Busted! What To Do If Your Boss Finds Out You're Looking For A New Job

iStock | ioanmasay

Job hunting is difficult and complicated. So, you’ve put word out on the street that you’re open to hearing about new jobs. Lucky you – your boss just called you into her office to say she just found out you’re actively looking for a new job. In professional parlance, you’re busted. Here are some tips to manage this awkward reality:

1.     Don’t put yourself in this position. Manage your search with discretion. Don’t let anyone know. Don’t post your resume on job boards. Don’t activate the “Open to Work” icon on LinkedIn. Don’t use a company phone or email in contacting potential employers, since those are company property that track everything that’s on there. Conduct your search on personal time using personal equipment. Schedule interviews on a day off. There are only so many “doctor appointments” you can have before things get suspicious, so use common sense and keep your search a secret from everyone except people who absolutely must know (such as references).

2.     Assess the situation: You’re busted, but circumstances vary. Did you show up to the same job interview as your boss? Yes, that happens more than you think. Or were you careless and posted your resume on a public job board? Make as honest an assessment of all the moving parts in your particular case and proceed accordingly.

3.     Prepare for the worst. You may have no idea what kind of retribution may be forthcoming, which would not be surprising as this is a scenario that isn’t covered in most employee handbooks. With exceptions made for extreme situations like corporate restructuring that includes mass layoffs, it’s common sense that you don’t want your current employer to know you’re searching for a new employer. It’s like you’re cheating on them and hell hath no fury like a company scorned. The axe may fall.

4.     Are you the “Purple Squirrel”? If you’re one of the only people who know the secret formula for the widgets your company produces, or you’re the last standing COBOL programmer keeping the accounting software from wheezing toward a painful end, you may be the exception in this whole shakedown. It’s good to be indispensable. When they find out you have a foot and a half out the door, the company may take steps to retain you – or not.

5.     The coverup is worse than the crime: If you’re not immediately terminated, come clean. There is no reason to deny what there is clear evidence to support. Do not add, “lying through your teeth,” to the conversation. You can downplay the details but don’t lie. There’s nothing like a “moment of truth” to clarify what you want to do. If your admission rolls off your tongue easy as Sunday morning and you feel like a million bucks afterward then that is that. However, sometimes getting caught makes you realize you don’t really want to go anywhere. You’re inclined to stay, but only if your overall situation improved. For a brief moment, the door is open to that dialogue, as in number 6…

6.     If the door is open, take the opportunity to have a conversation about your career. If you’re caught looking for a new position, chances are you will need to address the situation directly. Request a meeting and express your commitment to your current role while emphasizing your reasons for exploring other options. Go in with a written career plan that spells out your long-term career goals and see if you can align on a path forward.

7.     Plan your next steps: Evaluate your options. Should you stay, or should you go? Only you can decide whether or not staying in your current position is the best course of action. Don’t make any false promises to stay. If it’s out in the open that you plan to move on, do so in as expedient and professional a manner as possible, and do your best work! Exceed expectations.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Attack Of The Robots! How To Prepare For The AI Job Interview

iStock | Intpro

You may have seen recent headlines about Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven apps like ChatGBT or Chinchilla. Or maybe you're familiar with AI image generators like DALL-E2. AI is an exciting, scary, and imperfect game changer -- and it’s changing how people get jobs.

The machines seem to be taking over. You may have noticed that the number of digital walls (obstacles) during the job search process has quietly increased. Pre-interview assessments and automated phone screens have joined applicant tracking systems (ATS – employer recruitment software) to put more digital space between you and the recruiter or hiring manager. 

And now, AI is moving out of the shadows and onto the main stage. If you’re scared that you’re going to be interviewed by robots, then you’re not going like this next statement:

Prepare to be interviewed by robots.

AI-driven video interviewing has arrived and it’s inevitable that you will soon be one of its victims. Just like there is an ATS between your resume and a person, AI is now between you and a person. You’ve been demoted from person to inanimate object. Just like you must craft a resume to get through the ATS, you must learn how to get through a HireVue interview.

HireVue is a “talent experience platform.” You are the “talent.” The “experience” used to be called, “interviewing for a job.”  The “platform” is an AI wall that will interview you.

Think of a Zoom interview; now take away the other person – the course of your professional career will partially be determined by an algorithm. Welcome to the warm and fuzzy world of AI video interviewing, where software will be asking you some predetermined behavioral questions and having you play some logic games, then synthesizing your visual, verbal, and cognitive inputs to provide the recruiter and hiring manager with a recommendation about your efficacy as a job candidate.

You can survive a HireVue interview. Here are some general tips on how to get through AI interviews:

1.     The robot is assessing you. AI algorithms are hidden. Just like guessing what keywords will help your resume, you have no idea what data is being mined, assessed, and prioritized. Regardless of the details, the AI video interview approach is both visual and verbal. You must pay attention to every detail. 

2.     Visuals matter. The way you are dressed. The background. Your body language. While these are important factors during a regular Zoom interview, an AI interview reads visual data the same way an ATS reads a resume’s format. The data is quantified and the result contributes to your “HireVue assessment score,” “average rating,” and “average recommendation,” (Yes, No, Maybe). Stay focused on the camera, make good eye contact, and try to minimize unnecessary body motion. 

