How do you quit a job without burning the bridge?

Sequence matters more than wording. Tell your direct manager before anyone else, ideally in a live conversation rather than a message, and follow it with a short written resignation confirming your last day. Give the standard two weeks unless your contract specifies otherwise, and do not let a counteroffer conversation drag the timeline past what you committed to. Keep the stated reason brief and forward-looking, an opportunity you decided to take, rather than a diagnosis of everything wrong with the company. You do not owe anyone the full explanation, and the short version protects you from a version of events that gets repeated inaccurately for years.

The last two weeks are where reputations are actually made. Write the documentation nobody asked for, hand off cleanly with named owners for each thread, and stay engaged rather than mentally checked out, because the impression you leave is the one people carry into every future reference call. Two practical items to handle before your final day: confirm what happens to unused paid time off, which varies by state and policy, and understand your options for any retirement account, insurance continuation, and vesting dates, since leaving days before a vesting cliff is an expensive and avoidable mistake. On the exit interview, be measured. HR works for the employer, candor there rarely produces change, and detailed grievances have a way of resurfacing. Save the honest assessment for people who can act on it, which is usually nobody at the company you are leaving.