296: Top 3 Do’s and Dont’s When Leaving a Corporate Job

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Document as much as you can. Hold your head high. Exit with grace. Exit with gratitude. Exit with a sense that the next person coming in goes, damn, who was that? As you're on your way out because you are on it, you have created such beautiful documentation that your name sticks in their mind as a memory of who is this person that was so organized that made my job so easy? Because you never know when you are going to cross paths with them again. What's next? This is a question we're all having to ask and answer more frequently. I'm Jenny Blake, your host of the Pivot podcast and author of the only move that matters is your next one.

For show notes from this episode, visit pivotmethod.com podcast if Change is the only constant, then let's get better at it. Here we go.

Hello, Hello Pivoters. We have had so many shakeups these last few years. We are pivoting much more often than not. So many of you have been in transition or you've got a big transition planned. So, inspired by a recent thread in my private BFF community for small heart based business owners, today I'm sharing the top three do's and the top three don'ts. When you're leaving a corporate job, these would be relevant whether you're leaving one corporate job for another still working within another organization, or maybe you're leaving corporate to strike out on your own and try your hand at solopreneurship. The latter is an exciting transition that we've seen many times over the last seven years in bff. That's a private community and I've also talked to many people who have gone back and forth. Our careers are so fluid now that I didn't want to put the word career anywhere in the title or subtitle of Pivot. And I pretty much say right in the introduction that the word career has kind of become obsolete. Where the average tenure used to be four to five years for a person in a given role, now we're lucky on any side of the equation. Whether you're the team member or the employing organization for an opportunity to last one year, two years and then I have some friends who are still at Google, let's say after 15 years. And I so admire the tenure that they've put in and the career track that they've carved for themselves, often making up new job roles along the way and seeing how they continue challenging themselves and learning as an organization like that grows. These transition tips might not be useful for you right now. Maybe you're happy where you are, but but if you know somebody who's transitioning out of a role, I would be super grateful if you could send them this episode. Just go to Pod Link pivotmethod. That way they can open the episode in the podcast player of their choice. That's Pod Link PivotMethod.

All right, without further ado, let's get into it. The top three do's when you're leaving a corporate job.

Number one, add your work friends to LinkedIn. Even better, make a list and set reminders for the top 20 that you want to proactively keep in touch with over the next five years. This is probably one of my biggest regrets, both When I was leaving the startup, I don't think I could have listed 20 people because I was the first employee there and there were only 30 when I left. But particularly during my five and a half year tenure at Google, one of the big mistakes I made. Granted, LinkedIn wasn't nearly as ubiquitous as it is now. Back then, when I left in 2011, I did not write down all the people that I would have wanted to keep in touch with. I didn't add them to LinkedIn. I wouldn't have wanted to export any sensitive information. Of course, that would be terrible and Google would be very angry if I tried to export anything. Like even a contacts list, I'm guessing. But I could have at least gone through my most frequently emailed contacts. I could have done a calendar audit looking backward at who I had been interacting with. Part of the reason for me is that I took a three month sabbatical while I was launching Life After College, my first book. I didn't plan on leaving. I thought I was going to take a sabbatical, launch this book. But very quickly, about a week in, I realized that it wouldn't be fair to my team at Google for me to try to juggle both any longer. And it really wouldn't be fair to myself because I was totally maxed out and burnt out. So I was not as intentional about noting all of the contacts, all the people I Knew. And it's crazy to say this, but maybe for me, because I trained over a thousand people in the span of a year or two and then interacted with so many more in the years after that. You don't realize until leaving how hard it is to recall the names of that many people, that many loose connections. But there are so many of them who I would have loved if I could have added them to LinkedIn, if I could have written down their names, written down their email. And as silly as it sounds, when you have work friends in the moment, of course you know all their names. Of course you know who you love at work, who your besties are, who you go to the snack room or the break room with, who you take walks around the building with. But then after leaving once, it's six months later, a year later, sometimes you forget. Now, if you take a spiritual stance on this, you could say, I'll remember exactly who's most important to remember and they'll remember me. But this was a big miss and this is something that if I could do it over, I would be much more intentional about adding even, let's say, the loosest connections that I had come in contact with. I would add them to LinkedIn and then I would definitely make that list of 5, 10, 20 people who I really value, people who really energized me who were my work besties. You know, there's going to be a core that you couldn't forget to keep in touch with them if you tried. But go for the next batch, the five to 20 that might not be obvious and just put them in a reminder system of some kind. I use notion for this. I built myself a little CRM that I call kit because word CRM started to annoy me with all the software products out there. So KIT is high school yearbook style. Keep in touch. If I were doing this again, I would enter their names and set a reminder for six months out or even a year out. There's no rush, there's no urgency. But it would have been nice to remember that second tier of work friends that I really loved, that I loved working with, that energized me and be really intentional about keeping in touch.

