So you hate your job - but you can't afford to hand in your notice. But how on earth do you find the time to search for a new job, and how can you manage to keep your job search secret?

Let's face it, the dress code in most offices means that if you turn up for work in a suit, you might as well have "I'm going for a job interview today" tattooed on your forehead!

Don't despair, there are strategies you can use to make job-hunting while you're working less complicated.

If you drive into work, you have an easy solution - keep a set of interview clothes in your car at all times.  Those who take public transport have to be more ingenious! 

If your office dress code is casual, start introducing a few smarter elements into your work wardrobe. How you do that will depend on what your colleagues wear, and what you can get away with, without being noticed.

For instance, you could start wearing street shoes instead of sneakers with your jeans and t-shirts. Or if some people wear smart pants to work, you can too. Make your changes gradually, so people have time to get used to one change before you introduce the next. You'll be surprised how little they'll notice.

The more interview-ready pieces you can wear routinely, the better. For the rest, you'll have to find a way to carry them to work.

You could pretend you've joined a gym, which will give you an excuse to carry a backpack to work. In fact, it may even be worth joining a gym - one that provides a personal locker, where you can leave key elements of your interview wardrobe.

In boom times when good employees are hard to find, most employers are willing to arrange interviews before or after your normal work day, or during your lunch break. If you're asked to attend an interview, always try to push for one of those times first. The worst they can do is say no - it's unlikely they'll wipe you off the list just because you asked the question!

In tough times when there are lots of candidates out there, employers are more likely to insist that candidates fit in with their timetable. That can be tough - how do you explain away the need to be absent from work at odd times?

If your workplace offers flexible hours, you have an easy solution. Start varying your routine now, so people get used to the idea that you may not come into the office till 10am some days, or that you'll disappear at 4. If you put in some extra long days as part of this strategy, your boss isn't likely to complain.

If you don't work flexible hours now, do you think you might be able to apply to do so? Can you think of a plausible reason to give to your boss?

If you can't work flexible hours, what about time in lieu? Can you find an excuse to work a lot of overtime, then generously offer to take your time in lieu as a few hours here and there instead of taking whole days off - "so as not to leave your colleagues in the lurch".

Your final straightforward option is to use sick leave, either for medical appointments or by taking the whole day off - but if you have to go for several interviews over several weeks, the boss is going to wonder what's wrong with you! And let's face it, there are only so many times you can go to the dentist before your boss starts asking questions.

To cover your tracks, you may have to get devious. Whether you feel comfortable with that is up to you! If you're going to make up a story, the easiest one to sustain is a troublesome injury (like a bad back or knee) that needs constant visits to the physiotherapist for rehabilitation. Or you could invent a mystery illness that needs specialist appointments, medical tests and repeated consultations with your GP to diagnose.

Another plausible excuse is an aged relative who may need your assistance urgently at unpredictable times of day.

Personally, I'm not sure I could sustain this kind of charade for any length of time - think carefully about whether you could keep up the pretence, and how long for!

Luckily, job hunting while still at work is much easier than it used to be, because most vacancies are advertised on the internet. If a post is advertised on the net, you can usually apply via email, too.

Don't use your personal Yahoo or Hotmail account, especially if you have a cute nickname - an application from snookums @hotmail.com is likely to get caught in most companies' spam filters, and even if it doesn't, it's not going to get taken seriously!. It's vital to sound professional, so sign up for an adult-sounding email address such as yourname @gmail.

Give your mobile number, not your work number, when making your application (if you don't have a mobile phone, get one - it's important to be easily contactable). It's fine to explain, in your covering letter, that you're working and don't want your current employer to be aware of your application.

If an employer does call you while you're in the office, keep calm! Don't try to have a one-sided conversation at your desk, even if the employer offers it - you won't present yourself at your best. Don't dash into the corridor or the toilets to have a furtive conversation, either. Instead, keep your voice natural and say you'll call them back, preferably giving them an indication of when you'll ring. Then as soon as you can, step out for a coffee or go for your lunch break, and ring them back when you're well away from workmates.

Think twice before using your company email to send applications, or surfing job sites at work. Companies don't monitor their employees' use of email and the internet as much as you think - but it's easy to underestimate just how much your colleagues, or your boss, sees over your shoulder when they're passing by. You don't want to be caught out.

The nasty thing about applying for other jobs while you're still working is - you have to be devious. You may be able to avoid outright lies, but you can't avoid a certain amount of deception. For most people, that's a stressful situation to be in.

Because you're busy at your current job, it's very easy for job-hunting to become a sporadic affair. You may only apply for one or two jobs a week - or even less - which means you're stuck in a deceitful situation for longer, which only adds to your stress.

It's much better to try to get things over with as fast as possible. Make up your mind to devote all your spare time to job-hunting for a few weeks. Spend your evenings and weekends surfing the net looking for jobs, then apply for any and every job you think you could do, even if you don't think you stand a snowball's chance of getting it.

A common mistake jobseekers make is to draw up a list of jobs, then talk themselves out of half of them with excuses like, "I'm not qualified yet" or "I don't have enough experience".

Stop it! If you think you could do the job, apply. What's the worst that can happen? You won't get it. All you've wasted is half an hour writing a letter. If you apply by email, you haven't even wasted paper and a postage stamp!

Remember, you don't know who else is applying for any of these jobs. You may think you're not qualified enough, but you may be lucky and no one else qualified has applied either. Or they may have a junior position coming up in the same department - you won't get the senior one, but they might consider you for the junior role. Anything can happen with job applications, and often does!

Once you've made the applications, file them away in an obscure folder and never think about them again unless you get a call to interview. That way, you won't get depressed about how many people haven't acknowledged your letter or how many people have turned you down.

It is difficult to apply yourself wholeheartedly to a job search while you're working and it can't be done without some subterfuge. Personally, I find the whole cloak-and-dagger thing too stressful and am more inclined to bite the bullet, hand in my notice and treat my job search as a full-time job. I guess I'm lucky that I can afford to do that!

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All text copyright Marisa Wright. Spilt coffee photo by HSharp, smart casual photo by Zadeus, Me? by Lauren Close, all on Flickr.