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I have been with my current company for almost 5 years, had an onsite interview with the new company back in May, received an offer from the hr the following week. The salary they offered was more than what I expected, really enjoyed meeting with the people that interviewed me, so accepted the offer right away.
Gave my 2 weeks notice to my current manager last Friday. My manager is currently traveling in China for business, will be back next week. We agreed that we will have a face to face meeting some time next week once he is back from his trip. I really don't know what he is going to ask me during the meeting, but personally, there are 2 questions that i want to answer.
1. why did i decide to leave the company
2. what can we do to make our current company a better place to work
For the past few days, i have been thinking these 2 questions, and i really struggle about how i should answer 2 questions or how deep should i go when i answer these 2 questions.
On one hand, my brain tells me don't burn bridges, you never know what is going to happen in the future. But considering my manager is already 57 and i have no plan to work for my current company ever again, i highly doubt i will ever work with him. Plus, it is not like i have any animosity towards him, our relationship has been professional over the years.
On the other hand, my heart tells me i should tell like it is. And after been working here for almost 5 years, even though after i walk out the office next friday, my employment relationship with my current employer officially ends, but deep inside, I kind of wish that they can do well in the years ahead.
I think the dilemma that i am having is i want to tell it like how it is, but i am also a little afraid that if i say anything thats out of line, it may causes damage to my career down the road, even though the chance of that happens is extremely low.
In my opinion, based on being old now and burning way too many bridges when I was younger, I would advise you to grin and bear it and not burn the bridge. And that would include not even giving any constructive criticism. In my experience, if they wanted my opinion on how they should be running their company, they would have asked me while I was their employee.
It's surprising how burning a bridge can come back to bite you in ways you never expected it to. This is one of the main things about how I handled my past I would do completely differently. People don't really want your opinion about how they can do things better or differently, normally, anyway. For some reason, I always thought it was my duty to tell them, but it never was.
He might want to make you some kind of offer to stay, but I'd advise against staying, too. It seems like that never ends up well - where you've already given notice and then you're offered a better deal to stay. Seems like that only ever ends up as a temporary situation and it is worse than it would have been to just walk away when you originally planned.
So, if it was me, I'd sit down and just say politically correct things and wish him well, and try to end the meeting as quickly as possible.
I always fantasized about telling the truth about why I was leaving, but in the end I never did. I never had an employer that I felt really cared about improving anyway.
I had a coworker once go in and start to give her actual reasons. The interviewer made a hand motion to indicate "wrap this up quickly". My coworker shut up at that point.
My current company, who just eliminated my role, recently stopped doing exit interviews altogether. I think they're getting rid of too many people to keep up with it. Also they don't care..
You don't indicate that there was anything really horrible going on at your old employer. No job is perfect and every organization has some things that could be done better or are annoying. Especially if your old job wasn't a living hell, you weren't dying to leave, and if someone asked you if it was a decent enough place to work, you'd say yes and recommend someone take a job there, then don't go overly into anything negative. Be generally honest, but preserve the relationship. If it was at least an ok place to work, you did get experience there that got you this job. Be glad for that.
I wouldn't say anything. What if your new company turns out to be a complete nightmare and you want to go back to the old company? Best to just leave an anonymous review on Glassdoor instead.
If you can provide CONSTRUCTIVE criticism in an attempt to help them, do it. If you just want to rant, don't do it.
I left a job because I was bored because there wasn't enough work, and told them as much. Told them not to fill my role because it wasn't necessary. They heeded my advice.
Two years later they called and asked me to come back because they had another position open that they wanted me to take. I did, and stay for 5 years and was very happy. I only left because at that point I had two very young children and wanted to lessen my commute from 2 hours each way to something that would allow me to actually spend time with my two kids.
The ugly truth hurts. No one wants to feel hurt, no one one wants to hear the ugly truth. Most people just want to hear nice things to make them feel good.
You are leaving. Problems in your old employer are none of your business. They are no longer yours. You don't have to suffer those anymore. Why bother? Just say something nice in general and thanks for the opportunity to working there.
Luckily I’ve had a few opportunities to tell the truth already. We have “focus groups” for opinions from employees. Some suggestions are actually appreciated and used to update policy.
One of the reasons I don’t picture an exit interview coming up. Good luck.
What would YOU gain in either scenario? You have no control over any effect the information would have.
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Good luck.
