Discreet search · Working guide

Job hunting as an executive
without your employer finding out.

With a team reporting to you, a long notice period and possibly an exclusivity clause, a job search stops being an errand and becomes an operation. This is not encouragement: it is the order in which to move each piece, what never to do, and the real risk attached to each step.

Eight steps and every limit on this page links to its official source

Start with the one thing you can do today without anyone noticing: check how an applicant tracking system reads your CV. The free ATS check takes seconds, needs no sign-up and touches nothing on your LinkedIn profile.

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The framing

The risk is not being seen.
It is the day after.

An analyst who is caught job hunting has an awkward conversation. A director who is caught loses something else: they stop being in the rooms where next year is decided. They drop off the succession list without being told, they are left out of the long project, and their budget is argued on different terms.

That asymmetry is the whole point. If you are found out early you have no alternative yet and already have the cost. If you are found out with a signed offer in hand, being found out is irrelevant. The entire discipline of a confidential search consists of pushing the moment of discovery towards the end.

And it is worth killing the spy-thriller image straight away. Discovery is almost never technical. It is human: a headhunter who calls your company for references, a colleague who notices a profile rebuilt from top to bottom, a mutual contact who mentions over lunch that your CV crossed their desk. All three are prevented by procedure, not by software.

Whoever finds out too early is almost never "the company". It is one specific person who joined two dots.

Which is why the rest of this guide talks less about settings and more about sequence: what is done in private, what is done quickly, and what is said only once it can no longer hurt you.

Before you move at all

The four documents
that decide what you can do.

These are not small print: they are the perimeter. Find them in your contract and your collective agreement before you read a single advert, because they change which companies you can consider and how much notice you owe. The references below are to Spanish law — if you work elsewhere, look for the equivalent rules in your own jurisdiction.

①
The exclusivity agreement
Article 21.1 of the Spanish Workers' Statute allows full dedication to be agreed "by way of express financial compensation". If you have signed one, read article 21.3 as well: an employee receiving that compensation may terminate the agreement and recover the freedom to work elsewhere by giving thirty days' written notice, losing the compensation and the rights attached to it. It is a mechanism the law contemplates, not a negotiation in the dark.
②
The post-termination non-compete
Article 21.2 sets the limits: no longer than two years for technical staff and six months for everyone else, and valid only where the employer has a genuine industrial or commercial interest and the employee receives adequate financial compensation. If you have such a clause, it directly determines which competitors you may approach and when.
③
The duty not to compete while you are still inside
Among the employee's basic duties, article 5.d includes not competing with the company's activity on the terms set by law. Looking for work is not competing; taking information, clients or people with you while still on their payroll may well be. That is the line between a discreet search and a serious problem.
④
The notice you actually owe
Article 49.1.d provides for resignation "subject to the notice period set by collective agreements or by local custom". There is no single figure: it depends on your agreement and your contract, and in executive roles it is usually longer than the hiring company expects. Find out before you commit to a start date, not after.

Consolidated text of the Spanish Workers' Statute (Royal Legislative Decree 2/2015): BOE-A-2015-11430. This page describes the general framework and is not legal advice: if you have signed an exclusivity or non-compete clause, have an employment lawyer read it before you move.

The procedure

Eight steps,
and the order is half the work.

The rule that governs everything else: what takes a long time is done in private; what is visible is done fast. Almost every discovery comes from inverting that order — starting to move visibly and preparing the material as you go, stretching the exposed part over months.

