Moving Up

Telling Key People That You're a Candidate

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By Jean Dowdall

People who are contemplating entering a search process worry a great deal -- as they should -- about their candidacy being divulged. Even searches that are intended to be highly confidential can leak profusely, and some that are confidential during the search process can leak afterward. Candidates have a lot of specific questions: What are the risks of disclosure and how can I minimize them? When and how should I tell my boss or my board of trustees? How should I handle it if I don't get the job? Should I resign before I have another position lined up in order to avoid these conflicts?

It's difficult to suggest answers that will apply to all readers. But I'll offer a few principles to consider. For a general primer on confidentiality in the search process, I suggest that you take a look at my earlier article on this site. But here I'm going to deal with the personal issues at stake.

The truth is, if you advance very far in a search, you have to expect a leak -- either during the process or after it's over. There was even a recent case of an institution announcing a presidential appointment before the candidate had even accepted the offer -- but that's unusual. Still, sooner or later, the list of finalists, and sometimes the rank-ordering assigned by the search committee or the board, may come out. Since there isn't much you can do to change or control this, other than to stay in your current job for the rest of your career, how can you deal with it?

If there is a search consultant, I would suggest that you talk with that person to see if there are approaches that can protect your confidentiality, especially in the initial stages of inquiry and exploration. If you're going to be a finalist, you may have to be willing to stand out in the sunshine, but at the final stages at least you know whether you have a real chance to get the job and a real interest in it. A conversation with the consultant can give you some idea of what's likely to happen in your particular search, considering such factors as the relationship between the faculty and administration, the aggressiveness of the local and student press, and the size of the search committee.

If you're a highly plausible candidate and you really want this job, you may be willing to risk that confidentiality will be breached. But it may not be worth it to you if your candidacy is a stretch, if the campus is contentious, if you don't really want the job, or if the committee is large and the potential for an information leak is high. Put these factors together and decide if you'll go forward.

You might also consider an approach that gives you "deniability." If someone nominates you (either spontaneously or at your request), that person can also forward your résumé. You can tell the search consultant that you are interested but that you are not in a position to be an active candidate, and see if the consultant can help you.

At some point, however, you will need to appraise your level of interest and how much risk you're willing to take, moving toward making your interest known and giving up deniability. Normally, going for a preliminary interview signals that you are seriously interested. However, some candidates attend these interviews as a way of learning more about the institution and making their own decision about whether they actually are interested. If you take this approach, you should be aware that you are walking a very fine line. In the effort to protect your current position, you may appear so uninterested that the search panel loses interest in you. It's the rare search committee that finds the reserved candidate highly attractive. Think hard about how you want to portray yourself at this point in the process.

Once you think your confidentiality as a candidate is at risk, there are some important conversations that you should have. Normally, your boss or the trustees at your current institution are the most critical people you need to talk to. They should hear the news from you. As soon as you think they may hear it from someone else, you should step in and have a conversation.

What should you say? I won't answer this question directly, but I'll suggest some themes:

• Mention your loyalty to your current institution and your length of service.

• Talk about the distinctiveness of the opportunity that has been presented to you in terms of the job, the institution, the location, etc.

• Remind people that this is the career path that they knew you had hoped to follow.

• Make clear whether this is the only search you expect to pursue, or whether you are going to be looking at several opportunities in the coming months or years.

• Talk to your employer about what led you to consider moving and what changes in your situation might encourage you to stay.

One thing I hope that you will not say is that "the search consultant made me do it." You are presumably an adult, and would not be pursuing a job just because some consultant tried to recruit you if you weren't interested.

By informing key people on your home campus that you are a candidate elsewhere, you have signaled to the search committee that you are serious. And as a result, you have put yourself in a potentially vulnerable position -- someone else controls your fate. Some candidates may withdraw if they sense that they will not get the offer. That way, they don't have to admit they were turned down. But if you don't withdraw and you don't get the job, you can always say that you were a finalist for a wonderful position at a wonderful institution, but having been turned down you are now going to give your wholehearted attention to the job at hand and try to put this behind you.

The most complicated situation is when you anticipate being in other searches for other jobs that you also may or may not get. If you're repeatedly not selected, you may start to feel bad and others may start to wonder about you. You should pick your targets very carefully. As I've said for years in these columns, don't waste your time in searches where you aren't a serious candidate. Associate deans rarely move directly to presidencies, student-affairs professionals rarely become provosts, candidates from small private colleges rarely move directly to major research universities, and so on. If you keep these issues in mind, you can significantly reduce the erosion of your reputation that can occur when colleagues hear about your repeated failure to get other jobs.

Some people decide to avoid all of these problems by quitting their jobs and making a full-time effort to get the next job. This approach can work but is risky. You must be able to make a very convincing case that you were successful in your current job and that you left the job on your own. If you don't have the enthusiastic support of your boss, there will be a red flag raised. The period of being "between jobs" could extend longer than you had anticipated, putting your finances at risk as well as your résumé. Although this may seem like a way to solve a lot of the problems discussed above, it creates more problems than it solves.

So if you want to make a move, get ready to take some risks, but take them with care and planning. Increase your chances of success in searches, and protect yourself from risk by talking to the right people at the right time.