7 ms·

You’re crazy. Do not tell a trusted coworker about your intentions. It’s a risk. Shut up and interview. What’s the benefit of telling anyone at your current gig

by hizxy 5y ago

You’re crazy. Do not tell a trusted coworker about your intentions. It’s a risk. Shut up and interview. What’s the benefit of telling anyone at your current gig?

nuancebydefault 5y ago
If the coworker is your friend, why not? It has helped me finding assurance and the coworkers even helped me finding a new job.
- hizxy 5y ago
  Because they could unintentionally leak that info to the wrong people? I dunno I’m not that trusting.
  - drekipus 5y ago
    I agree with this and it's what I did when I changed my employers. If they're your friends, you celebrate getting the job with them. Don't tell them the plans beforehand because that is just opening yourself up for problems. And you do end up looking a bit worse if you keep trying to find new places but not getting anywhere. (Not to say to distrust your friends; it's just that people chat naturally. secrets never remain secret for long.) I actually found my new job on stack overflow while i was searching for something while at work. I applied, had a month long interview, and I only told my friends when I was up to the final stages of the interview. but we were a cynical bunch and we were all lamenting to leave, so they enjoyed the idea of the place falling apart after I left. I also told them a few of my failures earlier in the year, so they knew what i was up to, but they often didn't have specifics that someone else in the company could try and pin me by.
  - sneak 5y ago
    Nothing to leak. You're totally allowed to interview while employed. It's not like you're cheating on a partner. You are expected to maximize revenue.
    - dvtrn 5y ago
      It sounds like you've enjoyed a career working for and with some really amazing people. Yes the ideal state is having employers who can take attrition on the chin and root for their people on the way out the door, and yes those kinds of employers exist. The opposite is also real, and acknowledging the former doesn't preclude the latter: I and judging from comments, others have also been in the kinds of shops that will cut someone loose for interviewing even for a second job when the first isn't providing the hours or income they need, and I and I presume others have also given whatever amount of quit-notice and then immediately been walked out the door even after expressing a willingness to stay aboard, finish up $project and help the team transition well once we leave+. So I can respect the ideal state while acknowledging some people have completely rational trepidation about who they share this kind of status information with. ---- [+]even though I personally think quit-notice more often than not, but certainly not always-often is a disservice to the person quitting
      - nuancebydefault 5y ago
        Maybe my vision on the subject is somehow coloured by the social safety net and labour legislation in the country i live in ... I quit: 5 weeks notice. My "shop cuts me loose" : 10 weeks notice. As a bonus, when they are really upset about my interviewing activities, i get off the hook immediately and get paid for 10 weeks without working for it. What is the risk? Some coworkers hinting to the employer about my leaving?
vmception 5y ago
Agreed! Not at the same company! If you really have noone outside of work to talk to && need to then get a therapist, or a dog, or COD warzone buddies
infamouscow 5y ago
This position makes no sense unless one or more of the following are true: 1. You lucked your way into a role that you're completely unqualified for 2. Your employer will use this information to expedite the process of termination (that began prior) Unless you're in big tech, your employer will beg you to stay if you mention interviewing elsewhere. And if do have a name brand on your resume it will magically float to the top of the list.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- hizxy 5y ago
  Ok so they beg you to stay. People are people. They know you’re unhappy and want to leave. Let’s say they try to make it better but you leave anyway. No one wins in this scenario.
  - infamouscow 5y ago
    What about the scenario where things get better and you stay? That's a win for everyone.
    - hizxy 5y ago
      Well then good on them for pulling it off?
sneak 5y ago
It's not a secret that you are engaging in employment to maximize revenue. Don't sneak around. Everyone who is in business should be interviewing (on some side of the table) all of the time.
- Gigachad 5y ago
  I keep seeing this bit of advice being thrown out, but I feel like it just reflect poorly on you if you leave for a new job 6 months after starting the last one. Personally I have always waited a year before starting interviewing for a new place.
  - sneak 5y ago
    It's a matter of personal preference. With inflation what it is and salaries what they are, it is a matter of a lot of money right now. Unless your contract specifies duration, you are entirely within bounds to interview at any time, even after your first week at a new job. Anyone who finds fault with it is viewing you as property, not a vendor.
  - vsareto 5y ago
    I don't think the current market demand allows employers to be too critical of short tenure length. You can always bring out a variation of "I felt like I was underpaid for the previous position" which is probably true if you're already interviewing that quickly after starting.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - dangus 5y ago
    I can’t say enough how strongly I disagree with this idea. This is our one life we have, and we’re supposed to just throw away our time on this earth for companies that are a bad fit, at least a year. And yet my former employer had no problem laying me off with zero notice. I’m going to preach against overlooking short tenure candidates as strongly as I can wherever I go. Quality, well-managed companies with top benefits packages don’t have issues with employee turnover. Only the mismanaged dumpster fires have those issues. In my experience they’re the ones who make the biggest stink about resume tenure during the interview process since their daily reality revolves around that cycle of employees joining, finding out the place is shit, and leaving.
