Just waiting on a call for a first round telephone interview.

I’ve not been actively seeking a new job, this was presented to me by a recruitment agency so not told anyone at work yet. When’s the right time?
– if this one goes well?
– if second interview goes well?
– just before they ask for references?
– just fail to arrive one random Monday morning in September?

when you have a signed contract

Now, tell him right now before it’s too late

Signed contract +1
Never before, I might have booked my flight in the office when I left the country but not until it was all signed and sealed.(that might not have made me popular as they then had to unfire and re hire the person who they sacked with me lined up as a replacement but I did warn them….)

Are you being serious?

depends on the (current) workplace/boss – in mine, we help our juniors prepare for job interviews (public service slackers in the NHS, though)

Depends if you want you current employer to offer you more money to stay. But even then not until you have a firm offer.

Depends on many things;

Your current situation, is it secure ?
Your relationship with your boss and his personality
Your boss’s view of how good you are (not your own)
Whether you want to stay

Personally I would say nothing until you have a written offer.

I have only ever looked for a new job when I have wanted to leave so the only conversations I have ever had have been “I am resigning”

Are you being serious?

Yes why not?
I get the point of waiting for a signed contract to hand my notice, but assuming the new employer wants references that request may come as a nasty surprise if I’d not mentioned the possibility of leaving before hand.

Absolutely no need to say anything to employer until you are signing a contract, if you ‘found out’ then you can just say you went to see how they operate/what they are offering but you are not serious about it.
But if you need leave for the interview then use annual leave, don’t pull a sick day for an interview it really pisses me off when people do that.

Surprised you are even asking this?

At the very least, wait until you have a written offer or a signed contract if you definitely want to leave.

If you sign a contract with the other lot and then pull out when your current employer offers you the moon on a stick, that will piss off the other lot and possibly close of future options.

assuming the new employer wants references that request may come as a nasty surprise if I’d not mentioned the possibility of leaving before hand.

Don’t put reference details in your CV, potential employer should always ask for your permission before contacting references so you can then warn them.

Really it comes down to your relationship with your colleagues, I’ve had managers that I would’ve had no problems telling that I’m going for interviews and others that I know if I told them they would start treating me like a 2nd rate person.

Are you Sam Allerdyce?

when you have a signed contract

Is what I would suggest. Why rock the boat before then?

References, don’t provide them until you have a contract, if they want some before then use an old employer.

References shouldn’t be requested before an offer has been made and accepted – frankly they’re all very businesses-like these days, start date, end date, sick days etc.

Unless you’re in the mood for a flounce you shouldn’t mention it until you’ve accepted and offer and are ready to hand in your notice. It’s always been a case of

“Boss, can I have a word, I’m going, here’s my notice in writing, shake hands, adios amigo”.

I don’t know why you’d want to say anything before, unless you’re hoping they’ll fall to their knees sobbing and offer you double to stay or something.

I actually was in the mood for a flounce once, had a major falling out with my old boss over money owed to me, stop them I was going to leave as soon as I found something suitable, they made me ‘redundant’ 2 weeks later.

I never put references on CV. They’re used by agencies prior to any interviews to call your existing company to fish for potential jobs.

Almost never had a reference checked anyway. I leave off the CV and say I can provide them on request on offer of a job, but usually they never bother.

A few agents will BS you with stuff about checking references up front for security reasons and that their client wants them checking up front. Rubbish. I tell agents it’s non of their business and I’ll provide references direct to the client on request. If they tell me to do one, I go to a better agent.

Though since going freelance it’s all become even easier, and I go direct to clients these days. Telling the client is easy too. “I’m not available after next week, see ya!” 😀 (at least without an agent. Agents try to put in crap in contracts about notice periods).

It really does depend on the relationship you have with your boss, and how much you really want the job

telling your boss that you’re leaving is one of the few joys left in the workplace.

be annoyingly chippy and upbeat about it, if you’re not a whistler, start whistling.

get working on a toweringly massive in-tray, for the next sucker.

Depends massively imo, I’m a straight up guy and lucky my bosses are also straight up. I sat them down and said here are my thoughts and feeling and that I would be starting to look elsewhere. This was before I’d even updated my CV.

That way there’s no surprises to anyone, and I dislike the whole cloak and dagger of booking multiple “doctors appointments” half days to sneak off to interviews.

Of course, my previous place wasn’t like that. I know a few people in my previous job that managed to get themselves fired soon after announcing they were planning to leave further down the line. At that place I didn’t say anything until contracts were signed, and I booked a few doctors appointments around the same sort of time.

I’m always in the “signed contract” camp. If you’re going, then go. If you want to flounce, then toughen up and tell them you want a change.

However, at the current shop I’m going for the two pronged attack: set about lining up another role and, at the same time, have the “honest conversation” with my boss that I want them to pay me to leave.

Whichever arrives first, I’ll take. But I probably haven’t got long – am pretty sure my boss is doing exactly the same.

Depends hugely, I’m very cautious. Down to the point of trying to make clear to agencies to e-mail me and not expect a phone answer during work hours.

My boss often comments on people taking personal calls and walking out of the office to have the conversation, he’s not an idiot and knows when it’s agencies. Phone’s on silent and no vibrate as I sit right next to him.

I’m not saying anything until I get that offer and it’s clear cut enough to get to contracts and references stage.

