3 Foolproof Ways to Hide Your Job Interview From Your Boss

Making that first big career switch can feel alot like being an awkward teenager again. That graduate job just doesn’t feel as exciting or new as it used to. You feel overdeveloped in some areas and underdeveloped in others.

You feel ready to step out, ready to rebel but you absolutely DON’T feel ready to tell your boss.

And so what's the solution to this awkward predicament? Well luckily your teenage years have provided you with a lot of practice. Simply avoid telling them until the problem is too big to ignore! What could possibly go wrong?

Before we begin I should point out that yes, of course you should have the courtesy to tell your Employer of your intentions to leave once you receive a serious offer. However, just like the wait for your growth spurt (it’ll come I swear), the interview process can be lengthy. You don’t want to risk triggering your termination period prematurely for a job which only reaches the second stage interview.

So without further delay, here are my tried and tested tips for hiding job interviews from your employer.

1. Answer the phone very carefully.

Once your CV is out in the ether your daily phone calls are going to get a lot more interesting.

Where you once had the occasional spam call or random call from your mum, you’ll now be dealing with the rogues gallery of recruiters, interested parties, colleagues of family aaaand all the spam callers.

If you work in an open plan office this sudden increase in calls can be an immediate cause for suspicion. But as you dash out of the room to take the call in private you have a 10 second window of opportunity to misdirect suspicious ears.

When you answer the phone ALWAYS answer with a neutral greeting. For example “Hello, Tom speaking”. Even if you know exactly who is calling and why, using this approach will lead prying parties to believe that this phone call is completely random and unwarranted.

This has the double positive effect of granting you more freedom with your excuse afterwards.

“Oh it was just a scam call.”

“Sorry I’m just selling something on ebay.”

“Just scheduling a telehealth appointment.”

“I’ve been called up for jury duty.”

The possibilities are basically limitless, but all that goes out the window if you answer as if you were expecting their call. (which you probably were.)

2. The library is your friend, maccas is your back up.

Ok, so you’ve been courted by an interested party and the interest is mutual. It’s time to meet. But how? This is the trickiest part. Businesses will generally want to meet you while you’re on the clock.

If you have the luxury of a private office suite or even the ability to work from home you’ll have absolutely no trouble finding the time to organize an online meeting away from prying eyes and ears (let’s face it you were only pretending to work anyway).

For the unlucky few, the combination of an open plan office as well as a permanent on-site work mandate can severely limit opportunities for online meetings let alone face to face.

You only have one option: beg and plead to have your interview held in the final hours of the working day, and then drive like hell to your nearest Library. With the right pre planning you could leave your interviewer with the impression that you are indeed a scholarly individual with an impressive personal library.

If a library is unreachable your next best bet is the oasis of free wifi known as McDonalds. Using their outdoor seating area combined with the background blur feature on Teams/zoom could be enough to pull off the old “just calling from my courtyard” flex.

3. Use compounding excuses to give yourself more time off.

In some cases, scheduling an interview outside of work hours is just not going to happen. So now you need to come up with a fitting excuse to take the time off that you need. However, when you’re looking for that career switch there’s never just one interview. The vague “appointment” excuse can get suspicious after the 3rd time you’ve used it.

This is why it’s important to build a larger narrative around your thinly veiled excuses.

If you want to give your excuses a medical flavour, mention that you are getting some “testing done”. People get a range of medical tests for benign issues so it won’t raise too many eyebrows.

You will then be able to excuse the time off for your follow up interview as a “follow up appointment to go over the results” which technically isn’t even a lie at this point.

Some other examples of some fun compounding excuses you could use;

“I need to take my car in for an assessment” >>>> “I need to get my car repaired”

“I have to pick up my cousin from the airport >>>> “I have to drop them back at the airport”

Or if you want to get into some risky territory,

“I have to visit my aunty, she is sick” >>>> “I have to take time off for her funeral”.

Final words of wisdom

If all goes according to plan you’ll be able to surprise your boss with the fantastic news that you’ve received a great new job offer! They’ll be over the moon that you managed to navigate the betrayal interview process with such minimal disruption or forewarning!

While this has been a relatively tongue in cheek blog post, the big takeaway from this is that leaving your first big job is just as important as finding your next step in your career. Try not to burn your bridges but take your opportunities when they come too!