exit interview

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Brief intro:

company just over 8-9 months ago was acquired by another. Used to be an IT technician providing support mainly for internal IT and some clients.

Then new company came in, switched jobs now became an off site consultant doing only client work. not necesarily infastructure work. could be anything IT related.

The whole takeover process was poor and my entire career for past 7 months has been at a stand still almost doing work i dont enjoy and taking a step back alkmost for best part of it.

Watched as around 12-13 friends and colleagues left the office and the entire life and atmosphere litrally sucked out of it. (new compnay is really poor in the way they do things and the way they treat employees)

So this company that i loved, the office that i loved working in and people i loved working with has all been torn to shreds. hence why im moving on to a new job...

Now in the exit interview: should i be brutally honest as to how i feel about the company and the way they did things, and exactly how i feel about them?
feel like a may burn a bridge if i do, but at same time nothing will change if i dont? or do company not really take any notice of these at all?

what do you think is best. give it my all let them know how poor i believe the company sis in most of its aspects or just give brief kinder answers so not to risk burning the bridge.

my first ever exit interview so not sure whats best and got mixed opinions off people at office.
 
What's the company policy RE references? If it's like mine (No official personal references - will only confirm you worked there/grade/salary) I would give it all ;)
 
Try and be positive about it, cite your reasons and why you think it harmed you staying there, and what it could mean for them.

Constructive criticism is only rejected by fools.

But check about references first in case you come across a ****.
 
i wasnt going to just **** off the company for no reason.

was always going to be well the way the company did this upset people because of xy and z. in future in would be better if they did this and that.

and i will be getting references from my boss and line manager in future who i get along with exceptionally well.

PS one example is, their internal IT support. Its a support service be it internal or external. so they should have a phone number / email address to contact them on. They dont.
Instead you have to log onto a portal and log a call via there rubbishly laid out intranet site.

To get onto this intranet you need user name pass. if your user pass expires. how do you log a call to get it reset? (you get a colleague to do it.) but thats besides the point should be a way in which you yourself can contact IT to do this.

so getting a phone /email address for IT would be good.
 
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I know you mentioned it but to reinforce, don't burn any bridges. It will bite you on the butt when you least expect it, if the people you worked with who you got on with have already jumped then there's no real point as you're not helping anyone.

Just be polite and vague and walk away happy!
 
Never ever burn your bridges, its simply not worth it in the long term regardless of how much you might want to. As stated, constructive criticism is fine though if it helps them correct problems.
 
Identify what you saw as problems but suggest solutions that you feel would help the company.
 
I'd personally ask whether I really need to do the interview. If they said yes then I'd say that I'm grateful for the opportunities I had while working there and I just felt it was time to move on.

NEVER burn bridges. If they really wanted to change their ways then they would get an external consultancy in for a review (I've seen this happen a few times in different jobs).
 
I can't see any upsides to to saying anything that might be interpreted negatively. You owe your former colleagues nothing (if they don't like how things are they're much better placed to change it than you), and you never know who you might end up working with again (so don't stick your neck out), whatever opinion you leave them with at the exit interview you wont get a chance to change.
 
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