Thinking back I’ve never been in a job where it’s been clear cut enough for external job hunting to be open, worked for a big American IT corporation where it was accepted to discuss internal job applications as moving about was encouraged to some degree.

References, don’t provide them until you have a contract, if they want some before then use an old employer.

I’ve always been wary of anyone not using their current employer for references.

Depends totally on the scenario and your relationship with your boss. If you’re on good terms and feel it’s only fair to keep them updated then go for it, if not then these days I’d be of the view that there’s basically nothing to tell them until there’s something in writing from the new place.

i had no issues with my previous employer but my boss and his we re Richards so i applied and got new employment signed and sealed. then requested a 5 year leave of absence paid for the first three months ( as i had 20 years in with them and at least potentially another 10 when i returned) once i had all that confirmed in writing i suddenly fell sick on a friday evening have thankfully left my lap top /phone and car keys in my desk… result i started new job a fortnight later with three months pay from my LOA followed three months later by my back pay and holiday pay.. shaft them .. they would you..

Defo wait till offer and contract signed, but does depend on relationship with boss. I have told some of my longer standing employees and key managers that I would rather help them transition to new and improved post than have them just announce it out of the blue.

I got to within an inch of job offer stage some years ago (only candidate left after several rounds of interviews) and had thought that although my boss was prick he had some self awareness of this, I later found out he had been contacted by my future employer and torpedoed my chances. So Beware.

ourmaninthenorth – Member

Whichever arrives first, I’ll take. But I probably haven’t got long – am pretty sure my boss is doing exactly the same.

Scratch that. I can see the writing will be on the wall some time this financial year – might as well get the payout….

You don’t.

I was a recruiter for 10 years ( yes, yes scum of the earth and so on). You tell your boss you’re leaving once you have signed contracts and a start date with your new employer based on your current notice period.

Otherwise it’s like an eight year old packing a backpack and saying he’s moving to the south pole.

Bosses do not respond well to “if you don’t do this I’m going to start looking”, that’s a two way street and jobs are in demand. If you want to negotiate better working conditions it needs to be on the basis of why you’re worth more in the job you’re doing now, not some idea of what you might get elsewhere that you try and use as leverage.

Depends totally on the scenario and your relationship with your boss.

No it really doesn’t.

You don’t.

This. If you tell your employer you’re looking for another job then it can be interpreted as a fundamental breakdown of trust between you and put you in an incredibly difficult position.

Think of it like this. If you’re wife/husband/partner said they were thinking of leaving you and were going on a date with a potential new partner, (but if it didn’t work out they’d stay with you) how would you feel?

It’s the same with work.

Drac – Moderator
I’ve always been wary of anyone not using their current employer for references.

They don’t tell you much about their last employment though as they can’t give a bad reference, and most just copy & paste a standard reference or the new company is using a tick box form anyway.

Does confirm they worked there though, but not difficult to work that out anyway.

Yonks ago I quietly let my HoD know that I was intent on leaving, thinking he’d want to get someone else lined up to take over specific stuff that I was doing. I thought I could trust him, and owed him the warning. He told everyone at the routine HoDs meeting later that day. By mid afternoon it was all over the office.

So, from my experience, not until you absolutely have to.

Personally I would say nothing until you have a written offer.

My boss holds grudges and thinks anyone who wants to leave is dis-loyal so the last guy that did it got his cards marked and ended up on performance review before being ousted!

+! for don’t say anything until you’ve got an offer. And in fact there’s no reason to give more notice than your contractual obligation, if the job has a distant start date.

.

No it really doesn’t.
…
If you tell your employer you’re looking for another job then it can be interpreted as a fundamental breakdown of trust between you and put you in an incredibly difficult position.

Of course it does.

I’d be perfectly comfortable in having that conversation with my current boss and I expect (or at least, I’d hope) that he’d do what he could to retain his staff. I’d consider it a courtesy to give him a chance to do that rather than just going “right, I’m off!” out of the blue one day. Also, it avoids the chance of burning bridges with a future employer if you do get a better offer to stay and have to turn down a job offer you’ve already agreed to.

On the other hand, I’ve worked at places where if I’d said “by the way, I’m looking for another job” I’d have almost certainly have been met with “well, you can look for it full time, bye.” One place used to call it a DCM – “Don’t Come Monday.” Totally depends on the company, the environment and the individual line manager.

References, don’t provide them until you have a contract, if they want some before then use an old employer.

All job applications I’ve ever made have had “references available on request” at the end. When already in full-time employment I don’t remember ever being asked for references before being given a job offer, rather that conditional offers are made subject to references.

This post is a bit spooky as today was my last day didn’t tell my employer until job offer in writing and new contract signed didn’t take it well so haven’t told them where I am going either my industry is renowned for slagging people off to their new employer made me work my month as well 👿 mind you have been a bit sick recently seams to have coresponded with certain days on the tour 😀

Well the first interview seemed to go OK. In hindsight I think you’re all right about waiting until there’s a firm offer at least.

There’s no way my current mob will try and retain me by offering better pay, and it’s not in a directly connected industry where someone else is likely to put two and two together and dob me in.

Unless of course there’s someone on here who works with me, and I don’t realise, that could do it I suppose.

Good work tthew.

Good luck getting the new role -always better to go “to” something than “from” something!

(I wish I could follow my own advice..!)