Here are six mistakes never, ever to make as a stealth job-seeker.
- Don’t update your LinkedIn profile all at once if your co-workers are first-degree connections of yours. Do it in several small steps so that the changes to your profile are never glaring from one day to the next. Never, ever use a LinkedIn headline that makes it clear you’re job-hunting. (Currently unemployed job-seekers can do that, but not you!) Make sure your LinkedIn settings specify that updates to your profile will not generate a message to your connections.
2. Don’t go to job fairs where your own company has a booth — or any job fair where you might be spotted by somebody who knows your boss (or your boss’s boss, etc.) Job fairs are not a great job search channel for stealth job-seekers because their success rate for any individual job-seeker is so low and the risk of broadcasting your job-hunting status is so high.
3. Don’t send out a blast email announcement to tell your friends and contacts you’re job-hunting. If you do, somebody on your distribution list is bound to forward your blast email announcement to everybody they know — and the world is small enough that you could have problems as a result. Tell your friends about your job hunt one-on-one or over the phone, and emphasize the confidential nature of your search.
4. Don’t respond to “blind” job ads that don’t specify the employer organization’s name. It could be your own company!
5. Don’t go to networking events and tell the people you meet that you’re job-hunting. Network as a consultant, instead. Tell the people you meet that you’re working full-time and available to consult part-time. Get some consulting business cards and give them out. Consulting part-time is a great way to get a new job because hiring managers can meet with consultants any time they want (they only need a higher-up’s approval to actually hire a consultant, and sometimes not even then) whereas most hiring managers won’t meet with a job-seeker unless they have a job opening.
6. Do not forget to tell every recruiter, interviewer and HR person you deal with during your job search that you are flying under the radar. Tell them multiple times.
