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 7 “Must Dos” For an Executive Confidential Job Search While You’re Still Employed –

 

Browning Associates does not always recommend this level of strictness for executives seeking anonymity but can advise at your given discretion.

 We would like to thank Louise Garver for this article and the foundation of this literature...

The definition of “just cause” is described with words like “insubordination,” “carelessness,” and “negligence.”

With these word choices, termination for cause is loosely defined and can, therefore, be used to fire just about anyone in an active job search while currently employed.

An Indeed survey of 10,000 jobseekers showed that an astounding 2/3 of respondents worried their employers would find out about their active job searches.

Executive Jobseekers are apprehensive … and for good reason.

An employer could defend their choice to terminate by saying:

Think this is nonsense?

According to Liz Ryan, a former leading HR executive, and now a writer with Forbes.com, says that “In the U.S. you can get fired for job hunting or pretty much any reason as long as you are not fired for a discriminatory reason …”

If you’re one of those who is concerned your employer will “find out,” the below steps on how to maintain a confidential job search is for you.

7 Steps to Maintaining a Confidential Job Search — While You’re Still Employed

1. Learn from the famous Benjamin. 

Benjamin Franklin has been credited with saying something like, “The only way three people can keep a secret is when two of them are dead.”

Be especially careful about telling peers you’re seeking new employment because they might let that news slip.

You’d be surprised to learn that when people don’t tell their colleagues, they tell their Twitter and Facebook followers.

Big mistake!!!

Don’t for one second think that employers aren’t using reputation management firms.

These firms are paid to troll employee’s social media properties to ensure employees aren’t…

What do you think happens when an employee publicly announces they are searching for a new job?

Human Resources is notified.

2. Create a “confidential” version of your resume.

A confidential resume puts up barriers and makes identifying you difficult.

To create a confidential resume, remove your name, address, and your LinkedIn URL from the top.

Replace your name with “Confidential Candidate.”

Then, publish a generic email address and cell number only.

You can use Gmail and Outlook to secure a new email address as needed.

Be sure to search your phone number and email address online to ensure both aren’t published online … and, can’t be traced back to you.

Avoid publishing employer names in your resume.

Instead, opt for one of these confidentiality strategies:

When saving your resume, don’t use your name in the file name.

And lastly, check the properties of your resume. Ensure that MS Word (or whatever software you’re using) hasn’t published your name as the document’s author.

3. Most recruiters know the routine.

You may think that recruiters need to be told to keep your candidacy confidential.

Yet, recruiters are not in the habit of revealing candidates to employers … and certainly not to recent/current employers.

Few jobseekers know that recruiters strip candidate resumes to a summary before pitching them to hiring companies.

If you think your name, contact info, and list of employers get passed on to the hiring company, you’d be wrong. 

Recruiters don’t want hiring companies to sidestep them, which is why your info remains confidential until a job interview is scheduled.

Recruiters are busy, however. Slip ups will happen.

We don’t always know who knows who.

For example, a hiring manager at one insurance company could know the hiring manager at another insurance company.

In larger industries, especially with employers with multiple offices/divisions, such as software and financial services, employers generally don’t make time to care about anyone’s active job search.

Employers know that employees will get hired and depart like clockwork.

After all, every job is temporary.

4. Be careful about your appearance.

If you embrace business casual attire, you’ll raise a few eyebrows when you walk into work wearing a suit.

Remember, people notice things like a sudden change in attire.

You’ll attract attention when there’s a sudden change in your routine.

Physical appearance includes changes to your hairstyle … and for women, your use of makeup.

You might not want to hear this but taking the day off each time you have an interview is optimal.

An Accountemps survey of CFOs found that 61% of respondents prefer conducting hiring interviews in the morning.

Taking advantage of this early-morning interview time can get tricky for actively employed jobseekers.

Freeing up your work schedule to avoid later changing in a phone booth like Superman can help. 😉

5. Don’t drop the ball. 

It’s too easy to let our work responsibilities slide when we’re seeking new employment.

