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Ask HN: Is it okay to resign in six months?

• dominotw 7y ago
  yes its ok. don't overthink.
• rk06 7y ago
  the thing is you are getting nervous over this. it is understandable as you only graduated six months ago, and this is clearly your first job. however, leaving your current job for a better opportunity is an everyday affair in the private sector. we are all accustomed to it. There is nothing wrong with this. Your colleagues should be happy for you.
• bufferoverflow 7y ago
  Give the YC company a chance to match the offer. If they decline, take the FB offer. Unless that YC company turns into a unicorn, that FB experience on your resume will open many many doors for you in the future.
  • buzzwr 7y ago
    That company will go for an IPO in 2023 most likely. They might become a unicorn company in 2023 but still, I am not sure about that. I have to stay up to 3-4 years at least in the current company to get all the rewards. This is my first job actually.
    • codingdave 7y ago
      Every startup hopes they'll be a unicorn in 3-5 years. A couple actually will. Most of them won't. Many of them won't even be around. Don't make job decisions based on the internal hype of where a startup hopes to be in the future.
    • Zenbit_UX 7y ago
      This comment is more than enough to identify you by any YC company following this thread.
• davismwfl 7y ago
  Take the FB offer if you want it. There is nothing wrong with doing so. The startup you are at should be fairly far along given it is at 400 people, but face it even with FB on your resume you'll become more attractive to other startups later. Take the cash, save some money up. Given you have only been at the YC company 2 months you stand little to no chance of negotiating a higher wage immediately, so even if they do entertain it I'd say they would make it a future agreement. e.g. you do x, y and z then they will increase you to a new salary etc. In general, don't go to any existing employer with another offer and say I am leaving unless. That is a bad move and makes you look bad and leaves a sour taste with people about you. Instead if you like your current employer and want to stay, go to them and say hey, I feel I am worth more and try and negotiate the increase. If they say no, then explain you understand but feel differently. Tell them it may change whether you can stay at that point because you have X goal, but don't say another offer. If they still don't budge then that tells you what they think of you or the companies health. If instead you do it with the job offer as an ultimatum what happens is they may temporarily give you an increase, but now consider you disloyal and will be putting you and every action you take, or day off you take under a microscope and will replace you in short order. If they instead gave you a raise because you negotiated it without putting them over a barrel with another offer then they won't have that same feeling. Also, sometimes when you approach an employer, as I have suggested, they'll ask if you have other offers already, I wouldn't lie, I'd say yes but I am not here trying to back you into a corner, however I have certain goals I want to achieve and needed to see if my opinion on my value would be validated in the market, as they were I was hoping to stay here but be compensated with T....
  • buzzwr 7y ago
    This is really good advise. Thank you very much for it. I will definitely keep this in my mind.
  • photonios 7y ago
    Having another offer in hand gives you leverage. It signals to your current employer that the market is willing to pay more than your employer pays now. I would not dismiss using it to get more compensation. Just don't present it as a threat. Just be straight forward to your manager. Tell him/her that the offer makes it very hard for you to justify to stay and if they can do something about the compensation to make it worth your while. An employer that doesn't understand that an employee would leave over a significantly better offer is an employer that you don't want to work for to begin with.
• vatshy 7y ago
  I would say take the Facebook offer esp. if you are considering MBA/MS in next 1-2 years. That brand will help immensely. One thing is not clear. You joined this company 2 months ago and graduated 6 months ago. Is this your second job? If yes then by the time you apply for MBA in 1-2 years with 2 job changes that may cause issue but am not sure in which schools.
  • buzzwr 7y ago
    Thank you for your advice. Actually, I was waiting for my visa :-) I studied somewhere else and now working in Amsterdam. I guess I can simply hide my current job in my resume or I can say it didn't work out. What do you think about that?
    • toomuchtodo 7y ago
      > I guess I can simply hide my current job in my resume or I can say it didn't work out. What do you think about that? Leave off your resume. If it's brought up in the future, simply explain an opportunity you couldn't pass up presented yourself, and you took it. You're not leaving it off your resume to misrepresent your situation, you're leaving it off your resume because it doesn't accurately represent your work history.
