how to apply for jobs when currently in employment

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ok so how the hell does tyhis work - you are currently emplyed, dissatisfiued with yr work, and seeking other employment. you get an application form for a new job, fill it in, then it says, 'please provide details of your most recent or current employer for a reference'.
so what the hell do you do then? what guarantees do you have that they wont just phone up yr boss and go 'oh i want a reference for so and so, ie hes leaving you?'. do they expect you to have handed in yr notice before youve even been accpeted for a new one? sometimes they have a box you can tick to say that they shouldn't contact yr current emplyer before an interview but...jeez its pretty precarious. my girlfreind is in this predicament at the moment and it all seems kind of unclear.
whats peoples experiences?
has anything bad hapopened because of this?
is there any sort of protocol that people follow?

please put my mind at rest ! (i have done this in the past without really thinking of it too...)

― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 07:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Often they say on the appy form whether or not you would like the employer to be contacted. If not its certainly fair to write as part of you covering letter or personal statement that you would prefer for references to be taken up only if they offer you the job. HR departments are well aware of the potential problems which can be caused in this area. A place certainly wouldn't expect for you to have handed your notice in before you've been offered a job.

Name of your recent/current em,ployer is the company - not necessarily your boss (unless you work in a very small company) and the HR department would handle the basics sympathetically. It is an offense for them to treat you differently because you ar elooking elsewhere and to maliciously give you a bad reference.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 07:53 (twenty-two years ago)

If you are asking your boss it's nicer to ask them first! Then they'll know.

Also, if they know your unhappy they may well want to do something about it, rather than lose you. I was asked for a reference for a member of staff, who had requested that they waited to see if they were going to offer her the job but they didn't, and my gut reaction was 'why does she want to go, is it something we can sort out, because we don't want to lose her', rather than bitch, but it wasn't a work related issue, but a london one.

It does tend to get obvious when people are applying for lots of jobs anyway, as suddenly they start taking off single days annual leave here and there, with only a few weeks notice!

― Vicky (Vicky), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 08:07 (twenty-two years ago)

what kind of job do you do? certain types of occupations (mostly the professions) have recruiters that cater specifically to that profession. and i think that candidates can request that their resumes be forwarded "secretly" to potential employees. that's how it works with some legal recruiters, but i don't know if that applies with any other occupation or other recruiting agency.

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 08:24 (twenty-two years ago)

by "secret," it means they won't call yer boss for references, they won't call you at work (or send e-mail to yer work e-mail address).

― Tad (llamasfur), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 08:25 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah its not thru desire that she needs to put down her current employer, its just because its there. she doesnt necessarily want a reference from them, theyre just asking for it.

like, she could put the last two employers she had as referees, if that was possible.
but the only way of doing that is to lie wholesale about having a job at the moment.

when i said boss io just meant 'generic person who deals with this shit in the company'. seems refernces these days juist consist of 'i confirm that Mr BLah-de-Blah worked here between 01.04.1940 and 03.05.2030' or whatever.
so they seem pretty much pointless in the first place.

― ambrose (ambrose), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 09:04 (twenty-two years ago)

suddenly they start taking off single days annual leave here and there, with only a few weeks notice!

Only a few weeks? Jesus, I take days off at 9am from underneath my duvet sometimes. They must think I'm constantly applying for other jobs.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 09:13 (twenty-two years ago)

or they know you're a lazy bastard.....

If she doesn't want her current employers to give her a reference, and she's got good reason, then she sould say so to her potential employers. Lying about her current job will just be too complicated (unless she's only been there a short while), there's the issue of start date - if she's not got a job she wouldn't need to give notice, and could start right away, the issue of a P45 - if she's not currently employed then she'll already have one, etc.

I wouldn't reject someone just because they didn't want a reference from their curent employer, but I would want to know why.

― Vicky (Vicky), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 09:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmmm... I've been thinking about this a bit lately. I want to start applying for other jobs soon, but I don't want to give notice that I'm leaving until I have something lined up. My boss will totally freak out no matter when I quit. And there's the problem of knowing how much notice to give. I think a month would be very nice of me but that also means that last month will be hell. The last job I tried to quit with 2 weeks notice (at a fn sandwhich shop) lead to me being fired upon reciept of my notice letter. "How dare you leave me now! You're fired!"
But yeah, I don't want to tell my boss right away I'm looking elsewhere because who knows how long it will be until I leave and it would just be horribly awkward for now on out. On the other hand, I've worked really hard for him for about a year and a half and I know he tells people all the time I'm a good worker. I just don't think he'd tell people I'm good if that meant they'd take me away from him. *sigh*

― Sarah McLUsky (coco), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 12:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Er, giving the statutory notice is the standard thing. If they give you shit notice period (ie a week) then this can obviously be used against them. Statutory notice on continuing employment in the UK is a month - you might have longer and you are contracted to work it. But I'm well aware that the US has no such employment legislation.

You're all talking like your bosses are your mums or something.

A standard line to say by the way is that one of the reasons you are looking for a new job is rumours in your department that it is about to be relocated / thinned down. You obviously wopuld not want to give your boss a reason to pick you as the thinnee - so please do not take up references. It helps if you have got bundles of other references to follow.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 13:17 (twenty-two years ago)

You're all talking like your bosses are your mums or something

My boss would never think of himself as my 'mum' because he hates women. He thinks they are all 'bitches,' 'stupid bitches,' and 'c*nts.'

― Sarah McLusky (coco), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 14:25 (twenty-two years ago)

If your boss is not a dick, like Sarah's boss, then it doesn't hurt to go in and talk to your boss nicely and say something like "I've enjoyed working here and I've learned a lot, but I want to work in a different field, so I just want to warn you that I'm going to be applying for jobs in different career areas and some of them might be contacting you." This works if your boss is reasonable and you can make it clear that you don't dislike your current job (even if this isn't true) and that you just want something different.

― NA. (Nick A.), Tuesday, 15 July 2003 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

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