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I have been working as an R&D Engineer at Company A for a year now and have decided to start looking for new employment opportunities due to financial reasons. Company A has given me a ton of practical engineering experience but has a bad reputation for having lower average salaries and being slow with performance reviews/advancement opportunities. During my one year review, I expressed my desire to continue to develop my technical skills at Company A as long as I could be assured of appropriate compensation and title advancement. Lately the company has been late to issue it's bi-annual bonus and tensions are slowly rising around the department. After re-evaluating my future with this company, I have decided to seek out new employment opportunities in hopes that my financial and career progress do not stagnate. Once I have found and accepted a position, I am unsure about how to bring this up to my manager.

Question: How do I explain to my manager that I have accepted a new position at a different company and that my reason for leaving was my lack of faith that Company A would have allowed me to advance within my career? We have a healthy work relationship and are open to talking about work-related topics. I am worried that bringing up this topic will negatively affect the rest of my time here as it would appear to my manager that I have already decided that this company is not where I want to be working at.

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Simple. You find a new job, sign the contract, then you give notice. No explanation needed. No advance warning needed, that’s what a notice period is there for.

Telling your company any earlier can have substantial negative consequences for you.

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How do I explain to my manager that I have accepted a new position at a different company and that my reason for leaving was my lack of faith that Company A would have allowed me to advance within my career?

These are two separate questions. The first is "how do you say you have a new position?", and the second is "why are you leaving the current position?".

The first is something you can easily bring up: once you have accepted the offer on paper, ask your manager a short meeting for an important communication, and notify him that you have been offered a new position and that you have accepted it, starting from X. Offer your availability to facilitate a smooth transfer of tasks to your replacement, and your job is done.

Then investigating why you are leaving is up to your manager, and that is the second question. If he asks why you are leaving, you can state that you were not confident in your financial and career progress in the present role.

Since you have accepted a new position, if your manager is so unprofessional to make your life miserable during your notice period you have not much to fear: you will be leaving anyway, and if he wants to shoot in his feet obstructing your knowledge transfer it will not be your problem.

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    Important: do not inform your current position of your intent to leave until you have accepted a bonafide firm signed offer in writing from your new employer. – Glen Pierce Jun 15 '18 at 2:19
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    You should bring a written notice, clearly stating your last day on the current job, to that meeting with your manager. – Patricia Shanahan Jun 15 '18 at 10:52
  • Agree with @PatriciaShanahan, never resign without a written notice that is copied to your boss and HR. – HLGEM Jun 15 '18 at 13:15
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We have a healthy work relationship and are open to talking about work-related topics.

Changing jobs is a PERSONAL-related topic. It has nothing to do with your work any more than what you like on a hot dog.

I am worried that bringing up this topic will negatively affect the rest of my time here as it would appear to my manager that I have already decided that this company is not where I want to be working at.

Are you concerned that even though you don't want to be there that you don't want to cause a situation where you're pressured or bullied?

You would never bring up that topic. The piece of paper given to him will do that.

Suppose he says:

"Why didn't you come talk to me about it?"

Answer: "Well there certainly wasn't any issue for me. I don't feel any problem discussing our work. An opportunity came up, it's interesting, I happen to have some friends there so it's very cut and dried for me."

Your job is to act numb. Whatever he says is fine and expected. Your boss may actually want to take you to see his boss and they may attempt to guilt you or mention reviews are coming up, whatever. Your job in that situation is to observe two actors acting because what they assert simply means zero.

"I am really hurt that you're leaving. You really put us in a tight spot!"

Answer: "I understand what you mean. Thank you for the vote of confidence. If it doesn't work out I'll certainly contact you about coming back."

((That is NOT a flip answer. If they're hurt than you're valuable... show appreciation.))

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