3.     Questions will be behavioral. Be prepared to answer behavioral questions like, “Please describe a time you had to change your course of action while working on an assignment,” (HireVue, 2023).  Computers are less forgiving than people, and there is less wiggle room than in a regular interview where charisma and a positive connection can overcome some difficulty. You must be ready to go the moment the light comes on. Remember how you answer a question is just as important as the answer itself.

4.     Be focused and succinct. To follow up on the previous comment, the AI records delivery as well as the content. The content is up to you. As far as the delivery goes, you want to have a smooth natural delivery that requires an extra level of polish that can best be achieved through practice. You don’t know what the questions will be but practice some common ones. You’ll want to minimize the appearance of uncertainty.

5.     You can’t make a machine laugh. There are people out there who are so extroverted and personable that they sail through every job interview and they get offers – qualified or not! They are the ultimate example of “winning it in the room.” HireVue is a filtration system. It’s meant to defer human decision-making to the late rounds of the job interview process. You can still win it in the room but now there is an additional obstacle to clear before you can get into the room. That obstacle is humorless. Save your brilliant charm for people. With AI, keep your answers focused, succinct, and all business.

6.     Make human contact. After your AI “talent experience,” take the opportunity to contact the recruiter and thank them. Your HireVue video interview is an assessment. It’s not a decision. People are still making hiring decisions and you can influence those decisions by acting like the professional you are.

7.     Nurture your professional network. Now more than ever, making a regular practice of nurturing your professional network may be the best thing you can do for your career so that you’ve cultivated an advocate within an employer. Getting around the machines is getting more difficult and it’s not going away. If you can circumvent the digital walls through actual human connections, you’ve already won half the battle.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.

Interviewing For A Job? How to Tell If The Hiring Manager Is Bad News

iStock | cyano66

Looking for a job is like dating. After a date (job interview) or two, three, or four (or twelve), you still only have a rudimentary understanding of who the person (company) truly is. It’s a front-facing, window shopping ritual and you can’t see the whole picture. You can’t be sure what you’re going to end up with.

It’s not until you move in together that you know whether or not the match is going to work long-term. The primary differences between a marriage between individuals and a marriage to a job are that 1) you will spend more time at work than with your spouse, and 2) you’re not really married to your job. You’re married to your boss.

 Your business cards and paycheck may be embossed with your company’s name, but on a day-to-day basis you don’t report to your “company”. You report to your manager, and therein lies an overlooked vital component of how happy you will ultimately be in a job. A top reason for professionals leaving their jobs is an unsatisfactory relationship with their managers.

While far from foolproof, there are ways to gauge what life with your manager will be like at every phase of a job search – interviewing, observation days (if applicable, but still valuable information for everyone), and during the early days of a new job.

Interviewing:

• Time to hit LinkedIn, or any other resources at your disposal, to determine who the hiring manager is for the job you want and to whom you would most likely report. It may be the same person. It may not. Do your research. Learn what you can about the people behind the job listing.

• If you’re heading into an interview, tap your network to tap their network and see if you can get some first-hand information from current or former employees, or people who have worked with your most likely manager at any point. Ask around to see what their professional reputation is.

• Wondering what to say at a job interview when asked, “Do you have any questions for us?” Ask probing questions about staff hierarchy, and departmental and company-wide mobility. Is there a transparent and clear roadmap for advancement and promotion? The answers to these types of questions may give you a deeper understanding of the manager’s style. A supportive, servant-leader manager will mentor their workers and guide them toward their career goals. Other managers are a dead end.

Observation Days:

•  If you are invited to participate in an observation day, or work day, where you spend the day at a company to get insight into what it would be like to work there, prior to accepting a position, take advantage of this time. Get a sense of the vibes you get from your manager. Cordial? Abrasive? Demanding? Just a jerk? Try and get a read on their personality.

• Take special note of how the manager interacts with the other workers. Open? Defensive? With whom do they have a rapport? Why? You can’t know a person in a day, but if you’re given this opportunity, you should definitely extract what you can.

• For students, internships, which are essentially long observation days, should provide you with all you need to know about a particular company and field of work. Many people have positive internship experiences and end up working for that company post-graduation. If you do an internship, the same considerations apply. Take the time to absorb the way the manager runs things. If you wish to assume positions of leadership in the future, take note of what motivates people versus what brings them down.

The Early Days of a New Job (Yes, You Took Your Chances):

• As you’re talking to your manager, try and get a sense of their managing philosophy. If you feel they are open to it, ask point blank about their expectations. Can they clearly articulate what their vision is? That is the most direct approach.

• Listen to what your co-workers say. An indirect approach to be sure, but traditional and effective. Great managers don’t get a lot of press, but if your manager is an overbearing nut job who calls people ten times a day when they’re on vacation then chances are you’re going to hear about it. If your peers openly and honestly praise your manager take special note. That is hard-earned.

• If you’re a month into a new job and everything seems to be going okay, then suddenly your manager has an epic freak-out over nothing, what do you do? Find the workaround, if there is one. Is it fair? No. Quit or tap into however and whoever is the escape route.

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Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.