How to Quit From a Job the Right Way: Key Steps + Best Practices

Updated March 6, 2026.

Whether you’ve just started thinking about it or are about ready to walk out, you might be wondering how to quit your job. And when it comes to that, there’s a right way — and a whole lot of wrong ways.

If you’ve been feeling done for a while, it might be tempting to watch it all burn. But in this post, we’ll talk about why that’s not the best move… and what to do instead.

How Do I Know It’s Time to Resign?

There’s a difference between the internal reasons that motivate your resignation and the external reasons you give when someone asks. We’ll frame each reason in both ways!

“Good” reasons include:

• Changing careers (“I’m pursuing a career pivot and am ready for my next adventure”)
• A new job offer you’re excited about (“I’ve accepted a new position”)
• Extensive personal circumstances (“I’m experiencing a family/personal emergency that requires my full attention”)

“Bad” reasons include:

• Issues with your employer or employees when you haven’t tried other means of fixing it (“I don’t like my boss/colleague”)
• Assumptions or predictions about the future (“I just feel like you’re about to fire me”)
• A short-term bad patch (“It’s been a hard quarter”)

If you’re considering resigning from a job, do yourself a major favor and get crystal-clear on exactly why. In this case, don’t worry about the external reason (what you’ll mention when you resign) just yet.

Instead, dig deep into what’s happening, how long it’s been going on, whether or not it’s fixable, and how you know it is or isn’t fixable (not what you assume). This helps you avoid regret from quitting a job too quickly or for the wrong reasons.

Not sure what’s next for you? Career coaching can help.

How Much Notice Should I Give To My Current Employer?

The old standard of two weeks’ notice still applies for most employers. And if you can be generous without personal risk, more is better.

By personal risk, I mean that it’s always possible you’ll put in, say, a month’s notice, but be asked to resign sooner… or immediately. Understandably, that can put you in financial jeopardy!

But I’m gonna get on my elder-millennial soapbox here and say:

There’s a lot of messaging that says “you don’t owe your employer anything” and “they’ll lay you off without any notice, so why give them any?” But when you have the option to give notice or not, it comes down to how you want to leave things — and what connections you’re willing to risk.

Speaking as a former hiring manager, it usually takes more than a couple of weeks to find your replacement. Then, think about the fact that that replacement is probably also putting in notice…

And all in all, that leaves your colleagues scrambling to get their jobs done without your role for 1 week (VERY best case) up to a month or longer (more common, in my experience).

So, if you like any of your coworkers… and for a courteous exit on good terms:

IMO, don’t consider two weeks’ notice “optional,” despite what social media says.

11 Steps to Resign in a Professional Manner

So, you’re ready to resign from your company. Congratulations!

Hopefully, you’re resigning from a job for a better opportunity, to pursue personal development, or just to take a damn break.

But whatever the scenario, follow these 11 steps to ensure a smooth transition and quit on a positive note.

1. Prepare and Plan for Resignation

Yep — don’t resign in a hurry! Before mentioning or doing anything, review your employment contract, company policies, and documents from human resources. Make sure you know how resignation affects your benefits, including healthcare (COBRA ain’t cheap!), 401(k), and other perks like FSA, HSA, and stock options.

With a clear understanding of what it looks like to leave your current employer, you can best develop a plan.

You should consider the professional, financial, legal, and personal implications of your resignation as much as possible before putting in your notice.

2. Determine the Right Notice Period

Your employee contract is your best resource for this. Adhere to any policies around notice where possible.

If anything in your company contract seems fishy or doesn’t line up with your understanding of your union rights or local/national laws, it may be worth the few hundred bucks to loop in a lawyer ahead of time.

When in doubt, two weeks is the standard amount of notice.

3. Write a Formal Resignation Letter

Your resignation letter should be concise, containing only what you need to say and no extras. In the end, this formal letter is a permanent record of your exit from the company. It’s not the place for reminiscing, airing grievances, or long goodbyes. (You can do all of these things if you want — just not in your resignation letter, ok?)

Yours should include:

• Clear, concise introduction. It should be apparent in the first 1-2 sentences that you’re resigning, without much fluff around it.
• Your proposed final date. Make sure this is clearly expressed as a date separate from the date of your letter/signature (unless you’re resignation is effective immediately). Overcommunication is better than miscommunication!
• An on-the-record reason for leaving. Note that this might be different from your stated reason; that’s ok! If you’re leaving for messy reasons, keep the mess to yourself at this point. Need tips on how to frame it? Check out our good reasons for leaving a job.
• A positive statement. Take a moment to briefly summarize and reflect on your time with your employer. Keep this to 1-2 sentences since, again, this is more of a formality than anything else.
• Your full name, signature, and date of signature. Again, if your date of signing is different from your proposed last day of work, it can’t hurt to make a clear distinction such as:
  • Signature Date: xx/xx/xxxx
  • Proposed Last Day: xx/xx/xxxx

4. Schedule a Meeting with Your Manager

Quitting a job without talking to your manager is its own level of snub. Especially if you’re putting in notice and still working for another couple of weeks, or longer.

