One of the first things I learned at my first professional development job was that the IT industry is very small.
DON’T BURN BRIDGES!
You never know when that co-worker you hated and always gave grief to may become your boss, or the company you blew off and left without notice will be hiring for your dream position.
Always leave a position as if you are planning on coming back. Once you put your notice in it can be tempting to just screw off and do the bare minimum to collect a check while on this self imposed “waiting period”.
I’ll admit that it is hard to care what goes on at the company you are departing and it is equally hard to stop thinking about the new job you are going to. You may sit in meetings where they are discussing a SPRINT that you will not be part of and you may feel like your input isn’t valuable to anyone since you wont be around for it.
The best thing you can do during this period is to try as hard as you can to make a difference. If you aren’t planning on leaving your job then you don’t really feel the need to get all of the kinks in your process worked out, finish up those lingering bugs that have been hanging out in the queue, or talk to coworkers about bad habits or bad code.
While you will want to do what I next suggest tactfully, (remember…don’t burn bridges), you can use this time to speak up about issues. The worst thing that can happen is that management gets tired of your constant nagging and they cut you loose early. Most of the time if they DO cut you loose early they pay you anyway, but “remember…don’t burn bridges”.
Use this time to speak up. You probably know how your coworkers feel. I am quite sure they have complained about certain issues on multiple occasions. So now you can be their voice. You want to finish out your time but you should also try and make some lasting changes.
You should attend your exit interview with notes and you should bring up issues that are plaguing the team. This is your opportunity to voice concerns for everyone staying behind. Most of the time management doesn’t even look down on this. They know there are problems in the ranks but everyone is afraid to speak up since they don’t want to lose their jobs or get harrassed for saying something.
I am leaving my current job very soon for a new one and I plan on letting the managers know exactly what problems the team has. It’s not out of spite, I truly care about my coworkers and even though I am leaving, I care about the success of the company.
A lot of the projects I have worked on were very impactful to the bottom line and for me to succeed as a developer I need the company to succeed.