5 Critical Actions to Take When Ending a Job
We change jobs more than 12 times in our adult lives, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As my tenure as a four-term Illinois State Representative has wound down, it occurred to me that this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity and perspective to contemplate the end of one job and the beginning of a new one, and I’ve wondered how many of us regularly skip this vital exercise.
Whether by choice or circumstance, there are five critical actions to take when ending a job:
Finish Strong – Put in your best effort until the very last day.
Communicate to Your Network – Let your network know you are moving on to something new.
Process the Change – Take stock of this point in time and take professional steps for closure.
Insert a Pause – Make the time to relax and add an introspective and rejuvenating break between careers.
Develop a Plan – Think through the first year of your new position, write out some goals, and create a more concrete “First Three Months” plan.
Most of us probably take the first two actions and may do the fifth, but experience tells me that we skip steps three and four, so this post will focus on those steps.
Process the Change
Why process a job or career change? For good or for bad, it is over right? Not quite. Remember the adage – Life is a Journey – and so is your work life. It is important to celebrate the milestone of completing a career and evaluate how you have grown from your most recent job. What new skills did you learn or strengthen? What aspects of your job were you both passionate about AND good at because the intersection of ability and desire will always be your sweet spot. Hopefully, you can interject more of these types of responsibilities into your next job. What parts of your job could you have been better at and how can you improve these areas in the future?
Update your resume and social media profiles, and confirm which colleagues will provide a work reference for you, whether you need one right now or not. Better yet, ask them to write a referral for your LinkedIn profile while the relationship is still fresh. Take time to think through the work relationships that you believe will last when you no longer see one another every day, and for everyone else, consider them part of your network and reach out to them periodically. We all need to think of our career journey as one long interconnected history that follows us wherever we go.
Insert a Pause
Hopefully, you will have a period between the end of your current position and the start of your new job. From my perspective, having four to eight weeks between jobs is the perfect length of time but no matter how much time you have, make sure to insert a pause.
Why is taking a break so important? One of the important lessons I’ve learned from author Stephen Covey is to “sharpen the saw.” I “run hard” for the entire length of my career. I want to give my best every day, and therefore, I want to be sure that I unwind, rejuvenate, and recharge regularly. I do that daily by reading, exercise, and getting eight hours of sleep; on weekends through hobbies, time in nature, friends, and church; and quarterly with mind-expanding vacations.
Similarly, at the end of one career, it’s important to unwind, relax and recharge our batteries. Punctuate life with rest stations because life is a marathon, not a sprint. I certainly don’t want to go into my next career physically, mentally or spiritually tired. Starting a new career warrants a sabbatical of sorts. My ideal between jobs sabbatical involves leaving town with a suitcase, hiking shoes, spirit of adventure and a journal. No matter how brief your pause between jobs, even if it’s only a weekend, the important thing is that we each find a way to rejuvenate ourselves before starting a new position.
We cannot expect to bring our best selves to careers that demand creative thought, careful listening, wise judgment, effective problem-solving, change leadership, vision casting, and more without granting ourselves the necessary time to sharpen our saw.
Ending well by practicing the five actions listed above will help to ensure that each step in our career journey is meaningful and thoughtful because then it will also be successful.