We’re not always in the best of moods with our current employers.

After all, employees leave for very good reasons:

Yet, when an employee “checks out” of their jobs, employers notice … and have seen it before.

You may be about to turn a corner in your career.

But, your employer shouldn’t suspect anything.

Or, you may be asked to leave earlier than you planned!

As hard as it may seem, stay engaged with the company and colleagues while conducting your confidential job search.

Throw off any suspicions by going above and beyond what you routinely do in your job.

6. Use caution when asking people to vouch for you.

A resume takes a long time to write.

So, it’s understandable that job candidates get careless when submitting references.

Avoid using current colleagues and bosses as references.

Could you imagine either of them getting a call asking about your recent work performance?

Would they recommend you?

Or, would they be hurt by your betrayal and say something that tarnishes your candidacy?

7. Rewrite your LinkedIn page.

You may not know this but if I grabbed a snippet of text or maybe a bullet point from your “confidential resume” and went to LinkedIn, I could find you/your name in a matter of minutes.

Yup, this is true.

Rewriting your LinkedIn page is undoubtedly the most painful part of conducting a confidential job search.

While we’re talking about your LinkedIn page, let’s also talk about how to hide your LinkedIn job hunting activity.

LinkedIn Recruiter is nearly a $3M revenue channel for Microsoft, which means it’s a job-search tool like few others.

To hide your job searching activities from your LinkedIn followers and connections, take these 5 simple steps:

CONCLUSION

Once you get through the above 7 recommendations on how to maintain a confidential job search, you’ll notice at least three hurdles.

First, maintaining a confidential job search requires a lot of time on your part.

Second, there’s no guarantee that recruiters and hiring managers will be receptive to the “cloak and dagger” steps you’ve taken. In fact, it could backfire on you.

Third, securing job-search confidentiality isn’t foolproof. Your employer may get alerted about your candidacy by a reputation management firm, a colleague or boss, one of your social media properties, or by sheer coincidence.

Therefore there’s no 100% absolute confidential job search.

You’ll in many ways be playing Russian Roulette with any active employment.

Despite the precautions and the steps to remain confidential, will your employer catch you before you accept that next great job role and if he does, will he beg you to stay or ask you to go?

  STATEMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY FOR Browning Associates (BA)hereinafter referred to as (BA) employees and all affiliated associates and associations

BA understands that the success of your career search campaign, and the integrity of BA as well as its clients, depends on this career search campaign being conducted in an impartial, ethical, respectful, and highly confidential manner. Furthermore, BA understands that confidentiality is critical to the success and integrity of its clients in all facets and capacities especially to those presently employed...

BA members must feel free to express his/her ideas and thoughts about clients as candidates without concern that those ideas will be shared outside of BA. Additionally, prospective clients have the expectation that his/her employment candidacy is confidential until such time as a new job offer tended and client makes formal notification to his/her present-day employer.

BA accepts the responsibility of conducting its staff in a professional manner as a representative and/or coach of its clients. In addition, BA,  shall: 1. Keep the deliberations of the client and any and all information, whether verbal or in the form of papers, books, files, resumes, letters, bios’, websites, documents, electronic communications, or in any other form or format, which comes into BA’s possession or knowledge as it relates to the clients confidentiality SOLELY PRIVAT . 2. Not disclose to anyone information learned during deliberations related to these clients and his/her relationship with BA. Additionally, BA shall not disclose information about the client who has applied for a position inside or outside of BA. BA shall not use confidential information for any personal gain or offer any information to any individuals or publications for any reason during or after its relationship with client prior to accepting new employment. BA serves in an advisory capacity to the client who will make the final decision in accepting new employment.

A "C" level search engagement requires steadfast expertise, industry comprehension, and a firm that truly recognizes what makes high-level transition happen." John H. Seraichyk circa 1997, Founder Browning Associates. We have worked with thousands of executives who have engaged our services to help facilitate their senior-level career transition.

