Will my boss know if I apply for another job within the university?

January 16, 2019 8:57 AM

I work at a large university. I'd like to apply for another job within the university, but I'd rather my current boss not know I'm applying. The only way to apply is via the university HR's online application system. Will my current boss likely be alerted that I'm applying for another job via that system? Or is it standard for large HR departments to keep this kind of thing confidential? (I looked for an answer to this question within the HR website, but found only a statement that my information would not be shared "outside of those involved in the hiring and recruiting process.") Thanks especially to anyone with personal HR or supervisor experience in a large educational setting who might know how this typically works.
posted by barefoot to Work & Money (16 answers total)

At my university there's no possible way that I would be alerted if one of my employees applied for another job.
posted by clseace at 9:05 AM on January 16, 2019

This would not happen at my university. I have moved jobs a couple of times, once recently, and my bosses were genuinely surprised when I told them. I have never encountered a supervisor who knew before they were informed that someone had gotten another job here and was leaving.

Also, in one job I had partial access to the hiring website because I was doing a first-pass screening of candidates (removing obviously unsuitable people for a job with a very specific skillset, not making judgement calls) and downloading resumes for my boss and it simply wasn't set up to alert people. Access was tightly restricted, too - you had to apply for it and you only got it for the job in question.
posted by Frowner at 9:11 AM on January 16, 2019

I've applied for other jobs at the large public US university I work at, and my boss didn't know. I doubt there's a formal system for notifying via the HR system. You could call HR to be sure.

The leak is much more likely to be someone on the hiring committee who knows your boss than someone in HR. I emailed a hiring manager who knew my boss to request confidentiality and that worked, YMMV.
posted by momus_window at 9:11 AM on January 16, 2019

Generally, your boss would not be alerted, this was the case when I worked at a large uni. But you will likely be able to write a letter or add notes, so I would include a note requesting that your supervisor not be notified. Or call HR and make the request. If you get to finalist stage, they will call for a reference, so be prepared for that.
posted by theora55 at 9:11 AM on January 16, 2019

I have not worked in a university but I have worked at a number of large organizations and have found this to vary. In one company, the persons manager received an email from the system when one of their employees applied for an internal job. In others, there was no notification but HR would reach out to the manager to let them know when an offer was being extended.

If you are very concerned with this, I would imagine this is a quickly question that could be asked of your HR department.
posted by polkadot at 9:13 AM on January 16, 2019

I think a lot depends on the type of job in re calling boss for references, hiring committee, etc. If you're applying for an academic job, postdoc, department manager, named position on a grant role or other fairly high-level thing, there will be a hiring committee of some kind. But I was on a hiring committee for a finance department head gig and the references were only the ones on the reference list, and certainly no one called my bosses for references (pink collar work).
posted by Frowner at 9:15 AM on January 16, 2019

The Mrs. worked at a very large university in the southern bay area and while this did not occur via automatic alert, even at said very large uni, word of mouth (aka HR doing the courtesy-notification) did the trick to alert the supe. So, be aware of that.

IMHO, FWIW, if the supe is bad enough already that you're afraid of them finding out, you're better off elsewhere anyway and they're not going to handle it well regardless of when they find out. Get out ASAP.
posted by allkindsoftime at 9:27 AM on January 16, 2019

The application system my university used (Taleo) was controlled like the ones above, you only got access to the jobs that you were recruiting for and couldn’t see any others. The only thing that was odd was that the candidate profiles were fully visible. Meaning that I could see everything that John Smith had uploaded to the the system, including old resumes and cover letters. If you aren’t successful on the application you may want to log into the system and remove any uploaded files in case you apply for something in your current department and your boss sees the old application.
posted by five_cents at 9:29 AM on January 16, 2019

Automated alerts seem very unlikely, based on my (slightly outdated) experience; leaks via your potential new supervisor or colleagues, however, are a definite risk.
posted by praemunire at 9:37 AM on January 16, 2019

I have worked for a large university. In the culture of my department, it was considered an appropriate courtesy to inform one's supervisor before applying for another job in the same department. If someone didn't want their boss to know -- for instance, because they were specifically looking to get away from their supervisor versus just wanting a different role, more opportunity for advancement, etc. -- they'd need to tell the new prospective supervisor or the next-level-up boss to keep it confidential.

But an HR system notification to your boss? Nah. I've never heard of such a thing in a university.
posted by desuetude at 9:41 AM on January 16, 2019

There will probably not be any automatic alert as others have noted above, but if the consequences would be dire for you, I would double check with HR.

But also, yes, word of mouth can get the word out anyway. I once applied for an internal transfer and before even scheduling me for an interview, the prospective boss called my current boss to ask her what she thought of my work. At some point partway through the interview he sort of off-handedly mentioned he'd done that and said, "Oh, hm, I guess maybe I shouldn't have, oh well!"

Which was mostly just a preview of what a thoughtless jerk he'd turn out to be, and hopefully rare, but it could happen. If it's really important that the information not get out, I'd talk to HR but also put a note in the cover letter asking for confidentiality during the process.
posted by Stacey at 9:45 AM on January 16, 2019

When I worked at a university (mid-sized), I applied for multiple internal roles and my bosses were never alerted.

You could double check with your HR department if you're concerned.
posted by kellygrape at 10:19 AM on January 16, 2019

I work for a large university and have transferred departments multiple times with no problems. HR and the search process generally are very confidential at my university. The only risk is if the new boss knows your old boss (or someone on the search committee), and they are very buddy-buddy; if their kids play soccer together or they're old coworkers from way back sometimes things can get out if they're better at gossiping than playing by the rules. That can happen, but it never did to me. And it's nothing you can control, anyways, so not really worth being paranoid about.
posted by epanalepsis at 10:47 AM on January 16, 2019

Thanks very much for everyone's answers and experience—I greatly appreciate it! (For the record, my current situation is fine and I don't dislike my current supervisor, which is why I don't want them to know—I'm not desperately looking to jump ship, and if I don't get this other job I wouldn't want the current boss to think I have one foot out the door.) Sounds like it's unlikely to happen automatically, but I will be wary of word-of-mouth leaks. Again, many thanks!
posted by barefoot at 11:36 AM on January 16, 2019

HR is rarely the culprit. The issue will be if any of the folks involved in the hiring department have a relationship with your current boss. When I was an administrator, it was the informal network that let me know one of my folks had applied elsewhere in the university.
posted by hworth at 1:43 PM on January 16, 2019

Depends on the situation. HR is utterly confidential and will not blab to your boss. That stuff is very automated these days.

BUT: if you apply for a job within your office, everyone there is gonna find out and if you want to do that, you really need to socially notify your boss that you're doing it. If you're not on good terms with the boss/the boss would not support your transfer, don't even try it.

BUT: If you apply for a job that is adjacent to your job--say it's a department that's related to your expertise, your office partners with them often, you e-mail back and forth--it's at least 50/50 that your office will find out. One of my coworkers thought she'd applied far enough away and then our boss turned out to have been asked to join the interview committee. Awkward! (The boss was nice, it's just that the office is stressful...but she still didn't get the job.)

Nobody ever found out when I applied at jobs that were totally unrelated to my current job in drastically different departments, but if it's similar/related...someone's gonna know.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:42 PM on January 16, 2019