My husband is fed up with his job. He is an auditor for a mid size firm. The only reason that he is looking for a new job is because his manager not someone he wants to work for. He has started the process of writing cover letters and looking for professional references. For one of the jobs that he is applying for he needs 5 professional references. He came up with five but two of them are a little iffy. One is a client and another is a partner at his firm but he doesn't think that this is a good idea. He doesn't want the client (that is somewhat friendly with the manager) running to the manager and telling her he is looking for a new job.
He also doesn't know if he should just tell the manager that he is looking for other jobs. I told him that this is probably a bad idea, but he thinks that it will be better for her to learn it from him than from a client.
So, I guess what is your experience with this? Should he put current clients and co-workers as his professional references? Should he preemptively tell his manager that he is looking for other positions?
Post by vanillacourage on May 14, 2014 21:00:10 GMT -5
Clients - noooo.
Don't tell the manager he's looking. Not using the client should eliminate the perceived need to do so.
How is he being asked for references? Is it a mandatory part of a job app? Unless they make it explicit that he's not able to be considered unless he provides names, I'd say "references available upon request" and stall until he gets an offer or close to it. Asking for 5 references out of the gate is unreasonable, so I'd try to avoid obliging them.