Number two, the second do do send a message sharing what you'll be up to in your next phase. Now, sometimes you, you won't know, but even though I've seen people send really delightful missives about what they're going to do in their time off, I've seen colleagues say, I'm going to work on a political campaign. I'm really passionate about this, or I'm striking out on my own and I'm starting my own platform or my own company. I understand sometimes it's sensitive. You don't want to tell your current employer or your colleagues exactly what you're going to be doing, especially if you're leaving for a competitor or something sensitive like that. But definitely send a message where you bcc. By all means, do not put everybody in the CC column. Don't make that mistake. Bcc, your internal company contacts, at least, at the very least, about how to keep in touch with you, your LinkedIn profile and your personal email address and your phone number. If you want, I recommend sending one email like this again, infuse it with your personality. You could even record a short video and post that in this email. Something that's just a little fun that leaves people with how to keep in touch with you and what you're going to be up to. Maybe a little humor, a little inside jokes from your time at the company, a little nod to what you've appreciated so much about the company, about your colleagues. And don't forget to also send one of these to people outside of the company who you interacted with in your role. Given that I've been on the outside for 10 years as a vendor and a consultant and a speaker, I often get these from people who are leaving the companies that I've been working with and I always appreciate it. As a quote vendor, that's like the most official way to say what I do, how I interact with these companies, or at least the procurement word for it. I always appreciate getting that message because the worst that happens is, let's say a year later I'm writing to someone who worked in that company and I just get a bounce like, oh, this person no longer works here. And if it's a relationship that I really enjoyed, it's a little sad. I mean, again, now I could go track them down on social media. I'm sure I could send them a DM on LinkedIn and still connect. But it's really nice to send one internally and then one to your external contacts where you just again, give your personal email address and keep in touch. And I'm telling you, this stuff is just so much easier to forget after you leave and there's no way to recover it.

Let's go to number three, do save and spend time on your internal resume, particularly focusing on reach and results. When I was at Google and this was like many, many moons ago, I'm sure They have so many more robust systems now for creating internal resumes. But a bunch of us used to just create docs. I worked in the career development team and the training development team. So it was always kind of on our radar. How can we help people highlight the work that they do? And it was kind of good hygiene to keep your own internal resume of what have you worked on? What have you done here? Because sometimes when you've been at a company for a long time, it's easy to just keep going with the OKRs, keep working, getting things done. And it's almost like your accomplishments kind of wash behind you and there's no real record of them. Because if you haven't left the company, you don't ever have to spruce up your official resume very much. Sometimes, yes. If you're applying for an internal role and transferring to another internal team, yes, Then that moment is another good impetus. But I will tell you, even then it can be so easy to forget what the heck did I do for the last two years, you know? So even when you do want to make an internal role transfer, it's good that you've kept up with your internal resume. What are the projects that you're most proud of? What was the reach and what were the results? This is information. Again, you would never want to take anything proprietary to the organization, but I will tell you that when you're on the other side and you're no longer in the role, with all your internal docs and access to everything, it is so much easier to forget what the heck you did. Now, of course you're going to remember the big stuff for sure, for sure. But it's also nice to just keep as you go. And before you leave, one of your wrap up activities is just making a list and reflecting on your time there. And what are the projects that you're proudest of? What impact did they have on the organization or outside clients and customers? And what were the results? Like any tangible metrics that wouldn't be proprietary that you can just make note of for yourself.