So don’t just email your resignation. Set up a video call or in-person meeting with your manager.

It doesn’t have to be a detailed or intense conversation, and you don’t have to change your mind. It’s just a good thing to do — especially if you have a decent relationship with them and/or want to use them as a reference!

5. Prepare for Contingencies

Depending on your corporate policies, relationship with your employer, and terms of resignation, your actual resignation may not go over as planned. You might be:

• Faced with your manager’s reaction and emotions. Your manager should act professionally and think before they speak! But, they’re also human. They may be sad, surprised, or even upset. It’s not your job to temper their emotions. But if you plan ahead for a potentially emotional reaction, it can help you manage your own stress in the moment.
• Presented with a counteroffer. Your current employer might ask what your new job is offering you, or (if there’s no new job) how they can keep you. It’s helpful to think about this ahead of time, in case there’s a higher salary amount, promotion, or other benefit in mind that would get you to stay. Even if you don’t, preparing for the possibility of a discussion will help you stay firm.
• Fired or laid off, and asked to leave immediately. This is an unfortunate scenario, but it’s not impossible. In some cases, you may even be escorted out (whether or not the situation warrants it). If you’ve seen this happen to others at your employer, or just know that it’s a possibility, you can avoid the stress of surprise.

6. Confirm Your Last Day (In Writing!)

Your proposed final date may not end up being your final date at the company.

For example, as a small company where executives were individual contributors and managers, my former agency’s executive team agreed to give 3+ months’ notice for resignation.

We settled on this ample notice to allow our small team enough time to adapt, rehire, onboard a replacement, and phase out the former employee.

I proposed an end date that honored this agreement, but in the end, we settled on an earlier date that worked for everyone — and I happily helped train my replacement.

7. Tell Your Work Friends

After everything’s confirmed, but before your next all-hands or company bulletin announces your departure, is the right time to tell your work friends.

Hopefully, you’ll stay connected with your future former colleagues after you leave! In fact, it can be even more fun to hang with your co-workers after leaving, without work stress in the way.

My former agency was the foundation for many friendships that have lasted over a decade and counting, including current and former employees! So if you’re truly close with these folks, this doesn’t have to be the end.

8. Update Your Professional Network

If you’re sick to death of hearing this, let me be the one to tell you again anyway:

It’s! Who! You! Know!

The working world is all about who you know. So even if you have a great new role lined up, don’t forget to get contact info and stay connected with your current colleagues and clients (assuming the latter doesn’t wreck any NDAs or noncompetes you might have).

Within 2 years of my resignation, my former bosses and colleagues:

• Wrote glowing testimonials that helped launch and scale my freelance writing business (increasing my billable rate +300% in 2 years)
• Recommended me for a multi-year website content and maintenance project
• Landed me a multi-year business coaching gig

Even if you’re making a career pivot — or ESPECIALLY if you are — don’t discount the value of your connections.

9. Transition Out of Your Role

This may include providing training for your replacement. Some people think this is a chump move, but I’m not one of those people. Swallow your pride, be a stand-up professional person, and leave your company in a better position than you found it.

This isn’t just for your employer’s benefit! Long-term, you’re unlikely to feel good about leaving a team high and dry — even if you’re leaving the role on frustrating terms. So “play the tape forward,” imagining how you’ll feel about your exit tomorrow, next month, or next year. Use that to guide your exit.

10. Attend Your Exit Interview, If Applicable

You may or may not have an exit interview. It could be a meeting with HR, your boss, or your boss’s boss. Or, it could simply be a survey that lands in your inbox.

It’s up to you whether or not you participate in an exit interview and what you share. Some employers are looking for constructive feedback and insight on how they can improve. Others are just trying to check a box, while some might try to use your answers as reasons to justify why you’re “wrong” for leaving.

If you do attend or fill out an exit interview, remember that it’s a form of company data retained by your HR department. Remember, if you decide to reapply for the company later on, whatever you say in the exit interview could work for you… or against you.

11. Prepare for Your New Job, If Applicable

With all the boxes checked at your current job, you’re free to get excited about what’s next! That might be a job offer you’ve already accepted, a period to think critically about your job search, a career change, time off to reset your work-life balance, or any number of other things.

