How do I change jobs without letting my bosses know?
I work for Small Company A. I want to work for Small Company B. But Small Company A has close dealings with Small Company B, and I worry that Small Company A will find out if I apply to Small Company B. And there will be repercussions if my current bosses at Small Company A find out, because they are extremely petty. So what should I be doing?
I originally went to work for Small Company A to form and develop skills in a potential career path. Since working with them, I’ve developed a love for this career and would like to pursue it further. However, it’s become clear that there is no further opportunity for this at this company.
There is opportunity at Small Company B, however, and it looks like a great job for a number of other reasons. I want to apply there, and preliminary scouting has indicated they may want to hire me (especially once they learned I worked at Small Company A).
But Small Company B does a lot of business with Small Company A and if I apply there it is quite likely my bosses will find out, when Small Company B checks my references if nothing else. My bosses at Small Company A tend to be petty, controlling, and when their employees try to quit or cut hours they take it extremely personally and respond by making life miserable for the employee. The longer the employee has worked there and the more highly trained the employee is, the worse the reaction. And I am currently one of their oldest, highest-trained employees, so it’s going to be bad.
If I try to switch jobs and they find out, there’s a 99% chance they will badmouth me to Small Company B in order to make sure I don’t get hired. Then they are going to make life miserable for me at Small Company A. This has happened before to other employees, and there is no indication I’d be any different.
So what do I do? I feel like telling Small Company B not to tell Small Company A about my application would immediately put my application in jeopardy–even moreso if I told Small Company B why as it may seem I’ve something to hide. If I say nothing and submit it, Small Company A will almost certainly find out anyway. Is there a good way out of this? There are no HR departments involved–the owners of both companies do all the hiring.
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