There's a fourth bonus do. I said it would be three do's and three don'ts. But the real bonus do, which should be part of the core list is create a guide to your role. Now, I call this a bonus because sometimes you're leaving on short notice, sometimes you might give two weeks notice. And like what happened to me with my first job, the boss says two weeks, no thanks. Just pack your stuff, be out by Friday and you don't have a lot of time to dot every I and cross every T. If you do, though, create a guide to your role. What does the next person need to know? What will help them get up to speed? And even what would you suggest changing? On the one hand, you don't have fresh eyes because you've been in your role for any amount of time, so you might be missing things. You don't know what you don't know about it. On the other hand, you're the one closest to it. So if you can almost imagine writing a letter to the person who's filling in or a Google Doc or whatever internal software you use, just what would be good for them to know? What's not in the company employee handbook? What's not in the manager manual for your team, or the process docs for your team? What would help them get up to speed? What are the quirks of the job? What are the possible pitfalls? What do they need to pick up the baton up on of projects that are in progress, that are in process? And again, where are you getting stuck? Where are you getting frustrated? Where do you say, hey, I didn't get a chance to fix this, but I've had my eye on these things. That would be great if someone could figure it out or if someone could streamline these processes or tackle this project that we had teed up.

We'll be right back just after this.

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Let's talk about some of the don'ts. Number one Don't. On a related note to the one I just shared, do not leave the next team member in a lurch when it comes to your role and responsibilities. Create a transition doc with as much documentation and project next steps. How you leave is as important as how you begin. I have often said this about romantic relationships that I learned so much more about the person during the breakup than I ever did when we would be together. I know sometimes relationships explode in a fiery ball of flames that could go for work or our love life, but I always appreciated the people that could exit a relationship gracefully. I mean, Gwyneth Paltrow GP now popularized the phrase conscious uncoupling. I don't think she originated it, but she popularized it. What is the conscious uncoupling of your work life like? Do not just leave everything in disarray. Everything a mess. The brain drain of taking all your best insights about the role and the projects with you. Document as much as you can. Hold your head high. Exit with grace. Exit with gratitude. Exit with a sense that the next person coming in goes, damn, who was that? As you're on your way out because you are on it, you have created such beautiful documentation that your name sticks in their mind as a memory of who is this person that was so organized that made my job so easy because you never know when you are going to cross paths with them again. There are so many former colleagues that I am so lucky to be still in touch with to this day and these little things stand out of just making somebody's life easier. If you want to hear more on that, go check out the Free Time archives. Listen to the episode 106 on saving next Steps. Because I talk about this exact mindset, I'll also put the link to that in the show. Notes.

Number two do not fail to set boundaries for how available you'll be to questions after you go. Really be clear about how, when and for how long people can get in touch with you. So for example, now some smaller companies, it could be something like I'll still be available for Slack DMs for up to a month out from now. Now I have no clue. Maybe the admins got to kick you off Slack asap. But you could say something like here's my phone number. Or not. I mean, I would hate to get texts with work questions even after I left. You really do want a sense of closure, but think about what is okay with you. Maybe you offer to the person who's taking over the role and to your manager that I'm happy to set up a meeting two weeks from now or three weeks from now. If there are any final loose ends that would be helpful to get my take on having been through both sides of this, being the manager with someone leaving and being the person leaving, I can say I like to have a really clean break I don't like lingering hanging chads, we called it from the 2000 election of Bush v. Gore. The hanging chads was the big controversial thing, these little half punches through the voting card. So I'm not a big fan of loose ends and hanging chads and things that like this kind of messy, amorphous. Nobody really gets closure. It's not really a clean exit. So I say do everything you can to have a clean break, but don't just let questions linger. And don't make yourself available 247 out of some duty. Because the fact is you're not getting paid anymore. So while you don't want to burn bridges, you don't want to leave anyone in a lurch. You also don't want to sacrifice your newfound freedom and the very real decompression time that you're going to need on the other side of leaving a role.

