When should I tell my employer I am looking for other employment 17

[StrucDesignPE]

I recently applied for a job with another company. It was a random job listing that I happened to see and was instantly attracted to. I met all of the qualifications easily. After several weeks of waiting, I was contacted for a phone interview. I feel like the interview went well and I was told I was likely to hear something within the next week or two. No other interviews will be required.

I am relatively happy where I currently work, but the main motivations for leaving are better pay and benefits and a better path for career advancement. My career at my current company is as far as it can go, even after I obtain my PE.

I have a good personal relationship with my boss and other employees, so I feel some guilt for possibly leaving, but know that this different employment will be much better for my future and family.

The firm where I currently work is small and were I to leave, the capacity of the firm for new work would be reduced by a decent percentage; but I am reluctant to tell my boss that I may get another job as I don't want it to affect my working relationship, especially if I don't actually get it. The potential employer is not a competitor to where I work now, but someone who has contracted with us for past work. If I am offered a position, I would insist on giving my current employer at least two weeks notice.

Should I talk with my boss about this and let it be known that I have interviewed and may leave? Or should I just wait until I am actually offered the position and know that I will be leaving?

 

[phamENG]

I had hoped to do actual design work for them (since my new job was quite different and I knew I'd want to get back to design sooner or later), but they really just used it to wrap up loose ends on projects I was familiar with. Eventually the phone stopped ringing, so I officially resigned and started doing my own design work on the side.

 

[LittleInch]

Sounds good in theory, but in practice you need to place the priorities and time available to your new employer over your old one and fairly rapidly the old boys will realise that you're not theirs anymore and they are playing second fiddle to the main day job.

Now they might not like it but if there is no alternative then it might play out ok for a little while, but sooner rather than later it will come crashing down, it always does, unless it is just literally a few hours a month you're talking about.

Only if you're an independent consultant working for two or more companies does it become viable as then it's up to you how to balance the competing projects into the time you have available.

My experience is once you're out of the door then you're just forgotten about. When I have left any job I made a point of saying feel free to call or e-mail any questions etc about the project. Not a single call or e-mail.

Remember - More details = better answers
Also: If you get a response it's polite to respond to it.

 

[MedicineEng]

I changed jobs 4 times. Never handed over my notice before having the new contract signed in my hand.
I'm not considering to change jobs as I love the company, the team that I work with and my job. It has been my longest stint, 7 years next month.
Every time I left in good terms because I always negotiated the starting date considering at least my contractual notice period or finishing a project that I was leading.
So my previous notice periods were between 1 month and almost 3 months.

 

[IRstuff]

I quit one job where we had a problem that had been dogging us for a couple years, so I convinced them to give me a contract to find the root cause after I left. Unfortunately, I figured out the problem in less than two weeks, and was too honest to milk it for more .



TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[moltenmetal]

Rules and laws vary by location. And I'm not a lawyer, much less one who knows YOUR situation.

Employers can in some places dismiss people without cause and without compensation "at will".

Here in Ontario, Canada, most employees start in a new position "on contract" rather than being hired on immediately as full time salaried employees. A probationary initial contract is traditional. A "contract" employee has a contract for a term, with payment rate fixed FOR that term i.e. not subject to unilateral change. If they are terminated prior to completion OF that term, unless it is stipulated otherwise in the contract to the contrary, they are owed some compensation as well as some notice or pay in lieu of notice. And if employed full time, dismissal without cause always ends up in some severance compensation plus notice- even after a short term. That severance compensation, based on past advice given to me by an employment lawyer, must include compensation for the fact that you voluntarily left prior employment from a firm which continues to carry on a business- unless that was a long time ago. There are standards set as minimums under the Employment Standards Act, and higher levels set by the expectations of the common law which vary greatly.

In my case, I was offered a choice: I could voluntarily renegotiate the contract I'd already signed, to accept a lower rate of pay, or I could be dismissed without pay of any kind because a) I was not recruited from previous employment and b) the contract stipulated no compensation for premature termination, so if I wanted it I'd have to fight them for it.

There was no point in going back to the other firm to see if the offer I'd graciously rejected was still standing- it was a "buyer's market" for firms hiring fresh grads that year. I was top 5% of my class from one of the best schools in Canada and had just finished a Master's degree in record time, but for the time, getting two offers was considered very good luck.