• buzzwr 7y ago
  FROM AUTHOR EDIT 1: Thank you very much guys for awesome guidance. I also have one more doubt. How should I talk to my manager about it? My manager put some serious efforts(time and company's money) to get me there. I am feeling bad about my manager. I don't want to disturb my relations with my manager.
  • gshdg 7y ago
    It depends a lot on what your relationship with your manager is. A good manager will support you and if you explain your reasons for leaving will either try to find a way to fix problems and provide you with those same upsides where you are; or if that's not possible (for instance, your reason is that you want "Facebook" on your resume), will be supportive and maintain the relationship because there's always the possibility your paths will cross again in the future. A mediocre or bad manager can be mediocre or bad in any number of ways, and any advice would be highly situational and specific. The only general piece of advice I can offer is to express appreciation for the opportunities you've been given and to make it clear that your reason for leaving is not something you blame your manager for.
  • codingdave 7y ago
    It is your managers job to build their team, so the time and money put in to bring you on board is their problem, not yours. Maybe your departure will be a lesson learned for your manager. And maybe they will try to avoid hiring short-timers in the future. So you helped them learn a lesson, and contributed for 6 months. And they paid you for your time. That is a fair business transaction. Also, 5 years from now, if you do go on to Facebook and higher degrees, and other things... you may barely remember the names of the people from this job. Your current situation has a far larger place in your mind than it will in the bigger picture of your career and your life, once you have more experience under your belt. I had this discussion, frankly, with my manager the last time I left a job. It was a startup, with struggles, but a promising future. It was a good place. But I didn't want to follow them to an office farther from my home. So I told him that while it seemed like leaving would be a big thing, that in reality, 6 months later, it would make no difference to them or me. And that was true - they hired other devs, I got a different job, everyone is doing fine. In short, you just need to make this decision for yourself.
• gshdg 7y ago
  It’s a bad look to be leaving jobs every 6-18 months repeatedly, but one or two incidences won’t tank your career. The FB offer looks like a great opportunity, but if you only stay there a year, you’re designing a resume that will get you labeled as a job hopper and screened out of a lot of future roles at the resume stage. Whichever you choose - the current job or FB - I suggest you make sure you stay there for at least 2 full years before making your next move, whether to grad school or another company.
  • buzzwr 7y ago
    Totally makes sense. I will keep this in my mind. Right now I am planning to stay at least 2 years at Facebook. Thank you for your guidance :)
  • throwaway413 7y ago
    Anecdata: I jumped jobs every 3-5 months for the first 2 years of my career and went from 50k - 250k with a 20-50k raise every time. I’ve been at my current gig almost two years now.
    • scarejunba 7y ago
      When was that? With comp being much higher these days, companies are being more selective. Well, non-FAANGs are.
      • mars4rp 7y ago
        shouldn't it be the other way around? by being more selective, companies shrink the pool of candidates that are already limited. That results in them having to pay even more comp!
        • deleted 7y ago
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        • scarejunba 7y ago
          Selective about the job hoppers, I mean. They do give solid comp but if you get a 100k signing bonus with a 1 year clawback you aren't keeping that.
• partisan 7y ago
  Since you’ve given enough details to identify yourself, I would go ahead and pull the trigger on the Facebook offer as promptly as possible. After you leave your current job, people will look at your empty chair for several weeks and shrug. After 3 weeks, there will be someone new sitting there. After 6 weeks, you won’t be mentioned. After 6 months you won’t be remembered. After 6 years, you won’t remember them either.
  • robertcope 7y ago
    I just had lunch with folks that I last worked with twelve years ago. We seemed to remember each other.
    • Rietty 7y ago
      But did you have any contact with them outside of your work within the past 12 years?
      • whycombagator 7y ago
        This. Also did they work with them for only 2 months in at least a 400 person company.
  • msrpotus 7y ago
    Just to add on to this advice: if you want to do an MBA (or really even if not), stay at Facebook for a few years. Otherwise, people will think you either can't hold down a job or just lack commitment. That's a bad image to have whether you're applying to graduate programs or starting a career. I can tell you as someone in business school now, my resume has some similarities and it has definitely hurt me.
