Ways To Keep Your Job Search Secret
A secret job search is a situation where a candidate begins to discreetly look for new opportunities while still employed. This kind of job hunt can easily be misconstrued for disloyalty and indifference by your employer; you wouldn’t want to crash the boat at your current workplace. Perhaps you don’t have a very good relationship with your boss, or you are concerned about retribution from colleagues, keeping the job search confidential may be the best until it comes through.
More often, people are always on the lookout for better opportunities in form of higher pay, better job security, and even greater job satisfaction. There may be rumors of a lay-off or about the firm’s bankruptcy; the rational reaction in this situation is to search for available jobs to avoid the worse. Other career-related factors equally sway people in the direction of a new job, especially when the prospect of personal growth appears bleak within the present establishment.
Searching for a job while trying to stay employed can be dicey. Managing this phase properly will enable you to move on without burning bridges. Moreover, a job search doesn’t automatically secure one; so making it known might affect your chances for promotion and getting other incentives in the future if you end up staying. Even when unemployed, exposing your likely successes before it happens can attract adversaries who will seize at whatever opportunity to thwart your effort. Keep things discreet until you are sure of the outcome. Here are ways to keep your job search stealthy;
- Do not use the Office Computer for your job search correspondences: Searching for a job effectively requires a lot of communication. Be it typing and sending a cover letter or resume, inquiring if an employer you had love to work for is hiring or sending an email or LinkedIn message to a network content; you will have to exchange messages using a computer or phone. It is hence not advisable to use official platforms or gadgets for this purpose.
Similarly, avoid looking for a job during working hours, your employer could track it, and you could risk losing your job. If you must do some of your job hunting during official hours, use your smartphone and consider lunchtime, bathroom breaks, and anywhere else you can get some alone time. Another blunder will be sneaking in a phone interview or recruiter’s call while at the office. A better idea can be, scheduling the call during lunch break or doing it while on a walk. If it’s an unexpected call, request to call back and step outside your office building to remake the call. Don’t get bordered, the interviewer will understand your need for discretion
- Avoid posting about your job search on social media: Your formal and informal life collides in the social media space; you should therefore be careful of your activities on social media when job searching. If you have colleagues or bosses on your social media platforms, you can delist or block them if you must post anything that concerns your job search.
Some co-workers on social media assign themselves the role of spies and report colleague’s social media activities to the bosses. Hence, try and avoid complaining about work issues or announcing your job search plans online. As for connecting and networking online, tread carefully. Only reach out to your personal contacts privately to let them know you are searching for a new job. Go through your contacts to know if any of them can help you on a targeted job or establishment. You can equally consider turning off activity announcements when adding connections or updating your profile. A sudden profile makeover can draw attention that might make your boss suspicious.
- Request for confidentiality from potential employers: If you are in a specialized industry, you should be concerned that word of your job hunt will get out. The only way to avoid this is to contact potential hiring managers directly and ask that your application be kept a secret for the time being. You can also work with recruiters, who tend to keep names of employers and employees to themselves until it’s time for an interview.
- Make a confidential version of your Resume: You can start by removing your name and replace it with “Confidential Candidate” at the top of your resume. Open and use a generic Gmail account that will not include your name or any other information that identifies you. Expunge your contact information as well, except for the generic Gmail address and personal phone number. Equally, remove Company and University names and dates from the experience and education section. Lastly, you should also munch out your name from the file names you are sending and the properties box in Microsoft Word; all these will protect you from being traced.
- Remain fully engaged in your current job: Decline in commitment happens very often during job hunts. When an employee goes on a series of promising interviews, he/she often begins mentally planning to exit their role, even though they have not yet secured a job offer, and start to lack off at their current job. Then suddenly, the interview comes to a screeching halt. Perhaps they decide to go in a different direction or announce a hiring freeze. The once-promising interviews are no longer sure things. Worse yet, you have fallen behind in your workload.
The best way to avoid this worst-case scenario is to stay committed to your current job. Maintain a consistent, steady workload and even request to take the lead on additional projects. The benefits of doing these are dual-facet, they are:
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- It will maintain your existing good track record for hard work
- Enable you to fulfill new initiatives that will help your resume and portfolio to further stand out.
- Check and clean up any digital dirt about yourself: Type your name into the Google search box to see what search engines are showing about you. If the result shows anything that will suggest you are looking for a job, you can push it down below or delete it outrightly. If you must leave anything about your job or professional profile, let it be something nice about your employer and nothing yet unknown about you.
Finding a new job is itself a full-time job, aside from the one you already have. It makes it more difficult when you have wondering eyes and ears around you. Therefore, take note of the above-listed ways of making job searches secret and endeavor to apply them; taking into consideration the peculiarity of your job.
