There’s no doubt that trying to schedule interviews whilst you’re still employed can be tricky. You want to land a new role, but at the same time you don’t want to shoot yourself in the foot and have your current employer find out! It’s important to be discreet and strategic.

Don’t sweat it – as always, we’ve got you covered. Follow our tips for preparing for an interview whilst you’re still employed:

  1. Choose tactical timing
  2. Be transparent with the interviewer
  3. Use annual leave or flexi time
  4. Pick a quiet period
  5. Keep it to yourself
  6. Be selective
  7. Keep up your work ethic
  8. Use email
  9. Prepare outside office hours

How to arrange an interview when you’re still in a job

Choose tactical timing

When arranging your interview, avoid scheduling it in the middle of the day. This will cause the most disruption and attract the most attention. Ideally, you’ll arrange an interview for either early in the morning before office hours or in the evening after office hours. That way, you won’t even have to take any time off work and you won’t have to make any excuses to your colleagues!

Be transparent with the interviewer

Always be transparent with the interviewer and let them know you’re currently employed. It’s perfectly okay to share this information with them and explain that you appreciate anything they can do to facilitate an interview out of office hours to avoid drawing attention to yourself.

Use annual leave or flexi time

If you need to attend the interview during office hours, don’t go down the route of ‘pulling a sickie’. Use your annual leave or take advantage of any flexible working arrangements. This will help to not raise any suspicion from your manager and will prevent you from having to spin a web of lies.

Pick a quiet period

Try to pick a time and day when your workload isn’t heavy and you’ll be least missed. Again, this just helps to not draw attention to yourself. Don’t pick a day where you know you’ll be in demand or you’ve got important meetings scheduled.

Keep it to yourself

Don’t make your job search known to your colleagues. Keep it to yourself otherwise you risk the whole office (including your manager) finding out. Even if you have good friends at work, it’s best to keep this information to yourself until you’re ready to hand in your resignation.

Be selective

Even if you’re offered 6 interviews, you don’t necessarily have to accept them all. Choose carefully which roles you give your time to. Remember, you don’t want to draw attention to yourself unnecessarily – so only attend the interviews where you have a genuine interest.

Keep up your work ethic

Even though your priority has shifted to landing a new role, it’s vital you keep up your image and work ethic in the office. If managers sense you’ve lost motivation and see you’re taking time off, they could put two and two together!

Use email 

Where possible, always try to use email when corresponding with other employers. You don’t want to find yourself running out of the office to take calls. This won’t go unnoticed by your colleagues. It’s best to keep all communication to email and to take any calls out of office hours.

Prepare outside office hours

When it’s time to prepare for your interview, make sure you do all preparations outside of office hours. That means printing your CV at home, and looking up the most asked interview questions on your home computer, not on the office one. Always keep any preparations separate from your job!

Discreetly does it

When it comes to arranging an interview whilst you’re still in a job, just remember this piece of interview advice: be. discreet. Always try to keep your preparations under the radar. This will take the pressure off yourself and avoid uncomfortable conversations with your current employer.

Are you preparing for an interview? Be sure to check out more of our interview tips!