NHS job advert has closed before deadline date! Is there anything I can do?

[RACorAA]

Ive seen a job that I wanted to apply for on the NHS jobs website last weekend. The deadline wasnt until next week, however, when I went back onto the site to continue my application it says that this post is now closed! Its barely been up a week! Can they do this? If I had known, I would have applied sooner but was busy so left it till later.

Im really gutted as I really wanted the job or at least have a crack at applying even!

Can I email HR and aak them to accept my application??!

If you have still got access to see the advert, and there are some contact details on there for the recruiting manager, send them an email explaining the situation and briefly explain your suitability for the role and ask if there is any possibility they would consider a late application from you.

In my experience internal only ads for 1 week are usually for a known internal candidate. Jobs which close early are where they don’t want to be shortlisting over 30/40/50 applications. This isn’t a great solution for a recruiting manager as your best applications are usually those who apply close to the deadline having spent time working on their supporting statement rather than just resubmitting their existing saved application for any old job.

Yes they can do that and there is nothing you can do. Some jobs are very popular and will get a lot of responses e.g. psychology

@RosamundDarnley yep it’s definitely a thing

It probably wasn't earmarked for an internal candidate and just very popular. It was for a band 3 trainee post in an admin role with good progression.

That's going to be a super popular post RAC. A friend recruited for a trainee physio assistant role and got 400 applications!

Don't contact the recruiter, they have to be consistent and can't be making exceptions for no valid reason.

Save your application details though, so you can be straight in there next time they advertise.

NoBaggyPants 400? How on earth do you shortlist through that! My brain would be fried after the first 100!

With my NHS trust (no longer work there) roles were advertised internally first, so can’t imagine it was closed for an internal member.
Suspect you have just not been quick enough as the other hundreds of people! Better luck next time OP.

Agree with Murinae. This is what my manager does. As soon as the person who she wants for the position has applied they close the advert. Regardless of who else may have applied for it. Is unfair on those who else would like to apply for it!

This is common practice for most jobs. I think the only ones that tend to stay open until the deadlines no matter what are graduate positions.

ChrisPrattsFace Our NHS trust are no liner allowed to advertise certain positions internally. Hence they go on the nhs job site just long enough for the specific person to apply

Happens all the time, although in my experience if someone internal wanted it would just be internal applications. When I applied 250 people applied in 3 days!

Sounds like the sort of thing they would get an unmanageable number of applications for in a few days.

I once was asked to apply for an NHS job which was going to be advertised at a certain time then closed as soon as I had applied. Apparently that trust had a policy every job had to go on NHS jobs, though they were clear I was the only candidate who would be shortlisted. It was a somewhat more niche field and I had been offered the job verbally before the it was advertised.

I work in the NHS and when i have advertised for particular posts they are often so popular we have closed after a day or two (once 100 applications received) as its just impossible to shortlist after a certain number of applications (particularly since shortlisting has to happen in addition to a normal full time workload). Other times we have put put am advert and only had two applicants. It's weirdly unpredictable! Hope you have better luck next time OP

There's usually a set limit of applications - 50 to 70 is normal.

The website automatically closes the job down after the set number of applications has been met.

Regardless of who has applied or whether they're suitable.

Irritating, especially when it's a job seemingly perfect for you.

I've seen internal applicants accidentally lose out as they've left it too late to apply.

Another trick is to keep the job ad open for as little time as possible.

That can throw someone who's searched, found the job once and then tried to look for it again and it's not there.

@Poppiesway1 well that sucks!

I was also under the understanding that no identifiable information was available - as someone else mentioned it’s a points system, the applicant information is only available once shortlisted so, in most applications/job roles... how would you know that the ‘person they’re waiting for’ has applied?
(I assume something identifiable in the personal statement section?)

Yeah, sorry but it's common in my field to remove adverts early-ish. Assistant psychologist posts can get 200 applications in a day!

Chris it's usually the references.
I've advertised but don't close once internal candidates have applied. We have also appointed external people over internal.

And current employer of course

@ChrisPrattsFace yeah that's right, but like you said, you put something identifiable in there, like where you currently work for eg. I've been to told to done whilst applying for jobs internally.

ChrisPrattsFace I know! I’ve learnt that staffing in the nhs is very unfair! they don’t seem to go for the most overall suitable candidate, but someone they’ve promised the job too. In my dept’s office there are many relatives working together in jobs that don’t even seem to be advertised for more than a blink of the eye. We’ve had managers create positions and write job specs for them then to apply and get them.. (other manager in charge of selecting candidates for interview) putting themselves up a higher band. It’s all very underhand.
For a particular job a certain MSc module was needed which none of us had. obv the manager knew this prior to the job being advertised as they were writing the job spec. They accidentally sent me an email and in the trail of messages were the conversations they’d had with a uni about them applying for the Msc module to do before the position was made available. Hence putting themselves in prime position and was unfair on the others who also wanted to apply for it as a training post.
The sooner I get out of the nhs the better! It’s not fairly run at all.

Poppiesway1 that's terrible. What department is this! I've been looking to change over to the NHS. I know the pay isn't brilliant but it really looks like a great organisation to be part of. But I guess it might be different once you're in!

I've recently been turned down for a job I'm doing as a zero hours temp.

There were two positions, but they offered the job to one candidate.

Recent news was the job ad for both positions was still up.

No word from the manager, but it looks like the one candidate that was offered the job has turned it down.

The internal candidate (in that case me) isn't necessarily favoured.

I've recently been turned down for a job I'm doing as a zero hours temp.

The internal candidate (in that case me) isn't necessarily favoured.

You’re not an internal candidate if you’re a temp.

I used to be an NHS manager and I never closed early but that did mean that I could be left with over 100 applications to sift through for an admin job so I don't blame people who choose to close after around 50.

I'm employed by the trust as a zero hours bank worker.

I did also notice the job said previous applicants need not apply. But how would they know this? I can't imagine this job comes up very often.