Job application etiquette

[AlexaShutUp]

Was made redundant earlier this year, so I'm job hunting. It's a long time since I've done this, so please be gentle.

I applied for one job a while ago and have just been invited to interview. I may or may not get it, but I reckon my chances are pretty good as I'm a really good fit with what they're looking for and have some other advantages that would work really well for them even though they're not actually on the person spec. The salary is not bad at all, but it's less than what I was on before. T&C good, and the job looks interesting, but not exciting and probably not the most strategic move from a career perspective.

Since applying for that one, I have seen my absolute dream job. Totally up my street in terms of what I want to do, in a field that I'm passionate about, and a salary that would at least match my last one. Also good T&C. I meet/exceed many aspects of the person spec but there are a couple of requirements that I only partially meet at best, so it would be quite an aspirational role for me, but not beyond the scope of what's possible. It would be an amazing move in terms of career. The application deadline will fall just after the interview for the other job, but it's likely that the whole recruitment timetable would be about a month behind the first one.

What's the etiquette here? If I was offered the first job and accepted it, should I just abandon all interest in the other one? WIBU unreasonable to pursue it anyway, with the intention of giving my notice to the first one on the off chance that I was successful? I know from experience how time consuming recruitment is, and I would really hate to let the first organisation down, so I'm inclined to think I would need to give up on the second job if I was offered and accepted the first. However, my friends are saying to just go for both regardless, take the best offer and that I'm overthinking the whole thing. This doesn't sit quite right with me but I know I have a terrible habit of overthinking everything, so I'm interested to know what the general views are.

Of course, it's all hypothetical at the moment as I might not be offered either, but just trying to work out what the etiquette would be if I was lucky enough to get an offer from both. If I applied for the second job before attending the interview for the first, would it be very unreasonable to still pursue it if I was offered the first job in the interim? I'm so confused!

For background info, I am the main breadwinner so need a job pretty soon. Consequently, I couldn't really afford to turn the first job down if it was offered -it would be like looking a gift horse in the mouth. However, I would be desperately sad to lose the other opportunity which is like a once in a lifetime chance. What to do?!

WWYD? Please be honest but kind!

Nothing is guaranteed at the moment
I would apply for both
Ask the second one if they are interviewing on a rolling basis and could recruit quicker if they find the right candidate

I was also made redundant a few months ago and applied for every suitable role
Right now it is a tricky job market and on that basis don’t be too over thinking!

Ask the second one if they are interviewing on a rolling basis and could recruit quicker if they find the right candidate

They have actually set out a very detailed timetable of first/second/third interviews, so don't think that will be an option.

I probably will apply for the second one anyway, I guess it's just a question of knowing whether to pursue it if I get offered the other one next week. I'm getting ahead of myself, I know, because I haven't even been offered the first one yet!

In that case I would hold your nerve and go for both roles

You're overthinking. Until you've gone for interview you wont really know whether you want the job regardless of whether or not you're offered it.

Apply for both, no doubt. Perfectly normal and acceptable.

Definitely apply for both. Recruitment is fairly dog eat dog. Company 1 couldn’t possibly expect you to not be applying to other jobs, and so it’s luck of the draw for both sides.

Dont wait though, apply for 2nd job asap.

Just to be clear on the voting, please vote as follows:

Yabu - apply for both and pursue second application even if you are offered and accept the first.

Yanbu - if you're offered and accept the first job, abandon the other application.

I realise that some of you might think I'm BU for even thinking about this when I don't have any offers on the table at all, but I really want to know what others would do if this hypothetical situation arose.

Thank you!

Recruitment is fairly dog eat dog. Company 1 couldn’t possibly expect you to not be applying to other jobs, and so it’s luck of the draw for both sides.

That's interesting. I'd understand it from a recruiter perspective, but would find it really annoying. From my own perspective, I have a real thing about not wanting to let people down. If they offered it to me, and I subsequently withdrew, they would have lost out on other good candidates too, which would make me feel terrible.

Go for it - you don’t owe either company anything - remember, you’re not doing them a favour; they’d just as happily screw you over and rescind the job offer if their circumstances changed.

Yes, as a hiring manager, it’s a ballache when someone drops out, but if it’s soon enough after the interviews then you go to your second choice and offer it to them instead.

Stop overthinking it. Most recruiters will have reserve candidates so go for it!

Thank you Dyrne. That's pretty much what one of my friends said. Another one said that I have a very strong sense of "should", which is probably true, but I tie myself in knots over this kind of thing.

I do a lot of recruitment - go for both jobs with all your energy. Don’t feel guilty. It happens that people Accept jobs and then drop out or people even start work and quit their job after a few weeks. It’s frustrating for the employer but it’s just a reality of recruiting.

This happened to me.

I applied for a job at the job centre and did an online interview application. It took months for them to come back and say that I had been a successful candidate.

In the meantime, I was still looking for jobs and interviewing. I got the offer at the job centre three days before I would hear back from the other company, but I was quietly confident that I would get the other job. Even still, I accepted the offer, as it was September and I had been job hunting since January. When the second company came back and said i had the job I just got back in contact with the first place and told them I had an offer from another company, which was closer to home and more flexible in regards to hours, and so unfortunately I will no longer be accepting the place at your company.

