Source: Unsplash
In mid-May, I started a Hackamonth at my company. A Hackamonth means temporarily leaving your own team to work with a new team, and if it feels like a good fit, you let both managers know and formally start the transfer process. In the past two days, I decided to make the switch official, and told my manager to start the paperwork.
In my years working in the US, I have had a few experiences of leaving and saying goodbye at work. The first time, the agricultural library finally had research funding to hire me, after months of twists and turns. But by then I was interning as a software engineer, and I had also received an offer to convert to full-time. Comparing the two full-time offers, the agricultural library paid 35% more than the startup, which made the choice genuinely hard for a while (see The Most Important Thing in My Life, and the Biggest Supporters Behind It for the details). After I made up my mind to become a software engineer, I met Director Liu Yaojing one last time to explain my situation, and I felt truly sorry. To let me intern there and eventually hire me, he had put in a great deal of effort. He found me a research opportunity at the University of Maryland, one of the universities partnering on the project, and introduced me to various people and programs, hoping I could get up to speed quickly once I started. But because of many factors beyond anyone’s control, it never came to be, and I felt deeply apologetic. He was not only understanding, he also apologized to me: after the federal government shutdown, much of the research funding had been frozen, which was why he could not bring me on board sooner (see The People Who Gave Me a Chance in America for the details).
Later, when I was leaving the East Coast startup to attend a coding bootcamp in California, telling CTO Kirk about my decision to resign was extremely hard. He had given me a chance to intern when I knew nothing, and then offered me a full-time position. And after only about a year and ten months, I was leaving. But he was very supportive of my decision. He felt that wanting to learn in a structured way would always be good for my future. My coworkers were all encouraging too. They said young people should go out and take their chances (I was the youngest person at the company at the time; everyone else was at least ten years older than me), and that if it did not work out, I could always come back. I was incredibly touched.
After a year and four months at SolarCity in California, I got the opportunity at Facebook. Telling my boss there was hard to bring up too. For one thing, he was a very kind manager with strong technical skills. Whenever there was an external problem, he would shoulder it himself, so his team could focus on their work. We also lived very close to each other, about a five-minute drive, so most of the time we carpooled between Mountain View and San Mateo. Chatting with him in the car every day let me practice my English, learn about American culture, and get to know each other better. When I told him I was leaving, he happened to be back in his hometown in Michigan for Christmas. Telling him my resignation plan over a remote 1:1, I felt I was letting him down. I said I planned to leave in two weeks. He was stunned, and talked through the reasons with me, trying to find anything he could do that might change my mind. If there is one thing that was hardest to let go of, it was leaving a manager I knew was truly good, and stepping into the unknown. Later, he also asked his manager (my director) and the PM to help persuade me. Everyone had convincing points, but once they saw my mind was made up, they all wished me well. (Of course, the carpools in those last few days felt bittersweet.) On my last day, the whole larger team held a farewell party for me.
My most recent move is the team switch I decided on after three years on this team. Honestly, there was nothing to complain about at work. Everything was going smoothly, the work was challenging, and my teammates and manager were all great. Staying would have been perfectly fine. But the new opportunity lets me learn a different domain and try different things, and the new teammates and manager all look great too. So even though working remotely right now makes it harder to get to know a new team and ramp up, I decided to take on the challenge of switching teams, and throw myself into an unfamiliar environment again to grow.
From what I have seen, most people’s internal transfers go well. But I have also heard of a few cases where the process was not smooth, perhaps because of handover friction or a poorly handled relationship with the manager. After I raised the Hackamonth plan with my manager and teammates, everyone was supportive, and some teammates even helped take over my projects. In the past two days, since I formally announced I am leaving, everyone has been supportive and encouraging. It has been really heartwarming.
I have been lucky. The managers and coworkers I have met have all been supportive, so whenever I switch teams or companies, I feel reluctant to leave, but I come away with only positive feelings and gestures. The world is small (and the Silicon Valley tech world is even smaller). Very often, at some point in the future, we end up working together again. Even though every goodbye at work is so hard to say, each professional farewell, each round of practice, shows me everyone’s professionalism. And I look forward to meeting and working together again in the future.
What is the team transfer process like at your company? Or do you have experiences of resigning or switching teams to share? Feel free to leave a comment.
This post was originally published on my former blog, 「半路出家軟體工程師在矽谷」, on June 10, 2020. The blog is now offline, and the text is preserved via the Wayback Machine. It has been lightly edited for this site.
