Job adverts written with a specific person in mind

Good Thinking @Mygardenandme you are more mature than I, absolutely use it as practice for future interviews at jobs that bloody deserve you!
im immaturely hoping that they offer the job to shoe-in, you interview and get a better job elsewhere, shoe-in then rejects job and they come crawling to you but Nooo! You are onward and upwards!!

That's what I'm saying. Don't play their game!

But sounds like they’ve written it for a particular person, but if it is public sector they have to evidence they’ve interviewed others for the role. Even if theyre wasting some candidates time 🙄

They want you to apply so it looks like they gave you the opportunity but you weren't up to it. If it's that specific then no one else will apply either. Fuck em and look for another job.

@Watchweek I know how that’s meant to be (and if it is where you are / under you - that’s great) but in too many places unprofessionalism and favouritism, and structures where it’s impossible to manage people out can be rife!

how arseit of them @Mygardenandme !! (Think that’s how you spell it?!)
hopefully he’ll be feeling really awkward and uncomfortable now.
am really sorry that their shitty behaviour been confirmed.
wonder if is anyway you could really increase the uncomfortableness for them, or is that too petty?

Apply anyway definitely. I had a similar thing where the job was obviously earmarked for one particular guy and I don’t think they imagined anyone else would apply but I wanted it and I interviewed so well that in the end they split it between the two of us and then I was much better at it and he left and I got the whole job and am still doing it today.

Not in the public sector I work in.

Job criteria is written from the job description, which is the role you will be doing. The job description has to match the post, otherwise the employer is not filling the gap in the work required.

If you can't meet the job criteria and can't do the job, you'd soon be out as performance management targets will not be met.

Pretty sure whoever sent it to you knows it’s not right (morally) then.
Bet it’s public sector somewhere.

I’ve seen job descriptions written with a view that either the organisation needs a skill it doesn’t have and guesses as to what the qualifications and skills should be (to the point where I saw one in my sector that specifically asked for a qualification that hadn’t existed for 20 years and had been phased out as so few people did it - it wasn’t written for someone in mind, the organisation just didn’t have a clue this qualification no longer existed). The “or” is they are trying to add things to the job description to ensure it meets a certain pay grade, knowing they won’t get candidates unless it has that salary but the organisations grading system wouldn’t score it high enough anyway. If you’re internal, have an open chat with the recruiting manager- what have you got to lose?

Rather than assuming this is written for a specific person, there is always the possibility that they have made the criteria so tight to ensure that only people with the perfect experience can apply. This saves the employer and the candidate time. Not everything in life is sinister, sometimes it's just sensible.

Rather than assuming this is written for a specific person, there is always the possibility that they have made the criteria so tight to ensure that only people with the perfect experience can apply. This saves the employer and the candidate time. Not everything in life is sinister, sometimes it's just sensible.

I had an interview for a job where the interview questions were obviously written with one person in mind. She was a volunteer, going for this paid position. The question answers we gave were marked and scored. There was no way for me to know the answers to them. You would need to have been a volunteer there to know...

Total waste of my time. I wish I had told them what I thought of them at the time.

I'd be tempted to apply with words 'Although I cannot meet some of the criteria, I am aware the job role entails doing XYZ but I can do this by ABC'.

How big an organisation?
Is it worth asking to have a chat with someone in HR about whether it would be worthwhile you applying? If after a chat they can see that things are being rigged, they might intervene.
If there's anything potentially discriminatory (eg requirement for a qualification in working with Sinclair Spectrums might be age discrimination because it's not something that's been available to younger applicants), that might be something that could be challenged. If you're in a union that might be worth exploring with them.

That's not even close to meeting the threshold for constructive dismissal. For a start the OP would actually have to quit her job and then claim she had to leave because she didn't get a different one. There's no way to claim they forced her to leave.

Same here, I was once encouraged to apply for a job, internally…. and as I was putting my jacket on after leaving the interview, my social media had a colleague post while I was still in interview how excited she was about her new job offer:..🤨

I’d apply. And say that - in politer terms.

Hmmm I’d be wondering if that’s legal. I mean it could construe constructive dismissal if they’re blocking others qualified from applying but hard to prove

I do wonder sometimes if employers are obliged to advertise a position even if they have a specific person in mind for it, and the selection process is somehow rigged in favour of the preferred candidate. If it's any consolation to you, OP, it isn't by any means just you.

A similar thing has happened recently to two people I know who are job-hunting. In once case, the applicant was rejected out of hand despite being very well-qualified for the post. In the other case, the applicant was initially offered the job, but a week or so later the offer was withdrawn. It feels like too much of a coincidence that the other person on the short-list was an "internal candidate"...