It occurs to me to add that I will probably not be telling colleagues about the application this time round.

The week I didn't get the last job, we had a team meeting on 'staff development'. I thought about it for some time and decided I would talk about the beneficial development involved in appraising your present job, skills etc and applying for a new one. Even if I then had to admit that I'd been turned down.

I heard later that some around the table that morning had been a bit shocked by my even applying to leave. It might have been a good rumor-buster, but I suspect a low-grade explosive device let off in the room might have had less impact.