Looking for a job is hard, and finding a job is even harder. We understand. Finding a job is especially hard if you already have one because it means you have that much less time to actually search for positions you want—it’s tough to job hunt while you’re at work, and by the time you get home chances are you’re tired and have errands to run and an actual life to live outside the office.
Thankfully, the Internet is a magical and wondrous thing that allows us to occasionally look for jobs while we’re already employed and actively working at one we don’t love so much. Still, looking for a job while you’re at work is risky. Here are a few ways to sneak by without getting caught.
1. Never use a sick day to go on an interview.
Use a personal day or other paid time off, but not a sick day. Because if someone happens to run into you while you’re dressed up and out and about, it can get back to your current boss. And in case your job interview doesn’t go as well as you’d hoped, well, you need to stay in your current boss’s good graces as long as you can.
2. Use your SmartPhone for storage and searching.
Write out your resumes and cover letters on your actual computer at home, then email them to yourself so you have the files saved onto your phone. If a potential employer contacts you or you see a listing you fall in love with, you can email the documents from your cell without anyone stumbling upon them should they ever use your work PC. Additionally, you can look for jobs on your SmartPhone during your commute so you’re actually able to decompress when you get home instead of furiously scrolling on Monster.com for hours at a time.
3. Bring your personal laptop to work and use it during lunch.
What you do on your lunch hour and on your personal PC is no one’s business. If they ask, just say it’s a family thing that you can’t really talk about. Or just tell them to GTFO of your business (but in a polite way).
4. Make sure you’re still kicking ass at your current job.
Don’t slack off. Your boss will notice, and that’s when everyone is most likely to start snooping to find out what you’re doing.
