When transitioning to a new job, it can be easy to get caught up in excitement about the new position. Here are four things you can do to prepare for your departure and make the transition smoother.
1. Inform your teams.
It’s important when transitioning to a new job to let your team know as soon as possible. This empowers your team to start considering your roll-off and handing over your responsibilities to other members of the team. It also lets your team plan for upcoming changes to the velocity or time needed for hiring or training new team members.
2. Review your documentation.
The next thing you should do when transitioning to a new job is to review the state of your documentation. Have you been putting off writing final documentation for your code, writing annotations for your designs, or capturing milestone or process details for upcoming releases? Now is the time to get it done!
3. Remove digital personal items.
While people often think about cleaning off their desks when leaving a job, they often neglect to review their digital or cloud spaces for personal information. Remember that your company has the power to share all your cloud folders (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) with others at your company.
It’s a good idea to look through and clear out any personal or administrative files you’ve been keeping in these cloud platforms. Files to keep an eye out for include: employee reviews, letters of recommendation, or PIPs; personal vacation trackers; and anything pertaining to raises or annual reviews.
Also, check for any passwords saved to your company Gmail account, 1password, or similar tool for saving passwords. Make sure any passwords saved to these company-managed tools are work-related and remove anything personal.
If you need to return a work computer, be sure to download anything personal and reset it to factory settings before sending it back.
4. Hand off responsibilities.
When transitioning off any project, it’s important to make sure those remaining know who is responsible for the work you were doing in the past. This is even more important when transitioning jobs.
In addition to making sure your responsibilities have been intentionally handed off to those remaining on your team, it is also important to review your digital calendar. Make sure to hand off ownership of recurring calendar events to another person on your team, and replace any Zoom or GoToMeeting links tied to your account.
While it can be an exciting time when transitioning jobs, taking these steps will help ensure you leave your current job considerately.