Transitioning From Your First Job

Getting your first job is both exciting and intimidating. Though you were scared out of your mind you were probably also excited to embark on a new journey. New experiences come with growth and growth is needed in order to move forward in life. What happens, though, when it's time for you to change gears and take on a new job opportunity?

It's important to keep in mind that moving on from your first job still means that you have an opportunity to further grow. So, you moving on is definitely a good sign of greater things to come. A lot of times we start feeling guilty. We feel that we owe it to our employer to stick around. We even get shameful or extremely nervous about it. Just know that this is a regular fact of life. People are start new jobs and leave old jobs all of the time. It's what helps keep a healthy ecosystem of opportunity alive for millions of working people in this world.

So, the question becomes "how?" How does one go about professionally and respectfully resigning? Assuming that you have already interviewed with and accepted an offer from the next job of your dreams, you want to make sure that you have an agreement in place with your prospective new employer. The usual amount of time between an official job offer and actual start date is two weeks. It allows you time to get all of your affairs in order both professionally and personally. This is when you should approach your current employer with the news and offer your two-week resignation plan.

Make sure that you are leaving your current job on good terms. A good boss or supervisor should be able to fully support you on your endeavor. Sometimes they'll even serve as a reference in the future or currently if you have been keeping them up to date on your plans. A way to make sure of this is by scheduling an exit interview with your boss. This will allow a chance for you to reflect on your experience and close things out on a positive note. You should also arrange to create an offloading plan of some sort in the event that your position is filled by someone new. That way you're not dumping all of your responsibilities off at the door. It'll definitely be considerate of you.

Leaving your first job is already a huge leap. Make sure that you're transitioning the right way to take a lot of the anxiety out of it. We all have to start somewhere. Finding new and better opportunities is to be expected so try not to feel too bad about taking advantage of them. Enjoy your past experiences for what they taught you and always be open to different ones. There's always more to learn.

Want to become a Noodle contributor? Email: contributor@noodle.com