Keeping the Door Open

Director (now President) Mike and I had our "follow-up" conversation after I gave notice on Wednesday. This is the fourth time I have given notice at a medium to large company and the response is always the same: stick around, things will change. We have big plans for you, etc.

As noted before, Mike was just promoted to his position, so I can't blame him for the situation here, and I DO think changes will be made in the U.S. division. The problem is this will solve only half the problem. A lot of my frustration is at HQ, which seems slow to change.

Mike asked me to stick around a year to see what happens. I turned it around: "How about I leave for a year and then we look at where we both are." Mike seemed to like that. In addition, my new office is just two miles away from my current office, so I told Mike we would do lunch every month or so. I even offered to provide marketing insight from time to time if he thought it would be helpful (he didn't respond, maybe since I didn't say if I meant for pay or not).

The bottom line is that Mike, the president of this U.S. division, and I are going to stay in touch. This keeps the door open should things not work at my new company and provides a valuable networking contact for other opportunities.