The person was a bit shitty about it but i reminded them that they had taken about two months to get back to me from the interview (and it was almost 4 months since my initial application) and so I had been continuously job searching whilst waiting for them to get back in contact (and made an equally shitty comment about what bad practise it was to keep candidates in the dark for over two months despite plenty of emails chasing them up from myself). At least I had the good grace to actually let them know I know longer wanted the job, unlike my maternity leave cover, who decided to not turn up on the day they were meant to be coming in for their induction. I had to postpone my leave date by 10 days so they could quickly recruit someone else that I could train up before I left 😡

This shouldn't even be a question on your mind.

When you start work with a company, they can toss you out in your probationary period with no reason. Why should YOU extend them any more consideration than they give you?

Apply for both jobs. Good luck!

Yes, please please do apply for both and abandon the 1st if you are offered the dream job. And don't feel guilty about it. Honestly as an employer/manager, this is so so common, of course it's not ideal for a candidates to reject your offer particularly if you've gotten a way down the line with reference checks and induction etc but anyone who gets their knickers in a twist about it clearly either lacks in experience or has too much time on their hands as it happens all the time. It's an offer of employment, not your hand in marriage, it's known and accepted that if and when a better offer comes along people will take it! This is why any sensible employer keeps reserve lists etc...

This happened to me. Applied for a job that I was a good fit for but didn't really float my boat but a week later my dream job came along so I applied for that too. Second job was a two stage process and it ended up with the face to face interview being in the same week.

I was told I hadn’t got 1st job within a couple of days but did get dream job about a week later. However a week after that the first job came back and I was also offered that as the person they had initially offered the job to had got better offer and changed their mind. It happens all the time in recruitment so just go for it and see what happens.

Thank you so much all for your encouragement. I just need to stop overthinking it, don't I?

I think the reason I'd feel bad is that the first job would be quite a pivotal position in a very small organisation, so the impact of me withdrawing (if that happened) would be significant. Also, there would be around a month-long lag between the interview dates for the two roles, so likely that the reserve candidates might have moved on by that time. I would hate to leave them in the lurch.

However, I'd also hate to miss out on my dream job, and most people seem to be saying that I should just go for it regardless.

Just to give an alternative perspective - I was on the other side of this as a hiring manager, we brought in someone to our small team to help us deliver a time sensitive project, she seemed great at interview and we were excited to have her join us. I spent a lot of time preparing her induction and training plan, we also had a work phone and laptop couriered to her. On her second day working with us she told us she had accepted another role which she'd interviewed for at the same time, which started the following Monday. It was terrible timing and had a massive impact on me as I was counting on having support on this project which was due to kick off, but instead we had to go back to recruitment - it took another 3 weeks to get someone in post, and it had a massive knock on effect on our delivery.

I didn't blame her at all as I knew she'd been made redundant during Covid and the other role had a better salary and benefits, so it made sense for her on a personal level. I do understand why she wanted to keep her options open, but I wish she had handled it differently as it caused a lot of stress for me and my team.

I think you're entirely within your rights to pursue both opportunities but if you're offered the first role I would think hard before accepting it about how badly you'd be leaving them in the lurch if the other role comes off too. Obviously it depends on the type of role/organisation - if we weren't so stretched at my work it wouldn't have been such a big issue.

Good luck, I know it's a difficult position to be in! I hope it works out for you.

I'm so sorry to hear that, mybluehat, that's exactly the kind of scenario that I'm worried about. Could I ask what exactly you'd like the person to have done differently in that situation? I'm assuming that you are saying that you'd rather that she had never accepted the role with you in the first place?

The thing is, if I was offered the first job, I would not be brave enough to turn it down. My family needs the money!! So my only option would be to accept it and forget about the other role, or accept it and potentially screw the first organisation over if I was successful with the second application. Not a great choice on either side.

Of course, it's possible that I won't get offered the first job anyway, in which case, I won't have a decision to make!

I would put me and my family first, apply for both and do whatever you need to do should you get both jobs

If the first place offered you the job then in a month's time something changed and you were no longer needed, do you think they'd even hesitate to let you go? Nope.

Do what's best for you and your career. Nobody else is going to.

It's a good question AlexaShutUp and I don't know what I'd have done in her position! I think given that the interviews were around the same time I would have preferred her to hold off a few days to wait for the outcome of the other application before accepting, so we could have kept other candidates warm and not got the ball rolling with all her induction stuff etc. You're in a trickier position with the timings of the recruitment processes so I appreciate you wouldn't be able to do that unless you really string it out. In the situation where you are offered both I don't know what your notice period would be in Role 1, but perhaps you could at least negotiate with Role 2 for a slightly later start date to allow the other org to get someone else lined up to lessen the disruption?

I do feel for you, it's a real dilemma and I think I would probably feel exactly the same as you in your shoes! I hope I haven't made you feel guilty, you should ultimately do what's right for you. If you can, just focus on the applications/interviews and only worry about it when you have an actual decision to make - it might just all work out smoothly and you'll have been worrying for nothing!