1
Read your contract before you read any advert
The four documents in the previous section. Half an hour, and it defines the map: which competitors are out, what compensation you lose if you end the exclusivity agreement, how much notice you owe. Doing it the other way round forces you to renegotiate as an already-committed candidate, which is the worst possible position.
2
Finish the material before you exist on the market
A complete base CV with figures, periods and context; the reason you are moving, said in one sober sentence; and a short list of companies where you plausibly belong. None of this is visible to anyone and it can take weeks. That is exactly where the slow time belongs.
3
Separate the channel completely
Personal email, personal phone, and a calendar that is not the corporate one. Nothing in the process — not a PDF, not a twenty-minute call, not a meeting invitation — should travel through company systems. Avoid the office wifi where you can. And do not keep the CV on the work laptop or the corporate drive.
4
Close the leaks on your own profile
On LinkedIn, three settings in this order: turn off profile-change notifications to your network, decide how you appear when you view other profiles, and only then decide the visibility of Open to Work. All three are explained with their real limits in Open to Work, recruiters only.
5
Update the profile cold, and in pieces
A profile untouched for three years that is rebuilt on a Tuesday is a signal any member of your team can read. Rewrite it before you start applying, across several separate sittings, and keep in mind what LinkedIn's own help says: anyone who views your profile will see your edits as soon as you save them, even if you have not notified your network.
6
Put conditions to the headhunter in writing
Two sentences in the first email: your search is confidential, and they may not present your profile to any client without your prior approval for that specific company. It is a normal request at executive level and no serious professional takes offence. Ask as well who will see your CV inside the client: in many searches that is more people than you assume.
7
Sort out references before they are requested
Never your current manager, nor anyone still dependent on your employer. Former managers, clients with no live contract, suppliers, outgoing board members. They are handed over at the end of the process, when the intent is real, not in the CV or the first call. And every person on the list is warned before the phone rings.
8
Close before you tell anyone
You speak when the offer is signed, not when it is verbal and not when the headhunter says it is done. Processes collapse between those two points for reasons that have nothing to do with you. Once you sign, the order is: your manager first, your team next, the rest of the organisation when the company says so. Then come notice, an orderly handover and, if one exists, the non-compete.
What gives you away

Six mistakes that expose you
before you have an alternative.

✕
Using company systems
The work inbox, the laptop, the company phone, the meeting room for the video call. In Bărbulescu v. Romania (Grand Chamber, 5 September 2017) the European Court of Human Rights accepted that an employer may monitor employees' communications where there are safeguards against abuse and the employee is informed in advance. Translated into practice: assume that channel is not yours.
✕
Adding the #OpenToWork frame
LinkedIn's help page is explicit: sharing with all members "also includes recruiters and people at your current company", and it adds the frame to your photo. That is a perfectly sensible choice once you have left; it is the opposite of discreet while you are still inside with people reporting to you.
✕
Rebuilding the profile overnight
Turning off notifications hides nothing from anyone who looks: LinkedIn warns that anyone viewing your profile will see your edits as soon as you save them, even if you notified no one. What you can spread out is the pace, and what you can choose is the timing: before you start, not during.
✕
Asking current colleagues for recommendations
A public recommendation signed by your CFO mid-process is an announcement. Asking privately does not fix it either: it makes a colleague complicit in something they did not choose and will have to explain. References come from outside, and they come at the end.
✕
Telling "just one person"
There is always one trusted person and always an excellent reason. The problem is not their loyalty: it is that the information now exists outside you, and their natural reaction — treating you differently, protecting you, quietly stopping putting you forward — is itself the signal you were avoiding.
✕
Letting the headhunter move your CV freely
Without an explicit condition, your profile can land on the desk of a client that turns out to be your own group, a partner or the board of an investee company. It is the fastest way for the news to reach your employer in the shape of a rumour. Company-by-company approval, in writing.
Where it actually breaks

Three moments
and how each one is covered.

None of them is about technology. All three are about people talking to each other.

01
Reference taking
The most common and the most expensive: somebody calls people who know your employer to ask about you. Covered by agreeing in writing that no one is contacted without your prior approval, and by supplying the list yourself instead of letting it be improvised.
Prior approval
02
Overlapping worlds
Your sector is small. The client may be a competitor with shared investors, a supplier of your company, or an investee of your own group. Covered by asking for the client's name before authorising the submission and ruling out the companies where a bounce-back is likely.
Name before submission
03
Your own diary
Three personal appointments in a month, camera off at odd hours, a suit on an ordinary Tuesday. Covered by clustering interviews first thing, last thing or on days off, and by asking for video calls held away from the building. An executive who disappears irregularly is noticed more than one who takes a whole day.
Clustered absences

And if you are found out early anyway, the answer is not denial: it is having a sober, truthful version ready — "I take calls, I listen, I am not in a closed process" — and accelerating. What hurts is not that it is known; it is that it is known while you still have nothing.

