Interested in New Opportunities on LinkedIn, But Employer Uses It As Well

novaderrik wrote: your employer might see that you are looking elsewhere? oh noes!! then they will either come at you with offers to make you want to stay, or just ignore you and let you go... either way, you know where you stand with them..

Exactly!! My niece did this. She was hired right out of school for an IT position with a bank with the promise of an evaluation and possible raise within 6 months and then again after a year.

When the year passed with no evaluations or raises she posted her resume online.

Three days after she posted her resume she was called into the VP's(2 steps above her boss) office. He wanted to know what the problem was and what he could do to keep her. She got her raise and 6 months later replaced her boss. A year later she moved up another notch and now reports directly to the VP.

Right.

Not everyone uses LinkedIn to find jobs, and most of my fellow coworkers don't even have LinkedIn accounts. I'd be worried when they finally did, they'd find me and be disappointed that I was looking else-where.

This thread has made me realize that its pointless to be worried about such trivial things, and I should just tailor my LinkedIn profile to do what I want it to do, which is get jobs.

it's just work: you have a business arrangement with your current employer, and will likely have a similar arrangement with a different employer in the future. every company understands this, every employee should understand this, too. it's just business, nothing personal.

In reply to novaderrik:

I've been unpleasantly surprised by a couple managers when I tried to work in other groups to get some 'new' going on at my work. I agree with your comments about it being work and not something to get emotional or personal about but not everyone seems to see it that way.

Several of you are very fortunate to have reasonably professional and reasoned places of employment that would be accepting of this.

If my employer were to find out I was job hunting, he would fire me, AND turn vindictive and start spreading false info around town about me.

Part of me doesn't care. The obvious answer is "move on".

But "moving on" is an overly simplistic approach at times.

It would take me a minimum of 6 months to get another job, possibly well over a year. During that time, I would not be able to feed my family, and would likely loose my house.

That is a factor of many things- local job market, my experience, condition of employment in my industry, ability to relocate, family's needs, etc. It's not a guess- a transition would be VERY tough.

I will put up with his BS until I find something else. Until that time, I will request potential future employers exercise confidentiality. And so far, they seem to both respect that request and appreciate it.