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I have a friend who is going through the interview process with another department. She is two interviews in, and it sounds like she has a good chance at getting the position.

Should she tell her current manager that she is interviewing with another department? While everyone says things are "confidential", in my experience, this often gets found out with internal interviews. If she doesn't tell her current manager and her current manager finds out, then I think that destroys the relationship a lot more than her telling her manager that she is interviewing.

Any thoughts?

Tony 

mmann's picture
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Tony,

Her manager probably already knows.  Isn't that one of Horstman's rules?  There are no secrets. 

It's political suicide for one manager to steal a direct from another, so I'm sure the two managers have already discussed it.  I suggest she diffuse the drama as quickly as possible and just let her boss know that she's considering an opportunity elsewhere in the organization that she feels aligns better with her career goals.

--Michael

ashdenver's picture

Just as there are no secrets, there should be no surprises.  In a good relationship, the manager and the direct should be having regular open ongoing conversations about career development for that direct.  It shouldn't blindside anyone when the direct says "Hey, Manager, I'm interviewing with this other department."  

When I was managing my group, of the seven folks I had, four of them were actively pursuing other opportunities and two others had ideas of where they wanted to go next. I was telling my VP one day that this one wanted to go to the technical side, one wanted to be a support person, one wanted to go over to project management, one wanted to be in HR, etc. and he asked me "How did you find all of this out?"  Uhm, I asked and they told me.  

So if your friend doesn't have a good relationship with her boss like that, I can understand not feeling comfortable broaching the subject of "I don't want to work for you anymore."  Because that's how many people see it / interpret such moves.  It's not too late for your friend to bring it up and quell some of the damage done by not being up-front with the current manager first.  "Boss, as you may have heard by now, I'm interviewing with ABC Department for the XYZ job.  While I enjoy working for you and with this team, the XYZ job offers me apples, oranges and mangoes which I think will benefit my long-term goal of Blah. I hope you'll be able to support me in this."

Or what Michael (MMann) above said.  I tend to ramble.  :)

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