• Zenbit_UX 7y ago
  FB is the only company I wouldn't accept an offer for, I'd still apply but only use any offers submitted for leverage. I'm surprised no other commenter has brought this up yet but you do realize that short of working for the NSA Facebook is the most unethical job I can think of for a Dev. Every other week they're being blasted on HN for another ethical violation and everyone comments on how their devs must have known what they were doing when "they did X fucked up thing to Y users", etc... I'd take the offer to your current employer or literally anyone else you might be interviewing with and tell Facebook to suck a lemon.
  • dominotw 7y ago
    What does this answer have to do with OP's question. Surely he already knows ethical issues surrounding FB. Its like bots pattern matching the word 'FB' in every single post and posting the same comments over and over. pls don't ruin his post with flamewar tangent.
  • bookofjoe 7y ago
    >short of working for the NSA Facebook is the most unethical job I can think of for a Dev "unethical" — there are many reading your comment who work at the NSA and do not share your point of view, to say the least.
    • kuzehanka 7y ago
      That would be congruent with them being unethical. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and a lack of ethics. No one wakes up in the morning and thinks 'geez it's a great day to do some immoral shit.
      • deleted 7y ago
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      • neonate 7y ago
        None of us is ethical.
  • deleted 7y ago
• gamblor956 7y ago
  I would take the FB offer. More money and more opportunity for future jobs. Also, for reasons I don't understand many startups have a loyalty test for their devs that you may have failed by interviewing with other companies. I didn't believe that was actually a thing until it happened to my brother two months ago. Your manager may already be looking to replace you... even if you do stick around.
• SkyPuncher 7y ago
  I left a job after 2 months because I got the offer of a lifetime (leadership opportunity at a fledging startup). I felt really bad about the situation, but at the end of the day it hasn't affected me negatively. It was a huge boost to my career and I'm way ahead as a result.
• tptacek 7y ago
  I don't even understand the question. You can resign whenever you want. It's customary to give 2 weeks notice.
  • deleted 7y ago
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  • JoelTheSuperior 7y ago
    Two weeks notice? I wish. My current employer requires three months.
    • greenyoda 7y ago
      Do you work in the U.S. as an "at-will"[1] employee? If so, your employer can't "require" anything of the sort. The vast majority of employees in the U.S. fall into this category, and are free to leave their jobs at any time - and their companies are free to fire them at any time. Under this system, giving notice of your resignation is a courtesy, not a legal obligation. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment
      • JoelTheSuperior 7y ago
        I work in the U.K., as a not very well paid Rails dev haha.
    • Volundr 7y ago
      Assuming you are in the US, they can't require any notice. In most other countries to the best of my knowledge, but your local laws may vary. A company can certainly ask you to give more notice, but you are under no obligation to do so.
      • tptacek 7y ago
        You could in theory have an employment contract that requires notice. But it probably wouldn't have much force; such a contract would establish that failing to give notice would be a breach of contract, and you could theoretically be on the hook for making your employer whole for the "harm" you caused, but unless you were given some significant consideration for your side of the contract --- a signing bonus or something, maybe? --- the harm your employer could demonstrate in court would be so minimal that the cost of enforcing the contract would far outweigh the return they'd get from enforcing it.† In practice: a pretty rare situation, and not a meaningful deterrent to quitting at will. I believe the cases where you're meaningfully prevented from quitting without giving notice, generally, are cases where you already know clearly that you can't, and why you can't, because you negotiated your contract and know what you'd be giving up to leave. There are key-person agreements that get signed in acquisitions that have that kind of effect. Employees, though? Not so much. Employers in the US that purport to require notice from rank and file are pretty much generally full of shit. (Not a lawyer, have just seen a lot of weird employment situations). † Signing bonus claw-backs are also super common outside of "notice" situations, so it's not like that's an exotic case; if you have a signing or retention bonus, you probably already know you have a contract requiring you to return it if you leave within N months.
• eeasss 7y ago
  As a hiring manager that has been in similar situation with employees - do what is best for yourself, but be aware that your current manager won't feel good about this situation and will try to move on as fast as possible as well. If you go to FB try not to leave in the next 2 years, because hiring managers don't like job hoppers these days. Ideally, don't even include your 6 months tenure in your resume.
  • elicash 7y ago
    Isn't job hopping expected for somebody this young? An entire career of job hopping I could understand but somebody in their twenties is going to benefit from different experiences, no? Seems like working at a few different places would be more helpful to a potential company than somebody whose only experience is one place for five years.
