I made it to final rounds in a job interview process and have been selected as the final candidate. They said will offer me the job pending a good reference and background check. Salary and benefits won't be talked about until then (though they've told me the salary range for the position). When they asked for references they said they strongly prefer one of my references to be my boss. However, my boss is NOT supportive of me looking for another job - whenever I've broached the subject before he's gotten very defensive and it's very uncomfortable. He wouldn't sabotage a reference check if I included him but I would really prefer not to have to talk to him about this until I have a written offer that I want to accept. If they decide for whatever reason not to offer me the job, then I've created a huge divide with my boss and current work situation that I would like to avoid at all possible costs.
Is there a tactful way that I can push back and not include my boss as a reference without looking like I'm trying to hide something? How can I explain this? This is my first job out of college (been working here for 6.5 years) so I don't have another former boss I can list but I do have other department heads that oversee my work that I can include in my reference list.
Submitted September 14, 2017 at 08:09AM by jobsearch2 http://ift.tt/2y8s36G
