
HOW TO LEAVE
Leaving a job can be difficult, especially if you have worked there for a while. For me there are a few simple rules to follow:
1. Write a letter of resignation. If you are an executive or person of importance at your job this is a common practice. But for many production or lower level jobs it’s typically not. I say do it no matter if you were running a corporate division or flipping burgers. It looks professional and it states the reasons for you’re leaving clearly and concisely to your employer. Also, keep a copy of the letter for yourself. If you ever find yourself needing to get another job you will have it as proof of why you left your last job.
2. Give notice when possible. Someone once said to me, “They can lay me off tomorrow without notice so why should I give them notice?” I guess they have a point, but typically when you are leaving a job it is to go somewhere else and employers will look at how you left your last job as a sign of how you may treat them in the future. If you give notice and it’s not accepted and you are let go right then, so be it. At least you offered it. Giving notice tells them that you respect them and want them to continue to succeed.
3.Offer to train your replacement. This is much like giving notice in that is shows you are a professional. Offering to train your replacement shows the company you are leaving (and possible ones you may join in the future) that you are committed to seeing them have a successful transition from you to the new person.
4. Be honest. When your employer asks you why you are leaving them, be honest. If you are going be a full time webmaster tell them as much as you are comfortable with. There’s nothing wrong with simply saying, “I started doing some online marketing and it really is taking off.” Or something along those lines. Many companies want your opinions on working for them and will conduct an exit interview. Be fair and honest here. Don’t slam them just because you can and don’t kiss their asses just to make it easy. If there are things you didn’t like, tell them so. Likewise for the things you did like. They want to learn from you about making things better in the future and being honest with them can help.
5. Don’t screw with stuff or steal things. A friend of mine quit a job once and before he left he logged into several computers and messed with the settings in a way that it would made the mouse and keyboard act crazy. It would take someone very familiar with computers to understand what was done and how to fix it. Who knows how many hours the company lost trying to figure it out. I’ve heard that a lot of people steal things like office supplies or something they want from the company on their last day. This is also a bad idea. How bad would it look if, in the future, you were applying for a job somewhere and they find out from a previous employer that you stole a bunch of stuff on your last day? It would look pretty bad. Any short term gain you may get could cost you dearly.
6. Get a letter of reference. When you turn in your letter of resignation ask your supervisor/manager to write you a letter of recommendation. As long as you are leaving the company on good terms this should not be a problem and it looks nice to any perspective future employers.
7. Do ask that girl/guy out. This one is from my own personal experience. I worked at a tech company for about 3 years and had a long term crush on a woman that worked there. I never did anything because the company had a pretty strict no dating policy. On my last day there as I was leaving I asked her out. She said yes and we dated for about 9 months. No, it’s not a fairy tale ending where we get married and live happily ever after but had I not I would have never to gotten to know her better or see her naked. There is nothing wrong with taking a chance.
HOPEFULLY THIS IS YOUR LAST JOB
The title says it all. If you quit your job to become a full time webmaster than hopefully this will be the last job you ever have, but even within this industry people tend to get jobs working for and with other companies. Who knows, maybe after several years of seeing hot naked chicks every day you may grow tired of the job and decide to go back to the world of the regular work force. If that is the case, how you left your previous jobs could effect how easy it is to get your next new job. So be wise, use common sense, be a professional and quit your job the correct way.
Reader Comments: (1 posts)
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Irra says: I would try local places near your scohol first, their probably more kean to hiring students. Then try craigslist and narrow the results down by par time only. |
January 18th, 2013 at 2:46am EST Rating:  |
