Throughout your professional career, there may come a time when you find that your job is just not doing it for you anymore. For instance, you could suddenly be inspired to pursue the creative career you always wanted. Regardless of the reasoning, you could come to a point where you want to switch up your employment situation and land a different job. While some particularly bold individuals may have no qualms with quitting their current positions without having anything lined up, that isn’t the safest of bets.
Instead, you could be looking for a more predictable employment future, securing a new job before you give your notice. This is certainly a smart move, especially when it comes to guaranteeing you will have an uninterrupted stream of money flowing into your bank account. However, searching for a different job when you’re still working for another company can be a delicate situation. If you use certain strategies, you could keep your job search under wraps, which would let you avoid ruffling any feathers with your current company while still successfully land the creative job of your dreams.
Keep your job search out of the office
It may seem like a no-brainer, but the key to keeping your job search secret is to make sure you keep it outside your office. The Huffington Post explained that there is no way to guarantee that anything you do can be completely private in the workplace. If you’re using your company’s computers – or even phones and voicemail – your managers could be able to monitor your use and quickly become clued in to your employment plans. Bearing this in mind, you should limit all of your searches and application efforts to your home, being careful to use your own email and gadgets so you can keep everything confidential.
The discretion doesn’t stop there. U.S. News and World Report advised that if you manage to land an interview, you should prevent arousing any sense of suspicion among your supervisors and coworkers by sticking to your company’s dress code. Unless your current job requires you to wear a suit, showing up in your business formal interview clothes will make people cast a watchful eye.
“If you dress informally, and one day you show up with a suit or tie, that’s going to raise some red flags,” Andy Teach, an author and job-seeking expert, told the U.S. News and World Report. “You don’t want to dress any differently than you normally would.”
Because of this, you will want to maintain normal appearances in the office on the day of an interview. This means you should pinpoint a location – that’s not your company restrooms – where you can make a quick change of clothes before and after your interview.
Also, if your current employer offers the option to work remotely, the day of an interview would be the perfect time to capitalize on this perk. By working from home, you could do your work without having to worry about dropping hints to the entire office. Not to mention, you can relax and take some extra time to prepare before you go into an interview.
Your current employer shouldn’t be a reference in your job search
The last step to take to be tactful with your job hunt is to abstain from putting your current supervisor on your list of references. The worst way for managers to find out about your secret job hunt is to have your prospective employers calling them to speak about your candidacy. This would not only be a blow to your present supervisor, but it could also put your creative job in jeopardy.
For this reason, you should cram your references list with people from former positions. If a company asks you for your employers’ names, you need to be straightforward and clear that you don’t want your managers contacted.