Whether employed or unemployed, the difficulty and obstacles for an executive seeking change are countless, and the higher the position, the greater the challenge. A career change at the senior level requires a steadfast action plan and a calculated patient approach. You need to be highly aggressive while maintaining the confidentiality of your employment information. Imagine trying to market yourself to the masses while simultaneously having to make sure that nobody finds out! It's a bit of an oxymoron, but for an employed executive, confidentiality is paramount.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, less than 5.7% of the workforce population earns in excess of 200k annually. Furthermore, the report revealed that less than 20% of all professional and executive jobs offering an annual compensation of 100k + are advertised. The Bureau's report clearly articulates that if you are a senior executive, you are a minority and available career positions are extremely difficult to attain.

Our strategy is designed to navigate the modern job market, equipping executives with the necessary tools to open doors and create their next opportunity. You need to implement a strategic search plan that will enable you to market your credentials to the appropriate individuals.

Your Résumé: To be or not to be?
There is a great deal of controversy surrounding executive résumés. Here is the reality. Believe it or not, we do not use a résumé as a method of introduction for most of our senior-level clients. The HR department solely uses a résumé as a screening device. If yours is not in perfect alignment, you may be hitting the "No" pile when you might have indeed
had the ideal credentials for the position, but they were presented improperly. Another pitfall is it may devalue your brand, or worse, it may cause an unwanted breach of your confidentiality. At the executive level, we have learned less is more. First, you need to step back, identify the proper hiring authorities and then craft an alternative strategic method of formal introduction. Once you have become familiar with the company and hiring committee's needs, you can tailor your credentials to highlight and align with the opening.

Job Hunting?

GOT NO’s?

The length of your job search is not determined by market conditions, salary requirements, geography preferences or restrictions, and/or by your specific skill set! No; the time it takes to generate the perfect job offer is only determined by the number of “NO’s” you receive per day.

Before you proceed to understand what qualifies as a NO, let’s look at what a “NO” is not.

These MAYBES don’t count!

You apply to a company, receive a polite form letter or email saying “thanks we’ll let ya know!” They are saying “know”, not No!

You honor your follow up commitment as stated in your introductory letter by means of actually mustering the audacity to place a follow-up call (a damn follow up email doesn’t count)…The admin says your contact is too busy right now; you plan on calling back and you usually don’t! This is another one for the maybe file! Remedy: Place 3-5 more follow up calls, ask for a YES or a NO and call me in the morning!

You submit the perfect resume for the perfect job which you are perfectly qualified for and to your absolute amazement; they don’t call you back... You scratch your head, let go of another precious hunk of your all so necessary self-confidence and return to the black hole (Web) in search of another place that will tell you MAYBE! And so on and so forth…

You amass the bravery to call an old friend presently employed at XYZ Company. He doesn’t call you back, or worse, he sees you at your kid’s soccer game and ducks into a nearby alleyway... If your dim voicemail said you were looking for a job and he doesn’t have one, he’ll hide because he has no job for you today…..Asking for industry advice or to converse with another thought leader on your level as a means of simple networking is the key; asking for a job is a one-way ticket to the HR MAYBE machine…

You attend an amazing 5-hour interview with the company of your dreams. HR calls the next day and says “we will be in touch before next Friday.” Next Friday comes and goes and they don’t call… You assume the worst, wait two weeks and place a halfhearted call to HR leaving a halfhearted jail mail (voicemail)….Or worse, because you think you have this one in the bag, you do nothing and nothing happens and it was all for nothing and you are now another 4 weeks ( $16,000.00) deeper in lost wages!

The recruiter is frothing at the mouth on Monday and by Tuesday the FBI couldn’t find him;
you go away peacefully!

You sent your resume, you have left 5 VM’s and your call has not been returned… you go away peacefully!

Now, go back and make a list of all the companies that have shunned you with a big fat Maybe. smile, dial, and move those MAYBES to your NO file. The sooner you do, the sooner you will find the ever-illusive YES!

Here is what your job search needs to look like:

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

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