The way I see it, I was welcomed to the profession of engineering with a raised middle finger. You can doll it up in "professionalism" or whatever nonsense you like, but it's a job like any other job. Services in return for money. They could have offered me that extra 5% in worthless shares in their company and I'd have been totally happy, but they chose instead to cheat on the deal we'd made- because they could get away with it.

It was an important lesson, at a time when it cost me very little to learn it. I had few choices though- the day I went in to see my new boss, I had $32 to my name- but no debt, so I was ahead of many (and well ahead of any kid graduating from my uni without rich parents today, I'll tell you!). But it certainly cost me enough of my dignity at the time that I'll never forget it.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Having a dollar change hands in many cases makes a transaction legal in the eyes of the law.

I get that... but despite the contract now being considered "legal" (for whatever that actually means), it provides zero further protection against them changing your salary the next day or walking you out the door two hours later. In short, adding $1 does nothing substantive for you.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[dik]

I agree mac... but, you probably didn't want to work there anyway...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[IRstuff]

walking you out the door two hours later.

The Wednesday of my first week at one company, we had a really nice picnic for all the new employees, which numbered around 30. Friday, half of them were laid off; 4 months later, I was the only survivor from that group.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[MacGyverS2000]

Has to be some form of record there, IR... I've heard tell of happenings a few months after a hiring surge, but never within the same week I'm curious to know why...

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[JohnRBaker]

My problem was the opposite.

A little history: After my freshman year, 1965-66, I got a job for the summer working as a draftsman at this company in Saginaw, MI which manufactured food and chemical processing machinery. I worked in the food group which primary designed and manufactured equipment for large commercial bakeries. After completely two terms of my second year in school (we were on a three term plus summer session system) I left school and the company I had worked for hired me full-time as a draftsman. The reason I left school was because I got a bit burned-out and I was also planning on getting married, which we did that June (still with her today, nearly 54 years later). Anyway, I worked there nearly 18 months as a full-time employee. The chief engineer, and several of the other engineers, had also graduated from my school and they all encouraged me to eventfully go back full-time. The chief engineer, who had become my mentor, promised that if I went back to school he would have a job for me every summer until I finished and if all went well, a job when I graduated. So in the Fall of 1968 I returned to school full-time and worked the next two summers, each time being given more responsibilities and opportunities. In the spring of 1971, my senior year, the chief engineer visited the campus looking to hire some graduates. Of course, we met (he took my wife and I out for dinner) and he basically said that he had a job for me and that the company would be giving me full-credit for my past time as an employee (this amounted to starting work with a 25-month backed-dated hire date). BTW, he also offered a job to another student, an EE, who started the same time I did.

Note that I had looked at some other job opportunities but 1971 was not working out as a good year, business wise, and there were not that many jobs being offered and besides, I liked the company I had been working for over the past five year and I had made a lot of friends there and the offer, money and benefits wise, in addition to the seniority bump, turned-out to be a really good deal and so I accepted the job, and said I could start to work the middle of June.

However, there was a problem. Remember when I said 1971 was not turning out to be a good year for business, well, it was not a good year for my new employer as well. About a week before I was planning to start work, I got a call from the chief engineer who explained that while I still had the job (and the other guy they had hired, the EE, he still had his job as well) that it would be better if I didn't start until the middle of July. It seems that they had just had a rather significant layoff that included people from both the office and the factory, which was a union shop. Anyway, they felt that it would look bad to have a couple of new engineers start work the week after a 10% reduction in staff, so that was why the delayed start date. Now once we both got there, things seemed to be OK, and no one ever really made an issue of it, and when our first annual review came along, at least I was, and I assume it was the same for the EE, 'taken care of' in that my boss managed to get me a one-time 'adjustment' that compensated for that lost month of pay. Note that by then, business had picked-up pretty good so it was probably a good move on their part. Note that I continued to work there until 1980, when I took the job in SoCal, from which I retired five years ago.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-'Product Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[IRstuff]

Has to be some form of record there, IR

Just bad planning is my guess; the division was on a downward spiral during my entire 5-yr tenure there; we went from about 500 people to less than 20, and had 10 general managers in that same period.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

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[CivilStructural01]

Do NOT tell your employer. Never tell a current employer anything. Any if you work at a small firm / family firm that means your opportunity for advancement / pay is limited. I recommend you apply and find the highest bidder.

 

[berkshire]

Adding to the other posts here, do not mention your leaving to, anybody, including your workmates until you actually have a start date from your new employer.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.