I've looped my previous two bosses in on my job hunts. They were natural extensions of my career and personal development. For various reasons (geography, room for promotion, comp) there wasn't room to grow.
I recommend seriously considering telling your boss you are looking. Don't do it if you are at all hesitant, but ideally it fits in with career conversations you're already having.
And it definitely saved me a lot of embarrassment when an interviewer leaked that I was looking to my coworker, who immediately told my boss. That's not supposed to happen, but tech is small and people know each other.
> I recommend seriously considering telling your boss you are looking
I seriously recommend _against_ this. Except in very particular and situational cases. If you decide to do anyway, be prepared to ramp up your job search, you might need it sooner than you anticipated.
No, you won't immediately get fired because you are looking. Probably.
However, this sets a flag in your manager's head. You are a 'flight risk', so they need to start preparing for your departure, even if it doesn't happen. This has the potential to start all sorts of gears in the larger machinery.
There aren't many upsides of disclosing early in the process, and many potential downsides.
Yes, definitely don't do it if you are just dabbling and aren't sure if you're leaving. I told one of them I was giving my 6 month notice, +/- 3 months.
Even that is a big NO in most cases. Giving a 6 months heads up is a quick way to get a smaller bonus, shit work, shit attitude, maybe even let go early.
Here in Germany many work contracts can be up to one year notice depending on the seniority and business domain, so unless you are so lucky to find a job willing to wait for you that long, many have to give notice without really having an offer and hope for the best.
However the usual notice period is around 4 weeks before each quartal end, miss that, and have to be around yet another quartal, unless HR and the boss agree with letting you going earlier.
That sounds terrible but aren’t workers generally treated well in Germany? I’ve seen that workers for factories usually have a legally required seat on the board of directors.
But either way, the good thing about “at will” work in the US is giving two weeks is often a courtesy. If I didn’t have respect for my colleague and boss I’d consider giving them even less notice.
I recommend seriously considering telling your boss you are looking. Don't do it if you are at all hesitant, but ideally it fits in with career conversations you're already having.
And it definitely saved me a lot of embarrassment when an interviewer leaked that I was looking to my coworker, who immediately told my boss. That's not supposed to happen, but tech is small and people know each other.