Switching Jobs 6

[ysm]

I work in a small company and have aspirations to work for larger companies and exploit my higher education.
Our clients are big aerospace companies. I am the technical lead in my company. I interact with the Clients' engineers from the beginning of the project to the end. They have been so far very pleased with my work.
Would it be unethical of me to send them a personal email saying I am looking for a position in their company.


Thanks
YSM

 

[jmw]

Yes, but this isn't looking for a job in another company where you have contacts but which isn't a client or competitor.

I just think it needs a bit of care where there is an ongoing client/supplier relationship and where there are potential pitfalls.

I would be very wary of approaching client contacts because it is easy to mistake or misinterpret a working professional relationship as something more. In the business interchanges there is a need to relate to each other in a professional manner no matter what your private opinion is of the other person.

On the other hand, someone with whom you are associated and who knows you well and appreciates your abilities without those constraints may represent a fairer interpretation of their regard for you.

So if I were to approach someone whom I'd worked with in another company, outside the client supplier relationship, I would be confident of doing so.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[ysm]

Thanks all,
I agree with KENAT that sometimes it is a matter of "who you know". I wont call the client up with an agenda but the next time I talk to him I will let him know that I am looking for opportunities in bigger companies. If he thinks I can be an asset in his company fine or at least he might refer me to other contacts of his.

I am only tilting towards this strategy because applying through the 'front door' hasn't resulted even in an HR call let alone a technical interview. I am fairly confident of my skills and have experience and educational background to back it up.

 

[jmw]

At the moment they get your skills for free.... they come as part of the supplier's package.
Unless the skills you offer go beyond what you already do for them, or their operation calls for duplication, will they want to increase their own head count?

What you say about the lack of response from HR does tend to justify what KENAT said, unless they haven't responded for the reasons above.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

weeeds

That was the strangest thing I think I've seen anyone say anywhere on these boards...

ysm,

Anytime you mention to anyone that you're looking lookign for a new job, you are taking the risk that it gets back to your employers. Doubly so, if you are tlakign to someone with a business or personal relationship with your employers. So be careful how you say what to whom.

 

[Twoballcane]

In most cases, especially in well defined industry like yours, companies share the same gene pool of people; I have been going between two companies three times in my career. And in each company I have met ex-employees of the other company. But just like Bruno said, keep your move as "need to know" only with a few people as possible on both sides of the fence.

You are in charge of your career, not your current or future company.


Tobalcane
"If you avoid failure, you also avoid success."

 

[weeeds]

I'm fascinated with the comments made regarding my post and I would like to learn from this experience. Please explain to me your reactions to the following points I made:

a) Yes, this is unethical: My position is that by contacting a client looking for work the employee will undermine the relationship between the employer and the client. This can cause the client to become concerned about the stability of the employer or to be woried that there are problems within the employer. This alone can cause red flags to go up and result with the client go looking for another supplier.

b) Because I've taken the side of the employer stating that too often employees forget where they got their knowledge from? This is absolutely true as too often people forget that they weren't born with knowledge but aquired it over time.

c) Because employers don't take risks in hiring employees?

d) Because I take the position that there is a declining level of professionalism in engineering?

e) Because we now hire based on character as opposed to knowledge?

f) Because I encouraged the employee to leave this employer as he is clearly not happy working in a small company?

g) Something else that I'm missing?

Please help me understand where my thoughts are so wrong.

 

[BJC]

"Because we now hire based on character as opposed to knowledge?"
You have a different defination of character than most people.

"Because I take the position that there is a declining level of professionalism in engineering?"
If you hire based on your defination of "Character" you are not going to see the best and brightest, just the timid and compliant.
If you hire them out of the eighth grade and teach them every thing they need to know to work for you, your logic might hold. Msot have four or five years of time and tens of thousands of dollars invested in the knowledge they bring you. Do you reimberse your employees for the knowledge they have gained and brought to you?


"Because employers don't take risks in hiring employees?" Do they take more or less of a risk than does the employee?



"Something else that I'm missing?"
Start by reading "On Liberty" by John Stewart Mill and the Thirteenth ammendment to the US Constitution.

 

[patprimmer]

weeeds

You have not missed a thing. That is if you support the feudal system of government.

Employees certainly learn on the job. They also certainly bring fresh knowledge to the employer. That ratio varies greatly from case to case. Is it unethical for an employer to fire an employee then continue to use the knowledge that employee bought to the company.

The reason that approaching your bosses customer is unethical is not because it causes the employer inconvenience or even profit, it is because the relationship was made on the employers time and as a direct result of work paid for by the employer.

If the contact is made without depending on knowledge gained from the employer, like response to an add in the public domain, or even (maybe) as a result of an approach from a head hunter it is then ethical in a free market environment. After all if the boss has a right to fire you, you have an equal right to quit.



Regards
Pat
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