Conducting a Confidential Executive Job Search

Conducting a confidential executive job search is often critical if you’re still employed with another company. This is especially true if the companies with which you’re seeking employment are competitors of your current employer.

If you’re worried about getting caught during your job search, don’t fret. There are ways to make sure your search is both covert and successful.

Avoid Using Your Employer’s Tools While Job Seeking

The surefire way to get caught conducting a job search is by using your work e-mail address, office equipment, or company telephone. You may be accustomed to a certain level of privacy in your office as an executive, but it is best not to take this privacy for granted since you never know who might read your e-mails, pick up documents from your printer, or answer your telephone.

Even your company BlackBerry could reveal information to others about your search. So to play it safe, conduct your search in the privacy of your home or in a setting that won’t reveal your agenda to your employer.

Be Careful Where You Post Your Resume

You may be fond of general or niche job boards, but if you’re looking to conduct a confidential search, it’s a good idea to be careful where you post your resume. It’s very possible that recruiters and hiring managers you know who are scouring the boards for candidates could run across your resume. So if you choose to use these boards, consider ones like Monster that allow you to make your contact information and references confidential.

Choose Your References Carefully

When you choose your references to be used for your job search, it’s a good idea to make sure they are people who will not reveal that you’re in the midst of a job search; in this case, you should consider omitting coworkers from your reference list. Even people with whom you’re on committees for various organizations may need to be kept in the dark to avoid accidental slips in conversation when you’re not around.

Consider LinkedIn as a Resource

Executive job seekers looking to conduct a confidential job search often find that LinkedIn is a wonderful resource since most executives—employed or not—maintain a LinkedIn profile with current information available.

But if you’re concerned about being discovered as you use certain tools, you could switch your privacy settings so that users (namely recruiters and hiring managers) can’t see that you’ve viewed them; adjust your settings so that no connections will be notified of your updates—and block others in your network from seeing your relationships.

Of course, when searching for a job while still employed, it’s always possible that your mission can be revealed. But taking these steps could help you immensely in your effort to keep your search confidential.