By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
Why does your boss wants to know where you’re going?
When Is It OK To Quit Without Giving Notice?
All right, let’s set the scene. You’ve done it. You landed a new job, you signed the offer, and you are ready to hand in your two weeks’ notice.
You’re about to make your next big career move. But there’s still one last kind of tricky conversation you have to get through. And there it is.
The question. You’re sitting in your boss’s office, you’ve just broken the news, and they hit you with it. So where are you heading? It seems innocent enough, right? Just a friendly question.
But believe it or not, how you answer this can make a really big difference. So what’s the right move? Well, according to our source material, the answer couldn’t be clearer. Telling them is just a bad idea.
Full stop. And there are some really, really good reasons why. You’ve got to ask yourself, why do they want to know so badly? Is it really just them being nice and curious about your career? Well, not always.
Let’s get into the real motivations that might be behind that seemingly simple question. This is where things get interesting, because there’s this huge gap between what we hope they’re thinking and what might actually be going on. You know, you hope they’ll think, wow, we’re losing a great person.
Maybe we should make a counteroffer. But the reality? It can be a whole different ball game. They might be trying to gather data, use it against you, or, and this is the big one, try to talk you out of leaving.
And this quote just nails it. This is one of the ugliest tactics they might pull. Your manager or someone from HR might start bad mouthing your new company, basically trying to make you feel like you’ve made a terrible mistake.
Look, it’s not about helping you. It’s a defensive play to make you second guess yourself and maybe just maybe get you to stay. So when you boil it all down, sharing this info just doesn’t benefit you.
It pretty much never leads to a better counteroffer. What it does do is create a super awkward situation where you’re suddenly defending your life choices. And on top of all that, you’ve just handed your old company free valuable intel on their competition.
Nothing good comes out of it for you. Okay, so we’ve spent a lot of time on what not to do. Let’s flip the script.
How do you actually handle this question? There’s a really simple, totally professional way to navigate this without burning any bridges. And here it is. It’s a simple two-step process.
First, be gracious. Be polite. Thank them for the opportunity, for everything you learned.
Then, step two, when the question comes, you just politely decline to answer. Something simple like, I’d rather keep that to myself for now, but thank you for asking, works perfectly. It’s professional and it’s firm.
And this is why it’s so important. This isn’t about being secretive just for the sake of it. This is about protection.
You’re protecting your decision from getting criticized and you’re protecting your brand new opportunity from any last minute drama or politics. You stay in control. At the end of the day, it really just comes down to this one question.
Your career path is your business and your business alone. You’re leaving, so you have absolutely no obligation to share the details. So the next time you find yourself in that hot seat, just ask yourself, why would you give your old boss free Intel?
A Marketing Approach to Job Search
ABOUT JEFF ALTMAN, THE BIG GAME HUNTER
People hire Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter to provide No BS Career Advice globally because he makes many things in peoples’ careers easier. Those things can involve job search,
hiring more effectively, managing and leading better, career transition, as well as advice about resolving workplace issues.
He is the host of “No BS Job Search Advice Radio,” the #1 podcast in iTunes for job search with over 3000 episodes.
Seven Steps To Branding Yourself As An Expert
You will find great info to help with your job search at my new site, JobSearch.Community Besides the video courses, books and guides, I answer questions from members daily about their job search. Leave job search questions and I will respond daily. Become an Insider+ member and you get everything you’d get as an Insider PLUS you can get me on Zoom calls to get questions answered. Become an Insider Premium member and we do individual and group coaching.
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