Searching Incognito

Great Insurance Jobs’ Cofounder Roger Lear is here to help you overcome obstacles to your career and job search. This month, he offers advice on how to stay off the radar when job hunting.

I need a new claims job, but I don’t want my current company or my boss to know I am looking. How do I pull this off?

Anytime I am asked this question, the first thing I do is try to figure out why someone wants a new job in the first place. Reasons to look could include an awful boss, horrible technology, long commute, unmanageable caseload, or no upward mobility.

However, for one of the other commonly mentioned reasons, I recommend you do this first: If you like your job but you are underpaid, go to your boss and ask for a raise immediately. If you are well-loved, the company won’t want to lose you, so it will either give you a nice increase or let you know that nothing can be done. Doing this before starting a job search is critical. Once you get a new job and put your notice in, your current employer will not be surprised and won’t be able to waste your time (and sanity) with a counter offer.

Now it’s time to answer your question. The best way to do a job search while you have a job is to go stealth. To do this, here are my suggestions:

• Make sure your LinkedIn profile is entirely up to date with your correct job title (Commercial Property Claims Adjuster) and a summary that includes all of your core competencies. Importantly, make sure you go into your privacy settings and switch “Share Job Changes” to “No.” Do this before you update your profile so you can be in stealth mode.

• Do not tell anyone at your work you are looking for a new job.

• If you work with recruiters, make sure to let them know you are doing a confidential search. Make them agree in writing that they will not send your resume anywhere without your 100 percent agreement. Bad recruiters will shotgun your resume and expose your job-change intentions. Only work with reputable recruiters.

• If you apply to jobs on your own, make sure you tell them you are doing a confidential job search. Once you interview, reiterate that they cannot call your current employer for a reference. This happens way too often and puts you at risk if the new company doesn’t hire you.

• Do all of your job searches from your phone or home computer. At work, never check the status of an application, search job boards, or check your personal email using your work computer’s internet browser.

• Schedule interviews after hours, if possible. If you have an excellent attendance record at your company and start taking time off, people will notice. Outside claims professionals can schedule interviews much more easily.

• Don’t ever talk about your job search on your social-media accounts. Facebook and Instagram posts have exposed many job seekers’ intentions.

• Spend most of your free time searching for a great job that is better than your current position, and that will not have the same issues that are causing you to look in the first place. Job seekers who are ready to leave their current companies often apply to many jobs, even if they are overqualified for some of the positions. In a stealth search, less is more.

Claims professionals have a skill set that will always be needed. If your current company is not the best environment to grow your career, numerous other insurance companies are waiting to hire you. It may take some time since you have to work your current job, but doing a well-researched job search will yield great opportunities.

Got a career question for Roger? Email him at Roger@GreatInsuranceJobs.com.