Confidentiality of job application

Question

A (company-internal) recruiter reached out to me via linkedin a few days ago. We had a call and he arranged a conversation with their higher management level. The contact is very preliminary, I've just talked to the recruiter about the role very quickly and we didn't talk about any details yet, including the compensation.

I now discovered that somebody from the team I would be managing visited my linkedin profile.

I'm very concerned. It's a smallish company and we live in a big city. There's a chance that's a coincidence but it's relatively small. None of my linkedin contacts works for the company. I assume the HR or somebody from the management must have mentioned me to the person or the whole team.

I have a good job right now and I don't want anybody to know I'm considering switching. I don't even know if I'm interested in switching at all. I'm very concerned that they might have shared the info about me being interested with the team that early in the process. Is that a red flag?

I'm i the EU.

Answer 1

I'm very concerned that they might have shared the info about me being interested with the team that early in the process. Is that a red flag?

I have worked for organizations where people who were very technical had a role in interviewing management candidates, they even interviewed people who would b their boss. One of my children while working on their bachelors degree was on the committee that was interviewing candidates for Dean.

Since they reached out to you, and you expressed some interest, they could have had somebody on the hiring team do a quick review of your profile.

Answer 2

Is that a red flag?

Typically not.

In many cases this standard operation procedure. When a recruiter or hiring manager put an interview plan together they often involve other people for quick scan, assessment, interviewing, etc.

This is done with the understanding that the application is confidential, i.e. all information stays inside the company.

Answer 3

People view each other's LinkedIn profiles all the time so even if someone in your current company could see that someone else viewed your profile I doubt that this on it's own would raise any alarm bells with your present company.

Having said that, you're probably right that you have been mentioned to people in your prospective team and they got curious.

You could even take it as a positive that they like you enough to tell your prospective team that they are considering recruiting you.

You can lock down who views your profile in the privacy settings on linkedin if this is concerning you.