How soon is too soon (to leave for another job)?

Hello all,

As the title says, I’m wondering what your opinion is on leaving your job in pursuit of another opportunity, if you haven’t held your current position for very long.

Background: I am still relatively new at Company #1. I am very happy to have a position here and things are going well. Out of nowhere, Company #2 got in touch with me and it sounds like there may be an opportunity for a position at Company #2. I’m very interested in working at Company #2. In my opinion, there are many good reasons for me to move on to Company #2, but the one thing that holds me back is that I’m afraid of the possibility of leaving Company #1 in bad terms.

What are your thoughts? Is it rude to leave a position you haven’t held for very long, or is it okay? As a manager, would you be ticked off if a new designer joins the studio then leaves for another job after a short while? Or would you be happy for them?

2 years is typically considered the minimum. A lot goes into recruiting and training a new employee. A new team member will likely take up to 6 months to recruit and 6 more months to get in the groove so you are talking about a year of reduced productivity.

Now, there might be extenuating circumstances. Say company 2 is a major global brand like Nike or Ferrari or what’re floats your boat. Passing it up would be silly. But if company 2 was a completely lateral thing (ie same type level of prestige, same industry) and you were well liked and doing well, as your manager I might be like “what the heck?”

I think the other exception would be of this is your forst job out of school. When hiring fresh grads I always think in terms of let’s see how this works out in 6 months.

Really need more info to be able to guess what the reaction or right thing to do is. With out that I stick to the 2 year thing as a minimum.

Since your last round of posts seems to indicate you got hired this year, jumping ship after ~6 months won’t be looked upon favorably by your manager. They’ve most likely spent a lot of time getting you up to speed like Yo mentioned, and will have to fill that seat.

At the end of the day your career is about you, but keep in mind it is never a good move to burn bridges. If you do, you’ll just have to accept anything that happens in the future.

In general terms why do you want to move to company 2? Is it a bigger brand? Unsatisfied with your pay? Better location? It sounds like you’re still in the recruitment process which these days is pretty common, especially if it’s from something like Linked In where you’ll get recruiters contacting you fairly often.

If there seems to be a really strong reason to move, then do what’s right for you, but your current employer definitely won’t be happy about it. But if you still haven’t interviewed or been made an offer then it’s probably too early to really know if that’s the right decision to make.

I just had a guy jump ship after about 8 months. Pain in my ass to replace him.

But it is a better job.
Better pay.
Closer to his home.
Better title.
More responsibility.
Although he did tell me my projects were more interesting.

I can’t blame him from moving on and he will only get a glowing recommendation from me.

Create a list of pros/cons for each opening, and yes leaving a bad taste in your current employeers mouth goes into the con section as people can hold a grudge…

And keep in mind that the grass isnt always greener on the other side of the fence. Although some times it is and it’s also lusher with a sweet sweet smell, hell it may even be Kentucky blue grass.

Well, I can tell you that 5 minutes into your first day is definitely too soon. No joke, I spent 3-4 months looking to replace a mid/senior level designer, was lucky enough to find one locally and hired them, but had to wait 2 months before they could start. On their first day this person came in, met our HR Generalist for orientation, and quit on the spot. The excuse was that they had decided to move across the country to be closer to their spouse’s native country. This person had 2 months to arrive at this decision and for some odd reason waited until their first day to let me know. I understand the reason for the decision, but it was handled very unpro.

Anyways, like others have said you should have a very compelling reason for company #1 as to why you’re moving on. Or, if it isn’t a conflict of interest maybe you can freelance for #2 and stay with #1 for a while and see how that goes.

Thank you for the reply, everyone. I didn’t include much details in my original post for the sake of protecting my anonymity, but as expected, it looks like I will need to share some details that I may want to avoid posting on a public forum in order to get a better judgment. If anyone is willing to hear my story in a little more detail through pm, I will gladly share that with you. Let me know.

Thanks again.

I left my first post-college job exactly 30 days after starting it, but I felt I had strong reasons to do so. I felt bad, but stuck to the plan to leave. My supervisor looked at me like I was crazy. I had to do a an interview with the VP of HR because nothing like that had happened before with freshly graduated new hire.

  • Went from industry to consultancy (where I wanted to be)
  • Terrible team – extremely unprofessional and aggressive co-workers
  • Half the commute
  • Did not have to use Inventor :wink:
  • Non-smoking office (it was supposed to be, but everyone smoked just outside an open door)
  • Better benefits

It’s your career that is most important, not looking good to HR. You of course don’t want to burn any bridges, but if the move is the right thing at the right time, I’d say take it. As long as there is a good reason that you can explain if someone questions you on it reviewing your CV, its fine. Most opportunities doesn’t wait for “good” timing to be convenient.

R

I did something similar. I was contract at a small firm in NY state that did mostly industrial and commercial goods. I left after about 30 days because I got a job at Evo which was much more focused on lifestyle products and had good clients in sportswear and equipment, kitchenwares, watches, sunglasses, toys, consumer electronics, product like that. The head of the other firm was also notoriously difficult and they had high turnover. It was also super boring. I remember falling asleep one day at work and scaring the crap out of myself! I had to switch to somewhere like Evo that was more engaging to me personally and where I could learn and grow with a fun team.

I don’t have it on my resume obviously. Too short of an experience and not positive.

Last year I had started working on the ID team of a large corporation, and within a few weeks I knew it wasn’t a good fit for me. The team did not really know how to utilize me, and all the other team members were too senior for me to relate to and too jaded for me to learn from.

I was very unhappy with my situation, and after 6 weeks told my manager I wanted to leave. I was very professional in explaining honestly that I felt it was not a good fit and me continuing to work there would be a waste of my time and theirs. He was very understanding, did not get upset or question my decision, and I gave him honest feedback that alerted him that his team was not conducive to attracting young new talent. Granted, he was a really calm and collected guy overall but if you think you going to a new job will make you much happier and be better for your career you should do it, and if you do it right you can avoid burning bridges. It does kind of depend on the size of the company too. A huge company can afford to recruit someone new. A smaller team might have trouble replacing you, and the extra workload passed onto your coworkers may cause some resentment.

In the end, do what’s right for you and be honest. I’m much happier with my job now, and have never regretted that decision.