If your own boss sucks and would make your life even more miserable if they found out you were looking then it’s pretty normal / natural to not want them to find out.
I applied for an internal position once that wasn’t a great fit in terms of my qualifications. But they sometimes had trouble filling positions and I thought that if they couldn’t find anyone better qualified than me then they’d probably think I was better than an empty chair. Would’ve been a steeper learning curve for me than they would’ve liked but of course I’d have eventually figured things out.
And I had an absolutely soul-sucking boss, so I didn’t tell Boss. Not sure if Boss ever found out. I didn’t get the job because they found someone better qualified than me and rightly hired that person. (I would’ve picked that person over me too.) None of my boss’s business that I threw my hat into the ring as far as I’m concerned.
I left a few months later for an external position, because yes, I was looking outside the company too.
Yup and sometimes you hope having knowledge of the company structure and systems will give you an edge over someone more qualified but has to learn about the company from scratch.
Yeah, I figured that would help. They’d have to teach me different stuff than an external candidate.
I think the new position was like the same or maybe one job level higher than the job level I was at, so not unreasonable in that regard. But it was a product line that I had zero experience with. I’d worked on a product that’s kinda similar, but different. They wanted more product knowledge than I had. I certainly knew the basics, just from exams and working at a company that offered the product and sitting in on presentations when those actuaries presented at the monthly (quarterly? I can’t recall) actuarial lunches. Stuff like that. But they ended up finding someone who checked all the boxes much better than me.
I knew it was a long shot, but if I didn’t apply then I definitely wouldn’t have gotten it.
I don’t fully agree with this. In the actuarial profession, it’s pretty common for people to want to transfer to different teams to broaden/enhance current knowledge/skills, and has nothing to do with a current boss. Maybe you’ve been working on traditional ratemaking for a few years and want to get on the predictive modeling team. Maybe you want to try reserving. Branching out is often encouraged if you ultimately want a managerial or chief actuary role.
Additionally, I don’t think it’s weird for a hiring manager to want to reach out to your existing manager. They would likely want his/her perspective on how hard of a worker you are and if you would be a good fit for the new team. I would appreciate if the hiring manager asked my permission first, of course, just in case I was trying to escape my boss, but I think that’s a different question.
That’s the key. Most people want to leave their job because they’re not too happy with their job and regardless of the reason, nobody wants to announce it before they have the next job secured.