sokoloff 5y ago
I’ve both told bosses and been the boss who has been told by my direct report that they’re interviewing. Not all of those cases ended up in someone changing jobs, but some did. I’ve given relevant advice to my directs who were considering changing roles. Sometimes someone up and quits without saying anything (and that’s their right), but I think it’s more productive if we can have a real conversation about the situation and maybe we can change something or maybe we can’t. The very worst that I’ve done knowing someone was looking was not putting them onto a long project that would require substantial personal commitment to accomplish if I knew they were looking. Otherwise, no impact (and even there it made their departure easier on both sides).
- sanderjd 5y ago
  This is why I told my manager I was going to leave the team; it was time to kick off the vision for and start executing on a new project, and telling my manager I wasn't the right person to own that seemed like the right call. It worked out well, but I was very privileged to have a really good manager.
  - dangus 5y ago
    The problem I have with disclosing this information is that the benefit is all one-sided and the risk is all on the employee. I think at most I would be extremely vague about declining a project like that.
    - sanderjd 5y ago
      It benefited me in the short term by allowing me to conduct my job search without having to continually make excuses for things I was doing, and by giving me time to work on leaving my team in good hands it had the long term benefit of leaving me on good terms with my team and manager who may work with me again in the future. But I see this as very context specific. I was confident that this would work out well in this case, but can easily imagine situations where it would not. I don't mean this as universal advice at all.
- outworlder 5y ago
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
lelanthran 5y ago
> You’re crazy. Do not tell a trusted coworker about your intentions. It’s a risk. Shut up and interview. What’s the benefit of telling anyone at your current gig? Coworkers? Maybe not. But my manager? Certainly. Makes his life easier, allows him to plan accordingly and (in at least one case) throw some juicy new project at me that makes me rethink a 20% raise. Also, there's no need to burn bridges on your way out[1]. [1] My last place, my manager knew about my first interview at a FAANG, he knew about my second interview, and then he knew about the offer they sent. All-in-all, he knew for about 2 months that there was a possibility of me leaving. We're still good terms right now.
- dangus 5y ago
  I’m sorry this is just a horrible piece of advice. This only works out for people who have utopian management. You never know what kind of obligations your manager has to deal with that situation. They might be required to send that info up the chain. I’m also strongly against the slightest implication that the standard two week notice is burning a bridge. It absolutely isn’t. All it takes is one layoff life experience to see why two weeks notice is more than enough courtesy.
  - lelanthran 5y ago
    > I’m sorry this is just a horrible piece of advice. This only works out for people who have utopian management. > > You never know what kind of obligations your manager has to deal with that situation. They might be required to send that info up the chain. What you're saying is that it might have a negative result. You're ignoring that it might also have a positive result. It's a trade-off, with the risk that your manager will take an opportunity to sacrifice you to the organisational gods for his own benefit. You gotta ask yourself, if your manager is willing to throw you to the wolves, why are you still working there? After all, if they are willing to hurt you for simply job-hunting, there's a lot more they would have done to you over the period of your employment. OTOH, if they've never done you in before, why are you so sure they'll start now? If they have broke your trust before, then sure, you have evidence to support a secretive approach. But if they have never done it before, then all your evidence points to them not doing it now. To get to be a manager, they must have demonstrated more networking skills than average. I doubt that they are going to pollute their network just for kicks; all the ones I've worked with mostly attempt to expand their network of contacts, not shrink them! > You never know what kind of obligations your manager has to deal with that situation. True, I don't. But my managers in the past, when told that I am looking, never sent the info up the chain, even when I knew that they were obligated to. I've been working now for 24 years; only once in my career did it come as something of a shock to my manager that I had found a new job.
lordnacho 5y ago
You might want to help your friends start moving politically, eg you might have a crown prince that you want to line up for your job. Or you might know that your team is going to be taken over by some tyrant, in which case they need some time to jump ship. Or you might want to take people with you wherever you're going, and they should start talking to their families about whether they want to go on that adventure with you. Also keep in mind people are unlikely to just blurt out that you are out interviewing, especially if they are a trusted person. They might want to tell management that there's a number of people looking to leave and they should do something about it if they want to keep people. Of course try to weigh the pros and the cons. But don't keep it private unconditionally.

