Is this weird?

[PeacockPartyTime]

Just an opinion really. I'm in a fixed term contract which ends in 8 months but want to get a permanent one ASAP. Have been unsuccessful twice already at other interviews and one piece of feedback was it would have been good to email beforehand to ask a bit more about the job. Actually, I'd heard this once before from my sister. Apparently, her boss never even offers an interview when someone doesn't contact her as they 'don't sound keen'

Anyway, I've never done it as I thought it may seem like I was trying to get them to tell me the interview questions. All I asked was if there was anything further they could tell me about the job (apart from what was on the JD) and they just told me to read the JD.

It just seemed very abrupt and now I feel quite deflated. If you're a hiring manager, does it annoy you if people ask? And if you've ever asked (as an employee) do people ever come back with useful feedback?

Hi, I've never asked any questions before applying for a post, I always ask at interview if I feel like I have any. I work in recruitment and most managers I work with go by application only and very rarely unless a high level post would you expect anyone to call and query before interview. That's what the JD & PS forms are for.

Yeah, I did feel a little bit weird emailing but I thought that as I'd had that feedback (and heard it from others) I'd give it a go. Still, I kept it very light and I only asked. Hopefully I won't have scuppered things.

It is good to express interest via email beforehand, but if you have questions, they need to be specific and for a reason. A general “can you tell me a bit more about the job” sounds a bit like you don’t want to do the legwork yourself when the email contact is actually meant to show pro activity and an interest in the specific role. If every candidate sent that type of email the recruitment process eoukd take twice as long

Good point @Anyonebut Point taken. I guess I’ll just have to wow them when I meet them unlikely