I need some advice. I've considered seeking employment elsewhere. My question for others is what is the best method to do so while still employed? I'd hate to send my resume out and it somehow gets back to the bank that I currently work for.

Message recruiters in your area. They know the drill and should know that a job search is confidential. Linked In is a good place to start.

While recruiters *may* work, some employers will not work with them and your resume would not get through.

I recommend putting a statement on your cover letter that your job seach is confidential and add something like "I would sincerely appreciate you keeping my application as confidential information within your organization/company."

Or something. If it goes to an HR department, they know the rules. I was always more worried about the smaller places, because there was always that chance that one of the SVPs was friends with the SVP I worked for and it would be brought up. "So, one of your employees sent us her resume yesterday, did you know about this?"

That is my fear Aggs. I am from a small area and people from other banks talk!

Anon#2.
Last I checked it's still a Free Country. In your professional life you should always be open for advancement and yes, it should be expected by your management that you are always open for employment elsewhere anytime. They don't own you.... Well, maybe if you play for the Cardinals and were "drafted".
If your boss likes you and appreciates the work you do, your boss should pay you what you're worth if it means keeping you. Period. If you are marketable, don't worry about what your boss thinks. If they are that backward, you don't belong there. That aspect of small town living is garbage. Hopefully, your management has had some work experience in the real world.

I concur, but a word on counteroffers. Every time I left a place for new employment, all fo a sudden they had significant $$ to keep me. My point being, if I was worth that much, why didn't you just pay me accordingly to begin with? I am worth more now than yesterday, why? I may not have looked elsewhere if I had been compensated properly to begin with.
I find it insulting.

I concur, but a word on counteroffers. Every time I left a place for new employment, all fo a sudden they had significant $$ to keep me. My point being, if I was worth that much, why didn't you just pay me accordingly to begin with? I am worth more now than yesterday, why? I may not have looked elsewhere if I had been compensated properly to begin with.
I find it insulting.

I agree with Deeq and a consultant.

That interesting Aggs. Most senior level positions in my neck of the woods require using a recruiter. I would never send a resume to a potential employer unless I was referred or had a connection there.

I also agree with DQ and Ed. That's why I laugh whenever I see someone on BoL post something along the lines of "You owe your employer..." You don't owe any one, anything. You're paid by your employer to do a job and do it well. That's it. I always recommend that people listen to all employment opportunities. You never know when something great will come along. That's why I prefer working with recruiters. You can get right to the point without offending a potential employer.

When I was younger, I made the mistake of accepting a counter offer. I'm not going to go into the details, but I would never do it again. Most banks typically don't want to pay appropriate raises and bonuses to non-production employees. That's why the turnover is so high (At least in my neck of the woods).

Yeah, I bet NYC is different. The place I work for now, they specifically state in their job postings that they will not work with recruiters. It was the same for most of my other jobs. I've never used a recruiter to find employment and I've moved states twice for job opportunities.

Although I do get an insane amount of emails from recruiters per week now. How do I get them to leave me alone? Put "NOT INTERESTED" all over my LinkedIn profile? lol

I wanted to opine on keeping the job search confidential. I would go through a recruiter but even then there is no guarantee it won't make it back to your current employer. I live in a large metropolitan area and I know of at least a couple of examples where a prospective employer knew a candidate's current employer and picked up the phone. I don't think adding a line to the cover letter concerning confidentiality will curb this behavior. They aren't going to tell you "we spoke with your current boss even though you asked us not to." They will just say "you were not the most qualified candidate" or something like that.

The best you can do is not apply at institutions where management at your bank have known contacts

Depending on where you live/work, that may be impossible...

It's a "carp" shoot, it all depends on the ethics of the place you are applying and the ethics of the individuals who will see your resume. But I wouldn't let that stop me from reaching out somewhere if there was a potential opportunity. I did that a few years ago, I didn't end up leaving my current job at the time, but I kept in touch with the person, built a rapport, and when I decided it was time to make a change recently, I reached out again and it all fell into place. I didn't know this person when I originally reached out, even though we are in a small town and it was very possible my current employer may have found out. But you have to look out for yourself at all times, your employer isn't looking out for your best interests, they are looking out for their own, so should you.

This is very true. Banking is a small world, even in a large city.

This has been my motto and it has worked for me for many years and through many employers.

I'll cosign this as well.

I recall a time that a bank was looking to expand their staff, and using a recruiter to do so anonymously...the first 3 resumes the recruiter received and sent to the bank were current bank employees...oops

eye opening experience all around...fortunately, the bank realized they had bigger issues than hiring a new person, they clearly had some internal issues causing everyone to look for other employment that needed to be addressed...and they were.

Were they all fired?

Originally Posted By: Anonymous

The best you can do is not apply at institutions where management at your bank have known contacts


Depending on where you live/work, that may be impossible...

Original Anon here:
Unfortunately, that is impossible in my area. It is relatively small and management knows each other at various banks.

I ran into this too... very discouraging. I think because the bank I work for is family-owned (my family) everyone assumed I was either lazy and only had this job because of my family or that I had done something horrible and my family wanted me to leave. I got only 3 interviews in more than 6 months of actively searching, no job offers at all.

the manager ultimately was. HR and senior management pulled each one in and had discussions with each about why they wanted to leave, then interviewed the manager as well...senior management was quite surprised by what had been happening under their not very watchful eyes