How to Answer Can I Contact Your Current Employer

How to Answer Can I Contact Your Current EmployerIf anyone asks where you were today, you were at a dentists appointment. Right? The vague appointment, always in the middle of the day, is a classic tactic for interviewing for new jobs while youre still at your current one. You just put up your out of office message and hope no one notices that youre awfully dressed up for a Wednesday. However, your slick cover story could be blown if the interviewing company contacts your current one. googletag.cmd.push(function() googletag.display(div-gpt-ad-1467144145037-0) ) How does one avoid this potential explosion of awkwardness?Look, everyone understands that the sneaky interview is kind of the dirty little secret of the working world. Everyone does it at some point, in hopes of trading up their current position, or pursuing a new opportunity. That doesnt mean you want your intentions broadcast across your current companyespecially if you dont get the new gig. Ideally, the interviewer will a ccept your list of non-current-boss references without question. But theres a chance he or she might ask you the dreaded question Hey, do you mind if I contact your current employer?DO understand that theyre not trying to double-cross you.No one is snitchingthe person interviewing you merely wants to get a sense of what youre like as a current employee. He or she knows its awkward, but its a valid question. After all, your current boss might know youre interviewing for a variety of reasons (like your job is ending due to a layoff, your job is temporary, etc.)so it certainly cant hurt to ask.DONT panic, and assume that everyone will soon know about your secret interview.Its definitely okay to say that youd like to keep your job search under wraps for now.DO have some current colleagues in mind that you could include as a reference.If you have a trusted coworker who has a clear sense of your abilities as an employee, but who can also be trusted with a secret (and who has been told ahe ad of time that youre on the hunt), then offer them as an alternative reference. That way, you can say to the interviewer that youre not comfortable if she talks to your current boss yet, but that you have another reference at your current company whom she could talk to in the meantime.DONT act cagey, like you have something to hide.Be up-front that youre not comfortable offering up your current boss as a reference at this time. Emphasize that your available references are well aware of your abilities as an employee, and let the interviewer know that theyre happy to talk to him or her in the meantime.DO leave the door open for the future.After you say that youre not comfortable with the interviewer talking with your current manager, make aya they know that its not a final no. Let him or her know that when the timing is right, youd be open to them contacting your current company.If all goes well, you can sneak back into your office with a spring in your step, and secure in the knowle dge that your secret is safe for now.