> Could this all be avoided by just not telling anyone that you are in the running for a job, until you have the written offer in hand? Probably not in U.S. ac

> Could this all be avoided by just not telling anyone that you are in the running for a job, until you have the written offer in hand? Probably not in U.S. academia. When a U.S. department is thinking of hiring you as a professor, you give a public talk in front of that department's faculty. At that point, it becomes more or less public knowledge that you are in the running for a job.