One of the hardest decisions you may ever have to make in your life is whether or not to leave your job. And if you decide to resign, the method in which you leave is very important, and will play a big factor in determining whether you get a new job elsewhere.

Hollywood is a bad influence in this area. A lot of movies glamorise the idea of striding into a boss’s office and telling him where to stick his job.

Two movies immediately spring to mind – Office Space and American Beauty. While both movies are enjoyable, I feel it kind of sends the wrong message to people. Flipping off the boss and pissing him off is not going to ensure a comfortable transition to the next place of employment.

And when potential future employers are considering you for a position, guess who they are going to approach for a character reference? That’s right, your former boss. So it pays to depart a company the right way. Departing the wrong way could make you permanently unemployable.

One of the best ways to ensure that you resign and leave smoothly from your current job is to write an excellent letter of resignation, which portrays you as a consummate professional. Here’s some pointers.

1) Tell your boss you enjoyed working for him / her – even if you didn’t – Bosses like to be assured that they are running a smooth efficient department. They also have a bit of an ego. So gush a little bit about how great it has been to work for them and how you are going to miss them.

If you didn’t enjoy working for them, then lie - and do it convincingly.

2) Make it clear it’s nothing personal and it’s all about career advancement – Bosses have to be ambitious to get to their position so they will understand the idea that you are leaving to advance your career.

Don’t tell them you’re leaving because you don’t want to work for a complete dictatorial little Hitler like them. Keep it positive, remember?

3) Resist the urge to reveal your true feelings – If you are leaving your job because you are angry about something in the office, ranting on and on about it in your letter of resignation is not going to help matters.

Unless you are an irreplaceable senior executive, the boss isn’t going to care one toss about the fact that you are angry about the cutbacks in the coffee budget. At the very least, it’s going to make you look like a loud mouthed idiot – and they will be sure to mention that when the next employer comes calling for a reference.

The bottom line is keep it brief and keep it positive. You never know, if you make such a good impression in your resignation letter, the boss may financially entice you to reconsider. So think about that possibility when you are tempted to sound off.

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Mark O’Neill is a freelance writer of 20 years experience, and also the managing editor of MakeUseOf.com, since August 2007. You can see his personal website at markoneill.org Mark has 21 post(s) at Free Writing Center