Thinking about quitting your job? Go tell your boss

This advice is only for a very specific situation. If you can certainly find a better position quickly, but your boss is a decent person who&#x27;s interested in your success, then absolutely tell them that you&#x27;re thinking about leaving.<p>But that&#x27;s a rare situation. Basically, it&#x27;s people who were hired as junior engineers and have leveled up. Years 2-5 of your career are when your position can become mismatched with the broader market.<p>If you&#x27;re just testing the market, and you might find that your current job is your best available option, don&#x27;t tell your boss. Similarly, if you&#x27;re fleeing a bad situation but you need the paychecks for a little while, don&#x27;t tell your boss.

This is horrible advice! In the real world, you will encounter a variety of bad outcomes utilizing it.<p>If you are ready to leave, you&#x27;re giving up control of when and how once you tell your boss.<p>It&#x27;s exceptionally naive to think that everyone will structure the nature and timing for your benefit instead of theirs and&#x2F;or the company. You may be asked to resign on the spot or give notice. In some secure environments you may be walked out by security on the spot.<p>Additionally, if your plans fall through or you have a change of heart, you will be regarded as disloyal, which may follow you and impede future promotions or assignments.<p>Finally, if you have a vindictive boss with contacts in the industry or destination company, they can quash existing or pending job offers to keep you or punish you. Cf. Jobs&#x2F;Apple&#x2F;Google

I think this is fairly naive and depends a <i>lot</i> on your boss and company. I&#x27;ve worked at places where interviewing elsewhere is seen as disloyal. I know of places where giving your two weeks means getting escorted out on the spot.<p>I&#x27;m not saying these are great places to work, but they exist, and I bet they&#x27;re not the minority.

Bad advice!<p>In engineering this may apply, as it&#x27;s a buyers market. Most bosses (in engineering) understand that they need to convince you to work for them.<p>It&#x27;s possible that &quot;Ronsho&quot; could use a little more exposure or real world experience before making blanket statements.

If you are leaving to get a better salary, you can get a better deal from your current employer if you have an offer letter in hand. If you tell your boss first, you might be settling for less.

And then there&#x27;s always the scenario where your boss guilt trips you, then when that fails - threatens you. Don&#x27;t tell your boss

I don&#x27;t think I have ever worked for anyone that I would feel comfortable telling them &quot;Hey I feel like quitting&quot;.

&quot;It’s important for me to say that this relates to employees who are good at their job. If you aren’t – just do everyone a favor and quit..&quot;<p>I would normally be reluctant to tell a boss that I&#x27;m looking. I&#x27;m pretty sure that I would <i>never</i> tell someone who could say this; in fact that there&#x27;s a good chance that person might already be driving me out, whether I was good or not.

What about those who want to look around while keeping the current job on the hook? I think this happens more often than not - it&#x27;s the only good way to assess your own value in the market.