What would you do: internal job posting dilemma (long)

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m looking for some different perspectives on a bit of a pickle.

Sally Mae, our protagonist, works at a mid-sized government contractor. Sally Mae’s department is facing major downsizing due to the loss of the contract that funds most of the department. While Sally Mae doesn’t work on that contract, she and her peers were told that they are currently looking at everyone with the same skillset, and that includes them. To complicate matters, Sally Mae’s supervisor, Bobby Joe, confidentially told Sally Mae not to worry – but another co-workers, Fannie Dee, randomly told her that she was also told the same thing and Bobby Joe later took it back. Clear as mud?

In any case, Sally Mae’s department was told of some open positions, in the interests of getting people internal jobs before the end-of-contract date, so Sally Mae decided to apply for one of those jobs. It’s in a different though related area that Sally has been interested in for quite some time, but she didn’t know much about the position. Now, another position has come available in Sally Mae’s department that would be a step up as well.

Sally Mae already had an interview for the new department and it looks like a really sweet gig. She’s really interested in this new job no matter how things work out where she is; the skill set is more in-demand, it’d be challenging and would be a good resume-builder. The new manager seems incredibly cool and engaged with her work, and she feels she’d be a much better cultural fit in that area. She’s also not entirely happy in her department, and doesn’t feel at home there (Fanny Dee is a bit of a problem – though she may, of course, be laid off). She really hit it off with the prospective new boss. She’s really keen about a career in this new area. But, she’s concerned she may not get the job, though the interview went very well. She’d be much more likely to get the departmental job. Both jobs have the same pay grade, and of course the same benefits, etc.

Here’s the dilemma:

All things being equal, Sally Mae would just as soon apply for both jobs just in case. However, the in-house recruitment system is a bit backward. Sally Mae can only enter one resume and one cover letter, viewable anytime by the hiring manager of any position she applies to. Because the step up in her department is a very different kind of job in terms of skillset, the cover letter won’t work. Sally Mae has to use this system to apply for the new job if she wants to be considered for it; even if she’s already in Bobby Joe’s mind as a top candidate, she won’t be considered if she doesn’t.

The prospective new manager, additionally, voiced concern that she was getting applicants who were just sort of looking for anywhere because they had no jobs. Sally Mae assuaged her that this wasn’t the case, and that she’d brought up working in this new department as a potential career move a long time ago with her boss. Sally Mae is concerned that the potential new boss could check in on this system and see the app for a job in her own department, with her own cover letter and resume altered for it, and this could thus affect her chances.

Oh, and one more thing: both managers want to fill the positions ASAP, and there’s no way to wait out the position she’s gunning for and then apply for the other one, since Bobby Joe has already proclaimed that he will close the position as quickly as permissible by HR policy. Interviews are already being scheduled.

You’re Sally Mae. Do you:

  • Apply for the new job with Bobby Joe anyway, change the info for the departmental job and hope that the prospective new manager doesn’t look at it again?

  • Apply for the new job, but leave no cover letter in the system (the resume’ll work as is), and instead send a private cover letter to Bobby Joe – risking that she’ll have to explain the reason why, and further that the prospective manager might wonder why it’s gone? (This was, incidentally, HR’s solution to the problem with the website.)

  • Apply for the new job but not change anything, even though this’ll very likely alienate Bobby Joe in a way that affects not only a new job, but her current position?

  • Don’t apply for the new job, since it might knock her out of the running for what she really wants?

  • Some other option?

2

Given the impossibility of applying fully and completely for both jobs through this convoluted system as I understand it, I think this is your best option. You clearly want the job with the new department; you should do everything in your power to get that job. You want people to be thinking of you as interested in and capable of doing that job, so that even if you don’t get it, you are in their minds as similar positions come up.

You will be making a sacrifice in not hedging by applying for the “backup position”, but I think in the long run you will be happier if you really go for what you want.

3

Is she in a position to go and have a talk to the prospective new manager, explaining that that job is her number 1 pick, but given the uncertainties in the department, that she is planning to apply for the other role just in case she doesn’t get the job? And that she is giving that manager a private heads up to explain why the resume is in there - a very back up plan, and that she’s still fully committed to and interested in job A.

Alternatively, she could simply ask the prospective new manager by when she thinks she will have made a decision - if it’s before the closeoff for the other role, wait and see how things go before applying.

4

Well she definitely needs to go for what she wants.
And if HR has acknowledged an issue with the system as is, and SUGGESTED A WORKAROUND FOR IT, then by all means use it! Nobody will think it’s odd.