Waiting to hear back from job application - taking ages!

[Smoothsoul]

I completed a couple of college courses to allow me to work in the legal field. (Not solicitor or anything more legal assistance paralegal type role)
My dream job came up a few weeks ago within the criminal justice system. I checked the desired and essential requirements and was delighted that I was eligible to apply. I spent a week on the civil service framework studying it and making my application as perfect as it could be. I sent it off by the close by date and got an email response stating I’d hear back within 5 working days. That would have been 26 Feb. I continually checking my emails 100s of times a day. I can’t bear this waiting.
There are 3 positions and probably hundreds of applicants to sift through so I know it’s going to take ages. Any advice on how long civil service take to go through the initial sift?
I’d probably not be giving it a second thought if I hadn’t had an email saying a response will be within 5 working days.

I think you often find they'll contact you if you're successful but not otherwise. If they've had a couple of hundred applications they havent got time to reply to them all with decisions.

Did the email you received have a link to a recruitment portal where you can check the progress of your application?

@Mintjulia no I was to fill in a form and email it to them. I actually sent them a blank copy of the form and got an automatic email response with 4 names and telephone numbers on it. One of them was my daughters name so I called that one and explained my mistake. She said it was fine and and deleted my email and I then sent the correct one. I have since seen the portal and thought if I was meant to do that she’d have told me otherwise than to email it surely. The form also said on it to email it.

After spending several months job hunting last year I'm afraid most companies don't bother replying to you unless you have got through to the interview stage.

It's not right and I think it's actually very rude, especially as a lot of applications involve several hours of work to complete them well. Unfortunately, that's how it seems to be these days.

Keep looking out for jobs that you want and hopefully you will have some good news soon.

@Lindy2 yip I spent ages on the application. I done a lot of research and used scenarios that fitted each compatibility. I felt very positive and confident I’d get an interview. Now nothing. I’d thought with it being civil service I’d have got some sort of reply.