Grammatical error on application form.

[Waterhorse46]

Last week I applied for a role I wanted. The application time frame had closed and I contacted the school. They asked me to submit a speculative application having spoken to the HR team. They contacted me twice after this to encourage me to submit this. So I did. I worked so hard on the application – it’s a leadership role in a school I really liked, and I put everything into it. I checked, checked, and checked again before submitting.

Today I logged into the portal to see if there were any updates, and when I looked at my submitted application I realised the first word was missing. The statement now starts with an incomplete lowercase error.

I know it wasn’t like that when I submitted it. I checked thoroughly, and I’m certain the software must have removed the first word when it uploaded. It’s been over a week and I’ve heard nothing, so I’m taking the silence as my answer. But I feel so disheartened – I really wanted this opportunity and now it feels like I’ve ruined my chances.

Opportunities like this don’t come up often in my area, and it was l a role in the English department as a team leader, which makes it look even worse. It wasn’t a sloppy application at all, I just didn’t copy and paste it correctly.

It’s been a week now. Do I just need to make my peace with it?

I put the wrong school name in a letter once and got the job. I was mortified when I realised 3 years later. I’m sure it will be seen as an obvious glitch rather than a sloppy error and we are not perfect. We try our best and if that isn’t good enough for them then do you want to work for them?

Try not to dwell on it but I know it’s easier said than done.

I put the wrong phone number down for a job once and they had a hard time tracking me down to offer it to me, but they did. I wouldn't worry, what I would do is reach out, thank them for considering you and enquire if there's any other information you can provide to help with their decision. I'd also apologise for the error in the initial line but I wouldn't make excuses incase that comes across as unbelievable.

Is it best I leave it alone now? Damage has been done for over a week now

The other applicants probably had it happen to them too. Good luck.

Still not as bad as the first word of the professional statement missing and starting with a lowercase word that doesn’t fit. Immediate bin for that application I bet.

I'd drop them a note as a way of chivvying them up

What do I say

Could you say there seems to a technical error ?

Yes, and it gives you a reason for contacting them.

It could be annoying then at this point though.

good excuse i agree to contact them

“Dear School,

Thank you for agreeing to accept my speculative application form for X job.

Rather annoyingly, whilst checking the portal for an update on my application, I noticed that the first word of my personal statement is missing.

Apologies if this made it hard to read, it must have been a technical error.

Please do let me know if there’s any other information I can provide to help with your decision-making.

Thank you for the opportunity,
Waterhorse46

I think you’re over thinking if I’m honest. I’ve submitted essays for uni and when I’ve read them back spotted glowing errors that I didn’t see when I checked and checked. They know applicants are human despite what role you’re going for.

I like the letter above.
Schools are notorious for taking ages sifting through applications

Find a way of emailing them. Write a short but concise (beautifully written!) paragraph saying you went back to check as you are very interested in the job, and noticed the error. Say you can only apologise if this was your mistake, paste the full statement below, and say you hope they are willing to consider your application based on that. You could make a very polite/gentle joke that in your line of work this was especially mortifying, and you opted to contact them for your own professional pride if nothing else. Good luck!!!

If it is a single clear copy/paste error then I would leave it. This won’t make the difference between being shortlisted or not.

Glaring errors 😂😁

How did you miss the original deadline if you wanted the job?

Definitely email them.

ear ir/adam
ust ontacting ou or n pdate n y pplication
est egards

Seriously, I cannot imagine anyone recruiting a role would make a shortlist decision based on something like this! Don't worry about it, and if you dont get the job ask for feedback as it's likely to be another reason.

To be honest if they want you it will make no difference. If anyone says they didn't hire you for that error they are using it as an excuse and there are other reasons.

Not necessarily. I recruit in my role and it wouldn't make any difference really as to whether we shortlisted you or not. We certainly wouldn't bin application cos you'd made a small mistake. We score our applications and as long as we can make sense of it and the rest of the application then it would be fine. You might get one point knocked off tops. I appreciate many places aren't as forgiving as we are. If they bin you're application from one tiny error then you've probably had a lucky escape.

I wouldn't bin the application for that!

On average, how long will the process take. At my school, we short-list relatively quickly. However, the admin side of things does delay the process slightly for us. At what point should I assume, it’s time to get over it?

I don't think most schools are in a position to bin an otherwise excellent application. As another poster has said, if they're like that, would you really want to work there anyway?

no one that has an iPhone would be so hasty to judge you! 😬

I think it's just a time consuming process & you need to be a bit more patient. Maybe if you haven't heard anything by Monday, you could make enquiries to 'check they've received your application & maybe enquire as to when applicants will be updated.

🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼

I’d say at least two weeks 🙂