Don't Number three, don't worry if you need a month or more to downshift and decompress. If you can take a precation before starting your next opportunity. I call this getting a visit from the Furry Rest Monster. As Christy reminded us in the BFF community on this thread, I was absolutely shocked that after I left Google I just wanted to sit on the couch and watch TV. Starting at 7am I became a lump. I didn't expect it. And this was after my sabbatical. So I'd had three months off. But I then made the choice. I can't go back. It's not fair to anyone. And I needed a full month, if not more, to just completely unwind. The pace of corporate culture is so intense and whether you work at a company like Google or something else, a startup, oh my goodness. You're working so hard for so long. You're trying so hard to meet all your deadlines and your responsibilities. And regardless, no matter what, a full time job Monday through Friday, all day, every day is super intense. So I urge you, if there is any way that you can not rush into your next role. If you can, please try to push them out. I know sometimes the company that is hiring you next really wants you asap. But build in two weeks, three weeks? Four weeks. Could you build in two months? How radical is that? I know probably got to get paid. But I'm telling you, decompression time. It's real and that furry rest monster is coming. I describe him or her them like the big kind of furry friendly monster in Monsters Inc. It's like they just cuddle you into the couch and then you don't want to leave the couch. Martha Beck, she said something I love, I'll never forget it. And she uses the image of an infinity loop on its side and she says rest until you feel like playing and play until you feel like resting. And that ideally work feels like play. So work and play are kind of synonymous in that sense. But instead of beating yourself up, so don't worry, don't beat yourself up if you have no energy. Because I was telling myself the story that oh my goodness, I quit my job and now I'm a lump and I'm never going to get off this couch and I have no motivation, I have no energy. How on earth am I going to get a business off the ground feeling like this? And now in hindsight, I just see that I had so much probably adrenal fatigue from juggling a full time job and a book launch and my side hustle of the blog that I needed to recharge, I needed to rest. Often I find that the furry rest monster overstays its welcome. It wants more rest. Like I need to rest twice as long or three times as long as my mind is telling me. So right around the time I start getting restless. Well, I should be back at it by now. I should get back to work. I should have my energy back now. Double, double the amount of time it took me to get to that midpoint milestone. I'm going to need double or triple the actual time to fully recover and trust that. If you rest deeply, Cal Newport talks about deep work. I'm talking about deep rest. If you, if you rest deeply, you will be amazed at how your creative energy rushes back in when it's time, but only when it's time. So remember that Zen saying, nature doesn't rush a flower, nature doesn't rush a tree. You cannot rush your rest or your break. Schedule yourself a precation before you start that next thing and don't worry and don't pressure yourself to be rested and recovered and rejuvenated before it's really time.

And I gave a bonus, a fourth do for the do column. So let me give a bonus one here. Bonus of the don't. Number four is don't be hard on yourself if the next thing doesn't quite pan out. Remember, as I say in pivot, decisions are data, everybody. Sometimes you just gotta shake loose from a stagnant opportunity, a stagnant status quo. So you make a decision, you make a big move, you change jobs, you change teams, and boom, the new reality hits you. In the face. Shoot, wherever you go, there you are. Or this thing isn't it. The good news is that you shook yourself up from the status quo, so now the energy is moving, it's flowing. And if you learn that your interim pivot isn't the one, it's not the end all be all, it's okay. Don't be hard on yourself. You have not taken a step backward, you've taken a step forward. I often talk about leapfrog pivots and I talk about it in the book where sometimes we do know what we want. Two moves out. But you have to take an interim pivot that's just okay to get you there. I also talk about this with my friend Jonathan Fields for his new LinkedIn podcast called Sparked. Someone submitted a question about this exact thing so you can listen. I've done a handful of them by now. I'll put the link to some of those in the show notes and you can check out that podcast and I would love to hear from you. What are your best pieces of advice? Your do's and don'ts, lessons learned, Things you wish you had done differently from leaving a corporate job? I would love to crowdsource your wisdom and share them in a future episode so that we can be helpful for fellow pivoters. You can leave me a voice message@pivotmethod.com ask. That's pivotmethod.com ask. And again, if you know Pivotor who's in transition, leaving a job and wondering how to best wrap things up, please send them this episode. You can point them to POD Link pivotmethod. That's POD Link pivotmethod. Thank you so much for being here. Listening everybody. Have a beautiful rest of your day and happy Pivoting.

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Remember, build first, then your courage will follow. Hasn't it always.

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