I’m a few years into my current job and have been looking for roles in a different field. After a long job-search process and many interview rounds, it’s finally down to just me and one other candidate for a position I’m really excited about. About two weeks have passed since the final interview and I haven’t heard anything, even after a quick follow-up email. But last week, my current boss suddenly told me that he knows I’m a finalist for the job! It turns out, one of the interviewers knew my boss from a long time ago and talked about my candidacy to a few people in the field who know both me and my boss — and word eventually got around to my boss.

I was stunned. My boss seemed relatively supportive, but he said he wants to put up a job posting for my current role and asked me to start creating transition documents. I told him that of course I want to do everything I can to make the transition easier, and that I appreciate his support, but those steps feel a little premature, especially because I actually think I didn’t get the job!

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