A lucky former student recently asked some advice on how to give notice at a job she loves, for a job she hopes will propel her career to new levels. Here is my response.
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Congratulations! This is a very exciting time in your career, and I am gratified to be along for the ride.
I completely understand and empathize with the misgivings around giving notice to an organization that you have enjoyed working for, and where you got your early development opportunities. I have been there myself and it can weigh heavily on your heart. Here are a couple of thoughts that have helped me over the years.
1. Any good manager will understand your reasoning in leaving for a good opportunity, especially if that manager cannot create the same opportunity for you herself. No good manager would think of holding an employee back or resenting her for taking the next move in her career. A good manager needs to think about the team's best interests too, and realizes that letting you go in anything other than a head-up way would send a poor message to the remaining team members, and that would eventually undermine team cohesion.
2. Of course the above would not necessarily be true if an employee has been dishonest with her manager, or leaves before 'giving back' after having been trained. Managers don't appreciate promising employees who leave too soon. But this isn't the case with you; two-plus years in an organization is about the norm these days.
3. Leaving your current organization will create an opening for someone else to step up and show what they can do. In my early days as a manager I really worried if one of my stars left, but I came to see that there were always others waiting in the wings, ready to step in. Your departure may even create a job that someone from the outside can fill, giving someone a badly needed first chance as you got two years ago.
With all that said, my advice for you when the time comes is to tell your manager what you told me: that you value the opportunity your current job gave you and that you have enjoyed the organization and feel that you made a significant contribution, and now it is time to take the next step in your career. Be forthright and honest, describing why the next opportunity develops your career in the way you wish it to go. Offer to help train your replacement and be diligent in handing off your duties. For the reasons I stated above, your manager should accept your resignation graciously and send you on your way with her very best wishes and with the relationship very much intact.
On the remote chance that this does not go well, that there is resentment or ill feelings left behind, you need to know that you did everything right. That ultimately you cannot control what other people think or do, you can only control your own behavior. If you handle this professionally and honestly, you need not fear reprisals or burned bridges. As you say this is a small community and our colleagues have good instincts about these things; they will be able to judge for themselves that you handled yourself correctly in this episode. Remember that only you are in control of your own reputation and brand; no one can successfully pass untruths about you for very long. If you handle yourself professionally the ship will right itself - it always does.
