John: Hey, John Sonmez from simpleprogrammer.com.
I got a question here about writing a resignation letter.
I thought this was kind of an interesting topic to talk about.
I think a lot of developers often are in the point of need to write a resignation letter.
This email is from Kevin and Kevin says, “Hey John, I’m a huge fan of manning books and
guess which book was on the number one spot?
I really loved your book and I wish I had read this book 15 years ago when I graduated
college.
Please sensor my name if you’re going to publish a video about my question.”
We’ll just say Kevin.
I won’t tell you the last name.
He said, “I’ve recommended your book to numerous fellow peers.
So here’s my issue.
I’m currently with a great company with awesome people to work with, unfortunately
I’m the only full stack developer in my team and recently I got a job offer from a
previous company I used to work at.
It was a typical project with multiple developers who can take over my work then I feel relieved
to leave the company with good hands.
The offer began by 10% more and I’ve kept rejecting until they said 35%.
Since my family is saving for a down payment for the mortgage it’s really hard to reject
this offer.
Once I leave the company I know that the people I work with will be greatly disappointed and
possibly their jobs—it’s just some engineering faux, for whatever dumb reasons, I just can’t
hire new developers for next 6 months or so.
Being without a developer for 6 months the whole project could even be cancelled.
They’ve really put all the eggs in one basket and believe that I’ll stick with the project
until it’s completed.
I also believe that as well since my pay is quite above average and no other company’s
offer would even come close.
Anyway, these are the nicest people I’ve ever worked with and I do get excited to wake
up every morning to work with them.
I literally have no excuse of leaving the job except more money.
I just feel like an A-hole if I write a resignation that basically said: Old job offered 35% more.
Peace.
It isn’t like I’m going to be learning new skills from the old job either which was
the reason I left the company.
Honestly, if my family wasn’t saving for a down payment I wouldn’t leave.
It’s just amazing that I’m almost doubling the salary in 3 years.
If you were me, would you take the new offer?
I’ve already taken the offer and for many days trying to come up with a good way of
writing the resignation letter and advance thanks for the advice.”
A little bit long email but I wanted to include the whole back story here.
Kevin, as I’m reading this you’re making justifications, even to me.
You don’t need justifications.
Business is business.
It’s good that you like your team.
It’s good that you’re contributing to your team but we tend to have this sort of
ego thing when we work somewhere or work with people that it’s all going to fall apart
if we’re not there.
Yes, you may be seriously contributing to this team but life will go on.
They’ll be okay.
They’ll figure out how to get on without you.
Don’t be so concerned.
I know you’re coming from a good place in saying that you feel like you don’t want
to abandon them.
A lot of people feel like that but you can’t really worry about that.
You’re getting offered 35% more pay, that’s perfectly good reason to leave.
You don’t need—in fact, you don’t need any reason, you don’t need any excuse, you
don’t have to give an explanation.
In fact, when you write a resignation letter what I would recommend, I’m assuming you’ve
probably already written it by now, but what I would recommend for anyone writing a resignation
letter in this situation is that you don’t give a reason.
You just say, “Hey, it’s been great working with you.
I love the job here.
I would love to help you sometime in the future.
I’ve got an offer and an opportunity in my life that I feel like I need to take and
that’s why I’m doing this.
Nothing personal, I’m just taking this opportunity.”
That’s enough.
You don’t need to say I’m making more money, you don’t need to justify why this
is a better opportunity for you, don’t get into that.
No matter what you do, you’re going to hurt feelings and you’re going to cause problems
if you do it that way and possibly burn bridges.
The best thing to do is just not give an explanation and just talk so much about how you’ve enjoyed
the company that you’re working with, that you’re currently working at and that this
is just a new opportunity or you.
Anyway, good luck, Kevin.
Hopefully you enjoy your new job and hopefully you don’t feel too bad about leaving your
old one.
It’s business so don’t take it personally and just don’t worry.
Things will continue to go on.
They’ll figure out what they’re doing.
One person can’t be the lynchpin for an entire company so you can’t put that pressure
on yourself.
All right, well, if you like this video, definitely subscribe to the channel and I’ll talk to
you next time.
Take care.