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Ask Annette: Office Etiquette and Style

Published: Mar 10, 2009

 Job Search       
Dear Annette,

I have been wanting to post my resume on a number of online job search sites. But I am afraid my current employer will see my resume and think I am growing out of my job. What do you think I should do? I mean, I am entitled to look around, aren?t I? What would I do if my employer saw my resume online?

Seeking

Dear Seeking,

Work should be as intriguing as a film noir from the 1950s or a novel about Manhattan society written by one of Dorothy Parker's cronies in the 1930s. Who's seen with whom, and where and what time of day, what's the significance, what did the note say, where is the piece of paper, what did the assistant learn, who is the confidant of whom. As far as I'm concerned, scandal and intrigue make life worth living and work worth doing.

To be a party to the latest, however, you have to put something in play. What's more, in the new economy, looking for a job is becoming a state of being. So I say, keep your resume current all the time, and keep it posted all the time, even when you're happy with your job. The razzle-dazzle approach of giving out extravagant amounts of information about yourself helps guard against someone finding out the piece of information that's really important to you: whether you're really looking.

So if you let it be known that your resume is always out there, your boss won't be surprised to find your resume. Just be careful not to let your job search get in the way of doing your job.

If you do surf an endless wave, though, develop a standard message that says, "Thanks, but I'm not interested." Use it whenever you receive an inquiry you intend to turn down, so that you give prospective employers the courtesy of a response.

The endless search keeps everyone happy, and here's how. You get a constant stream of information about how valuable you are, and to whom. You get a sense of what's going on in your industry - whether your job is in more or less demand relative to a few months ago. The job boards are happy because they can count you as a candidate and as traffic. The prospective employers are happy because even though you say no to most of them, they at least have the opportunity to test the wiles of the employees who try to lure you away. Even your own employer wins, because you become a more market-savvy employee who can help them do a better job of keeping good people.

And if your boss wants to surf a few of the job boards in search of your resume, you should be flattered. Most bosses don't have that kind of time. Besides, turnabout is fair play: can you find your boss's resume on an online job board? I bet you can.

Stay fabulous,
Annette

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