by hizxy 5y ago

You’re crazy. Do not tell a trusted coworker about your intentions. It’s a risk. Shut up and interview. What’s the benefit of telling anyone at your current gig?

nuancebydefault 5y ago

If the coworker is your friend, why not? It has helped me finding assurance and the coworkers even helped me finding a new job.

hizxy 5y ago
Because they could unintentionally leak that info to the wrong people? I dunno I’m not that trusting.
- drekipus 5y ago
  I agree with this and it's what I did when I changed my employers. If they're your friends, you celebrate getting the job with them. Don't tell them the plans beforehand because that is just opening yourself up for problems. And you do end up looking a bit worse if you keep trying to find new places but not getting anywhere. (Not to say to distrust your friends; it's just that people chat naturally. secrets never remain secret for long.) I actually found my new job on stack overflow while i was searching for something while at work. I applied, had a month long interview, and I only told my friends when I was up to the final stages of the interview. but we were a cynical bunch and we were all lamenting to leave, so they enjoyed the idea of the place falling apart after I left. I also told them a few of my failures earlier in the year, so they knew what i was up to, but they often didn't have specifics that someone else in the company could try and pin me by.
- sneak 5y ago
  Nothing to leak. You're totally allowed to interview while employed. It's not like you're cheating on a partner. You are expected to maximize revenue.
  - dvtrn 5y ago
    It sounds like you've enjoyed a career working for and with some really amazing people. Yes the ideal state is having employers who can take attrition on the chin and root for their people on the way out the door, and yes those kinds of employers exist. The opposite is also real, and acknowledging the former doesn't preclude the latter: I and judging from comments, others have also been in the kinds of shops that will cut someone loose for interviewing even for a second job when the first isn't providing the hours or income they need, and I and I presume others have also given whatever amount of quit-notice and then immediately been walked out the door even after expressing a willingness to stay aboard, finish up $project and help the team transition well once we leave+. So I can respect the ideal state while acknowledging some people have completely rational trepidation about who they share this kind of status information with. ---- [+]even though I personally think quit-notice more often than not, but certainly not always-often is a disservice to the person quitting
    - nuancebydefault 5y ago
      Maybe my vision on the subject is somehow coloured by the social safety net and labour legislation in the country i live in ... I quit: 5 weeks notice. My "shop cuts me loose" : 10 weeks notice. As a bonus, when they are really upset about my interviewing activities, i get off the hook immediately and get paid for 10 weeks without working for it. What is the risk? Some coworkers hinting to the employer about my leaving?

vmception 5y ago

Agreed! Not at the same company! If you really have noone outside of work to talk to && need to then get a therapist, or a dog, or COD warzone buddies

infamouscow 5y ago

This position makes no sense unless one or more of the following are true: 1. You lucked your way into a role that you're completely unqualified for 2. Your employer will use this information to expedite the process of termination (that began prior) Unless you're in big tech, your employer will beg you to stay if you mention interviewing elsewhere. And if do have a name brand on your resume it will magically float to the top of the list.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
hizxy 5y ago
Ok so they beg you to stay. People are people. They know you’re unhappy and want to leave. Let’s say they try to make it better but you leave anyway. No one wins in this scenario.
- infamouscow 5y ago
  What about the scenario where things get better and you stay? That's a win for everyone.
  - hizxy 5y ago
    Well then good on them for pulling it off?

sneak 5y ago

It's not a secret that you are engaging in employment to maximize revenue. Don't sneak around. Everyone who is in business should be interviewing (on some side of the table) all of the time.

Gigachad 5y ago
I keep seeing this bit of advice being thrown out, but I feel like it just reflect poorly on you if you leave for a new job 6 months after starting the last one. Personally I have always waited a year before starting interviewing for a new place.
- sneak 5y ago
  It's a matter of personal preference. With inflation what it is and salaries what they are, it is a matter of a lot of money right now. Unless your contract specifies duration, you are entirely within bounds to interview at any time, even after your first week at a new job. Anyone who finds fault with it is viewing you as property, not a vendor.
- vsareto 5y ago
  I don't think the current market demand allows employers to be too critical of short tenure length. You can always bring out a variation of "I felt like I was underpaid for the previous position" which is probably true if you're already interviewing that quickly after starting.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dangus 5y ago
  I can’t say enough how strongly I disagree with this idea. This is our one life we have, and we’re supposed to just throw away our time on this earth for companies that are a bad fit, at least a year. And yet my former employer had no problem laying me off with zero notice. I’m going to preach against overlooking short tenure candidates as strongly as I can wherever I go. Quality, well-managed companies with top benefits packages don’t have issues with employee turnover. Only the mismanaged dumpster fires have those issues. In my experience they’re the ones who make the biggest stink about resume tenure during the interview process since their daily reality revolves around that cycle of employees joining, finding out the place is shit, and leaving.