    • buzzwr 7y ago
      OP is here. Totally agree with you.
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• azhu 7y ago
  You will be fine whichever you decide. There are always consequences to any path of action. In this case, let yourself be calmed by knowing that none will cause your ship to spring critical leaks. I have back to back <6 months full time positions on my resume. I was hired by a YC company directly after those. You sound like a bright kid. You'll figure something out that works well for you. Remember that your own judgment is the signal in all of this tech hype chatter noise and you'll be just fine.
• mud_dauber 7y ago
  Leaving what sounds like a reasonably good gig, just so you can tag yourself with "Facebook developer" for getting into a school only 1-2 years from now sounds short-sighted.
• theredbox 7y ago
  FAANG jobs are more or less corporate jobs deluxe unless you are going to work in some r&d team doing interesting stuff. Evaluate following: Does money matter to you ? If so go with FB. Does stability matter to you ? Go for FB. The thing is if you go with FB you will become much more risk averse thanks to the lifestyle it is going to provide for you. Steady stream of $ and a relative stability will make you too comfortable. Although money never hurts.
• toyg 7y ago
  Don’t make the mistake of humanizing a company. A company is not a person: it has no loyalty or sense of decency, and no moral obligation towards your wellbeing. You are a worker: you provide work for money. If you were a farmer selling lettuce to a supermarket and a new supermarket came along offering more, would you sell your lettuce to the old or the new customer? The new one, of course. Same here. Because the supermarket won’t think twice about ditching you when it finds cheaper lettuce elsewhere. This said, your manager will have feelings about it, so you want to deal with that. Just be frank with him and manage his expectations: “Obviously I’ll help the transition as much as I can and I’ll always be grateful for the chance, and let’s stay in touch in case you need anything when I’m not here anymore.” Talk to the man, not the company. The company doesn’t care. Take the chance dude, some boats only pass once. After you have “those” names on a CV, more doors will open.
  • buzzwr 7y ago
    Thanks a lot for it. Your words are really helping me to take the decision. :)
• davidg109 7y ago
  I happily resigned from a big four consulting company after three weeks. They misrepresented the location and hours I'd be working during the interview process. I don't doubt I have a black line through my name at the company, and I don't give a damn. Is it okay for me to have resigned after only three weeks? For me, it certainly was.
  • SamReidHughes 7y ago
    Absolutely. It's better to resign after 2 months than 6 months.
• lucidone 7y ago
  I've done it before. The job wasn't at all what I expected, and I didn't see myself growing the way I wanted while there. It sucked to do as it was a very small team and a non profit, but it was the right choice for myself. I have no regrets.
• chrismcb 7y ago
  One thing to keep in mind, you don't owe your current company anything. (Well assuming you don't have a signing bonus or something) Somehow we got a culture where it is ok for a company to fire people in a heartbeat but it isn't ok for them to leave in a heartbeat. Do what is right for you. This isn't something we can answer. Is the compensation significantly better? Do you like the people you are working with, what you are working on, where you are working? What is the work life balance like? How is your current commute? Finally I'm not sure why you want an MBA, but i don't think having Facebook on your resume is going to help you get into an MBA anymore than any other job.
• somada141 7y ago
  I think it's really interesting seeing how companies ranging from a small startup shop to massive multinational conglomerates have managed to instill their workers with a sense of loyalty and duty. I've worked at tech companies with 10, 100, and thousand of employees and every time it was the same. Eventually I'd feel like I've stagnated, stopped learning, and it was time to move on into a new position for my own personal growth. However, after spending years with a group of people there's an unmistakable camaraderie so even if you don't feel duty-bound to do right by the intangible entity that is the company, and why would you, you may still feel that you gotta do right by your colleagues, people with whom you've spent heaps of time in the 'trenches'. Every time I felt that I had to do right by them and not leave them hanging. I dunno if this is due to me having empathy or just a result of my inflated ego, maybe I'd like to feel like they'll crush-n-burn without me and I wanna feel magnanimous? In any case, I've experienced this over and over and each time while I'd eventually leave I'd make my intentions known several months in advance and try to be as accommodating as possible. I wonder if any of you have struggled with this conundrum and if so how you managed it cause I'd like to stop experiencing this moral whirlwind every time I feel like I'm ready to switch jobs :).