Once you’ve decided to quit, it’s tempting to rush through everything and hurry to your final day. In reality, a smooth transition out of your current position is a great way to manage stress and set yourself up for success in whatever comes next.

Do’s and Don’ts: Resignation Best Practices

Do Be Sure You’re Resigning for the Right Reasons; Don’t Rush Into the Decision

If you’re leaving because of a specific issue, even if you don’t think anything can be done about it… have you talked with your manager about it?

When you’re frustrated, it can be hard to see solutions. Add potentially opaque leadership decisions into the mix, and it’s possible that something you think is unfixable actually has a real, attainable solution.

So, if you’d stay “If only ____ were different,” take a shot! See if that thing can be changed before committing to a job resignation that’s tough to reverse.

Do Meet with Your Manager and Submit a Letter of Resignation; Don’t Talk to Colleagues Before Speaking with Your Manager

In many employment agreements, you agree not to convince other employees to leave a job along with you. This might be called non-solicitation, non-compete, non-poaching, or something else.

Any discussions to that effect could be used against you — and any written evidence is seriously damning.

To avoid all of this, don’t tell your colleagues until you’ve submitted your resignation letter AND spoken with your manager.

I’m not a legal professional; this is not legal advice.

Do Formalize a Plan Before You Resign; Don’t Bet Everything on an Informal Job Offer from a Prospective Employer

Even if you’re leaving your current role to take a break, as a general rule, you should have a plan before resigning from a job.

Your plan should include:

• A goal. At this point, your career goals might be specific (“Land project manager role with better benefits by end of June”) or more vague (“Rest until August, then schedule a dedicated day to figure out exactly what comes next”). Either way is great! You just need something to work toward.
• Time constraints. If you’re starting a new job, what’s your official (written, signed, contracted) start date? If you’re taking a break, for how long?
• Financial considerations. Is your total compensation package higher or lower than your current job? Are you eligible for unemployment benefits? For any time off, do you need to revise a monthly budget? How much do you have in savings, and how much do you plan to use over the course of your transition?
• Contingency plans. If things don’t go according to plan, what negative consequences could you expect? For example, it might take longer than you plan to meet your goal. You can’t always prevent that, so knowing how to respond is your best defense.

No clue what your plan is? Working with a career coach can help you solidify your next steps.

Do Leave on a Positive Note; Don’t Waste Company Time or Abandon Professional Etiquette on Your Way Out

I know, this makes me sound like a corporate shill! But seriously, as the departing employee, being responsible about your exit makes things easier on your colleagues, direct reports, and clients. It can even shift your mood and how you view the resignation!

The fact is, you’re still getting paid to do your job through the date you’ve agreed on with your employer. So take the time to wrap up any work you can, create a smooth transition, prepare current employees to succeed without you, and leave the door open for professional relationships that can help you throughout the course of your career.

Do Save Personal Files and Portfolio Items; Don’t Steal Confidential Info

Even if you’re planning a pivot, save evidence of your work and accomplishments before you leave a job. Stats, testimonials, files, and anything else permissible by your employment contract and employee handbook.

When in doubt, check with human resources or a trusted manager who has your back! Take as much evidence of your success as you can, but nothing you could get sued over.

I didn’t save enough of my accomplishments when I left my job, and I still regret it. Read more about my career transition regrets!

Do Maintain Positive Relationships; Don’t Start Burning Bridges

Your current colleagues and bosses are your future references. Even if you’re pivoting careers, maintaining professionalism and preserving relationships can go a long way. It can create future opportunities you may not see yet.

Also, it’s possible you might want to return to this company in the future. If you act unprofessionally or burn bridges, that may not be possible.

How to Quit a Job FAQs

How do you politely quit your job?

To leave a job politely, put yourself in your manager’s shoes!

They’d probably want to know if there’s anything they can do to keep you, why you’re leaving, when you’re leaving (ideally 2+ weeks after giving notice), and anything you’re willing to do to help with the transition (like recommend a replacement or help train the new hire).

That’s it! You don’t need to go into huge detail, get emotional, or rescind your resignation if you don’t want to. Just keep it professional and considerate.

Can I just walk out and quit?

Technically, you probably can. Most employers won’t physically stop you from walking out! But if you want to be a good person and leave a good impression, it’s not recommended.

Ideally, before quitting and walking out, you’ll raise any issues with your manager and put in effort on your side, too. If your issues are unresolvable, it’s still courteous to quit your job 14+ days before you actually head out.

We’re not legal professionals, so you should consult local laws, any union policies, company documents, or anything else that regulates your employment.

Want to quit, but not sure what comes next?

In just a few weeks, you could shift from exhausted, stuck, and uncertain to having a clear direction and an end date to quit your job with confidence.

How?

Career discovery coaching can give you the clarity you need!