Assuming you're leaving a staff architect position, two weeks notice is appropriate. You can offer to stay longer if the office is busy, or until you've completed current tasks.
Make sure you have your personal items and portfolio together before you give notice though. Some firms, mine included, may ask you to leave right away. If they do, don't take it personally. It's a business decision, same as you're decision to leave. Two weeks of talking about where you're going and why you're leaving can be extremely distracting.
2 weeks is fine and typical for anyone in a support role (i.e. intern, production specialist, junior designer, CAD tech, secretarial, etc.)
If you're in a role involving managing projects, or if you're the contact person, "job captain", or some such role on any project, then many people will try to give a month or more's notice - and some firms request this officially in their employee handbooks.
Sometimes you can time your departure to coincide with some project deadline or phase deadline. If that's impossible, or if you're concerned that such a deadline might get postponed or stretched, then it's fine to just state a last day and of course tell them you'll make every effort to smoothly transition your responsibilities to your replacement or to others in the firm.
Also: if you give a firm 2 weeks notice and they do what irishtom's firm does and ask you to leave immediately then you have grounds to fire for unemployment, as you've been terminated prematurely.
I worked in a firm that was very surprised to find this out, and fought tooth and nail to keep from having their unemployment insurance have to kick in, but the employee who was asked to leave immediately did prevail.
That depends on the state your in and the state's definitions for "exempt", "non-exempt" and "at-will employee". Check first before pushing that point, especially if you're concerned about burning bridges.
changing jobs
Anyone have advice on how to smoothly exit an arch job without burning any bridges? How much notice is appropriate? 2 weeks?
Assuming you're leaving a staff architect position, two weeks notice is appropriate. You can offer to stay longer if the office is busy, or until you've completed current tasks.
Make sure you have your personal items and portfolio together before you give notice though. Some firms, mine included, may ask you to leave right away. If they do, don't take it personally. It's a business decision, same as you're decision to leave. Two weeks of talking about where you're going and why you're leaving can be extremely distracting.
2 weeks is fine and typical for anyone in a support role (i.e. intern, production specialist, junior designer, CAD tech, secretarial, etc.)
If you're in a role involving managing projects, or if you're the contact person, "job captain", or some such role on any project, then many people will try to give a month or more's notice - and some firms request this officially in their employee handbooks.
Sometimes you can time your departure to coincide with some project deadline or phase deadline. If that's impossible, or if you're concerned that such a deadline might get postponed or stretched, then it's fine to just state a last day and of course tell them you'll make every effort to smoothly transition your responsibilities to your replacement or to others in the firm.
Also: if you give a firm 2 weeks notice and they do what irishtom's firm does and ask you to leave immediately then you have grounds to fire for unemployment, as you've been terminated prematurely.
I worked in a firm that was very surprised to find this out, and fought tooth and nail to keep from having their unemployment insurance have to kick in, but the employee who was asked to leave immediately did prevail.
oops - I meant "file" for unemployment
That depends on the state your in and the state's definitions for "exempt", "non-exempt" and "at-will employee". Check first before pushing that point, especially if you're concerned about burning bridges.
: here are some prior Archinect threads that you may find useful:
quitting my job
Quitting Gracefully
how to quit a job
Thanks for the helpful responses!
so dingle ... how'd it work out ?
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