In a cover letter, is it ok to say "thank you for your discretion" to avoid them from contacting CURRENT employers?
I had to give some thought to this question.
Your cover letter is presumably written to accompany your resume and perhaps an application form, in anticipation to being invited for an interview.
I don’t see why they would want to contact your current employer at this stage of the game as they haven’t even met you yet. So I would say don’t add ‘thank you for your discretion.’
If you make it to the interview stage, you are going to need to be prepared for the fact that they very well may contact your current employer.
Some will make the offer, contingent upon contacting your references.
Some may want to do some preliminary research on you prior to making an offer.
If you make it this far, you will need to be prepared for your current employer being contacted. Might be a good idea to advise them in advance that you are looking for another job.
As orignally answered on Quora.com.
I scheduled a phone interview for 2:30 p.m. mountain standard Time and when I went back to my email to reconfirm whereas it was 10 minutes later than 2:30 already it reads please allow for a call within 30 minutes of the scheduled time. That seems strange to me.. and now we approach the last 5 minutes of that 30-minute window and still no hide no hair no phone call. Do I reach out to them after the 30 minutes is up or do I assume that I should move on and keep looking elsewhere?