Job hunting while employed: how to keep it confidential

Use a personal email and phone only

Everything to do with your job hunt should run through accounts and devices that belong to you. Work email, work phones and work laptops belong to your employer, and many employers log or monitor them. Even where nobody is looking, an application sitting in a work inbox is one forwarding rule or IT audit away from being seen.

That means:

• A personal email address on every application, CV and job alert.
• Your personal mobile number on your CV, with a voicemail greeting you would be happy for a recruiter to hear.
• Applications written and saved on your own device, not a work laptop, and never printed on a work printer.
• Job sites signed in on your own browser, so the history and saved jobs stay with you.

It also helps to decide in advance where you will take a recruiter's call. A quiet phrase such as "can I call you back in ten minutes?" buys you time to step outside.

LinkedIn settings that do not alert your employer

LinkedIn is where most accidental announcements happen. A few settings reduce the risk:

• Open to Work, recruiters only. This shows your interest only to people using LinkedIn Recruiter, not to your network. LinkedIn says it takes steps to hide it from recruiters at your current company, but it also says it cannot guarantee complete privacy, so treat it as reduced visibility with some risk left.
• Leave the green frame off. The public Open to Work photo frame is seen by everyone, including your manager.
• Turn off "Share profile updates with your network" (under Visibility in your settings) before you change your job or education, so your network is not told about it. Anyone who opens your profile still sees the edit as soon as you save it.
• Update gradually. A profile that is suddenly rewritten, with a new photo and twenty new skills, is noticed whatever the settings say.

Keep your profile accurate and current anyway, updating it in small steps over a few weeks.

Interviews inside work hours without lying

Interviews usually happen during the working day, and you do not need to invent a dentist to attend one. Annual leave is taken at a time agreed with your employer, who needs a good reason to decline a request for leave you are entitled to, and "I have a personal appointment" is enough of a reason to give.

Practical ways to make room:

• Ask for early morning, lunchtime or late afternoon slots. Many interviewers will accommodate a candidate who is currently employed.
• Take a half day or a full day of leave, and cluster interviews into it where you can.
• Offer a video call for first rounds. Take it from home or a booked room, never from the office.
• If your work is flexible, move your hours rather than taking leave.

Dress for your normal day too: if you usually wear jeans, arriving in a suit and leaving at 2pm will be noticed.

Referees while your current manager cannot know

Most employers understand that you will not want your current manager contacted until you have an offer. Say so plainly when references come up, and give them other people who can speak to your work:

• A previous manager from an earlier job.
• A former colleague who has since left your current employer.
• A client, supplier or project lead who worked closely with you.

Ask for your consent to be confirmed before any reference is checked, and agree that your current manager is contacted only once there is a conditional offer. Our guide to references and referees in New Zealand covers choosing and briefing referees, and what an employer may and may not do.

If a recruiter pushes to call your current manager early, it is reasonable to decline, and most will accept that you want to tell your manager yourself, once there is an offer.

A private board instead of a work laptop spreadsheet

The last leak is the record of the hunt itself. A spreadsheet of applications on a work laptop, a shared drive or a work account is easy to leave open during a screen share, and it may be backed up somewhere you cannot see.

Keep the record somewhere that is yours and that you can check on your phone between meetings. If you work in an open office, it also helps if the screen does not announce what it is. The demo opens with no account and shows how a job hunt can sit on your own device, including a Discreet mode where the browser tab reads Notes and, on a computer, the Escape key covers the screen. Shoulder mode is for a café, a bus or your own desk: salaries, employers and contact details stay blurred until you point at them.

Finally, keep your current job well. A search that goes on for months is easier to keep private when your work is steady and your leave is planned. Check your employment agreement for any conflict of interest or restraint of trade clause, too, before you accept a role with a competitor.

Keep the hunt somewhere that is yours