How ZenitJob solves it

Search without announcing
that you are searching.

The visible search — flagging the profile, telling your network, asking for favours — exists because preparing applications one by one is slow. If the material is already built, there is nothing to announce.

1
Base CV
You tell your career out loud
You dictate your track record block by block and it comes back structured into achievements with figures, periods and context. One afternoon, in private, and it is the step almost nobody has finished when they start.
2
Openings
The roles come to you
The search runs against job sources from your account, not from your public profile. Nobody around you sees activity because there is none: the movement happens inside the tool.
3
Tailoring
One CV and one letter per role
Each application is adapted to the specific advert without rewriting anything from scratch. That is what lets you apply to a few well-chosen things rather than many badly.
4
Control
The process, in one place
Applications, contacts and stages kept out of the work inbox and out of your head. A process living in a spreadsheet on the corporate laptop is a leak waiting to happen.

Before anything else, check how an applicant tracking system reads your CV with the free ATS check — no sign-up, nothing touched on your profile. If you are still unsure what exactly is being filtered, start with what an ATS is. And to decide your profile's visibility, the companion piece to this guide is Open to Work, recruiters only.

Common questions

Questions about searching quietly

Is it legal to look for another job while employed?
Looking for work is not in itself a breach. What is regulated is competing with your employer. Under Spanish law, the Workers' Statute lists not competing with the company's activity among the employee's basic duties (article 5.d) and allows an exclusivity agreement in exchange for express financial compensation (article 21.1). The problem is rarely searching; it is where you search and with whose systems. This page is not legal advice: if your contract carries an exclusivity or non-compete clause, have an employment lawyer read it, and check the equivalent rules in your own jurisdiction.
Can I switch on Open to Work without my employer seeing it?
You can restrict it to LinkedIn Recruiter users, but that is not a guarantee. LinkedIn's own help page states that to protect your privacy it takes steps to prevent LinkedIn Recruiter users who work at your company from seeing your shared career interests, "but we can't guarantee complete privacy". The other option, sharing with all members, is public and adds the #OpenToWork photo frame. The detail is in the dedicated guide.
Can I use my work email if I delete the messages?
No. In Bărbulescu v. Romania (Grand Chamber, 5 September 2017) the European Court of Human Rights accepted that an employer may take measures to monitor employees' communications, provided there are adequate safeguards against abuse and the employee is informed in advance. In other words, monitoring is possible once those conditions are met. Treat the corporate laptop, phone and inbox as someone else's channel.
Should I tell my deputy?
Not while the process is open. It is not about trusting them: it puts them in an impossible position, because from that moment every decision they make about the team is made with information their own managers do not have. The conversation matters, but it belongs after signature, as part of the handover.
What do I do about a counter-offer?
Treat it for what it is: a negotiation in which the other side already knows you wanted to leave. It can be sincere and it can fix the real reason you were leaving, but decide before it arrives what would make you stay, write it down, and check whether the counter-offer covers it. Accepting money when the reason was the remit, the reporting line or the project usually postpones the exit rather than preventing it.
How much notice do I have to give?
Under Spanish law, article 49.1.d of the Workers' Statute provides for resignation "subject to the notice period set by collective agreements or by local custom". There is no single figure: it depends on your collective agreement and your contract, and executive notice periods tend to be longer. Find out your real period before you commit to a start date.
Sources

Where each limit comes from

Everything this page asserts about LinkedIn or about the law comes from these sources. Where a claim cannot be supported by one of them, it is stated qualitatively or not at all.

LinkedIn · "Let recruiters know you're Open to Work" (visibility options and the privacy caveat) LinkedIn · "Share profile updates with your network" (what is notified and what is visible anyway) BOE · Spanish Workers' Statute, consolidated text (articles 5, 21 and 49) ECtHR · Q&A on the Grand Chamber judgment in Bărbulescu v. Romania (5 September 2017)
Start with the invisible part

The material is built in private.
The visible part is short.

Tell your career out loud and ZenitJob turns it into a base CV with figures, periods and context. From there, each application is tailored without announcing anything to anyone.

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