sokoloff 5y ago

I’ve both told bosses and been the boss who has been told by my direct report that they’re interviewing. Not all of those cases ended up in someone changing jobs, but some did. I’ve given relevant advice to my directs who were considering changing roles. Sometimes someone up and quits without saying anything (and that’s their right), but I think it’s more productive if we can have a real conversation about the situation and maybe we can change something or maybe we can’t. The very worst that I’ve done knowing someone was looking was not putting them onto a long project that would require substantial personal commitment to accomplish if I knew they were looking. Otherwise, no impact (and even there it made their departure easier on both sides).

sanderjd 5y ago
This is why I told my manager I was going to leave the team; it was time to kick off the vision for and start executing on a new project, and telling my manager I wasn't the right person to own that seemed like the right call. It worked out well, but I was very privileged to have a really good manager.
- dangus 5y ago
  The problem I have with disclosing this information is that the benefit is all one-sided and the risk is all on the employee. I think at most I would be extremely vague about declining a project like that.
  - sanderjd 5y ago
    It benefited me in the short term by allowing me to conduct my job search without having to continually make excuses for things I was doing, and by giving me time to work on leaving my team in good hands it had the long term benefit of leaving me on good terms with my team and manager who may work with me again in the future. But I see this as very context specific. I was confident that this would work out well in this case, but can easily imagine situations where it would not. I don't mean this as universal advice at all.
outworlder 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

lelanthran 5y ago

> You’re crazy. Do not tell a trusted coworker about your intentions. It’s a risk. Shut up and interview. What’s the benefit of telling anyone at your current gig? Coworkers? Maybe not. But my manager? Certainly. Makes his life easier, allows him to plan accordingly and (in at least one case) throw some juicy new project at me that makes me rethink a 20% raise. Also, there's no need to burn bridges on your way out[1]. [1] My last place, my manager knew about my first interview at a FAANG, he knew about my second interview, and then he knew about the offer they sent. All-in-all, he knew for about 2 months that there was a possibility of me leaving. We're still good terms right now.

dangus 5y ago
I’m sorry this is just a horrible piece of advice. This only works out for people who have utopian management. You never know what kind of obligations your manager has to deal with that situation. They might be required to send that info up the chain. I’m also strongly against the slightest implication that the standard two week notice is burning a bridge. It absolutely isn’t. All it takes is one layoff life experience to see why two weeks notice is more than enough courtesy.
- lelanthran 5y ago
  > I’m sorry this is just a horrible piece of advice. This only works out for people who have utopian management. > > You never know what kind of obligations your manager has to deal with that situation. They might be required to send that info up the chain. What you're saying is that it might have a negative result. You're ignoring that it might also have a positive result. It's a trade-off, with the risk that your manager will take an opportunity to sacrifice you to the organisational gods for his own benefit. You gotta ask yourself, if your manager is willing to throw you to the wolves, why are you still working there? After all, if they are willing to hurt you for simply job-hunting, there's a lot more they would have done to you over the period of your employment. OTOH, if they've never done you in before, why are you so sure they'll start now? If they have broke your trust before, then sure, you have evidence to support a secretive approach. But if they have never done it before, then all your evidence points to them not doing it now. To get to be a manager, they must have demonstrated more networking skills than average. I doubt that they are going to pollute their network just for kicks; all the ones I've worked with mostly attempt to expand their network of contacts, not shrink them! > You never know what kind of obligations your manager has to deal with that situation. True, I don't. But my managers in the past, when told that I am looking, never sent the info up the chain, even when I knew that they were obligated to. I've been working now for 24 years; only once in my career did it come as something of a shock to my manager that I had found a new job.

lordnacho 5y ago

You might want to help your friends start moving politically, eg you might have a crown prince that you want to line up for your job. Or you might know that your team is going to be taken over by some tyrant, in which case they need some time to jump ship. Or you might want to take people with you wherever you're going, and they should start talking to their families about whether they want to go on that adventure with you. Also keep in mind people are unlikely to just blurt out that you are out interviewing, especially if they are a trusted person. They might want to tell management that there's a number of people looking to leave and they should do something about it if they want to keep people. Of course try to weigh the pros and the cons. But don't keep it private unconditionally.