Many senior people tell nobody they are looking.

They don't tell their peers they want to leave. They don't tell old colleagues they are out of work. They don't post. They don't comment. They don't ask for an introduction.

Then they do the one thing nobody sees.

They send another application.

I call it the quiet search.

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Why it happens

Ask them, and you hear the same lines.

"I don't want to look desperate." "It has been eight months. I'm embarrassed." "I was never good at posting." "My peers would find it cringe."

These fears are real. You spent years building your name. You don't want to put it at risk.

An application feels safe. Nobody sees it. Nobody judges it. You get a small sense of progress.

Then the rejection arrives, or nothing arrives. So you send another one.

What it costs

In my experience, senior roles move through people, not job posts.

Someone has a problem. They ask around. They name a person.

If nobody knows you are open to a move, nobody names you.

Apply, and you join a pile of hundreds. Be known, and you join a list of three.

The quiet search keeps you in the pile.

It also costs you at night. 11 p.m. The house is quiet. You scroll roles below your level and ask, "Does anyone still need what I do?"

Hiring did not get harder for you. It got quieter.

The silence says nothing about your worth. It means the people who decide have not seen your work.

A client's story

One client, a Chief Growth Officer, ran the quiet search for eight months.

He had three short tenures before the gap. He was embarrassed. So he posted nothing. He messaged no one. He waited.

When he finally wrote something, he announced nothing. He wrote about what he had seen go wrong, and the few things he now checks first.

A few board members read it. Their reply was almost word for word: "We saw that too, and our current guy did not. Do you want to come in and consult for us?"

He showed how he thinks. People who needed that thinking found it.

Make the first step small

You don't have to become a LinkedIn influencer. You don't have to announce anything.

Start here.

Make your profile match the work you do today. The wider scope. The harder decisions. The results.

That is housekeeping. People update their profiles after a promotion or a big project all the time.

Next, when you are ready, comment on a peer's post.

Post last.

You set the pace.

One thing to try this week

Write down one thing you have watched go wrong in your sector that most people have not seen.

One sentence. What happened, and what it cost.

Keep it. You don't have to publish it yet. It is the first thing you will have to say when you are ready.

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You do not need to announce that you are looking.

You do need to give people something useful to see.

Three free live evenings start Tuesday 17 November.

UNDENIABLE Bootcamp. 17 to 19 November. For executives and senior professionals in financial services, fintech and FX.

We start with why the silence says nothing about your worth.

Register Free

I send the Zoom link and reminders by email. Use the address you check.

Anca