Closing Job Application Process Early

[CockatooZoo]

Just wanting some thoughts on this. I was applying for a job under the guaranteed interview scheme, I would have been offered an interview as I met all the criteria and had several years experience with all points of the criteria, qualified in the subject area and worked at a more senior level to this role in another organisation (similar).

I read through the application thoroughly and had worked on my draft application for quite a while, adjusted my CV and ensured everything was easy to link together to demonstrate the competencies. It also included a personal statement which I wrote from scratch.

There was no mention of rolling applications or that applications would close early for any circumstance on the website.

I went to submit the application on Friday (having had a reminder email at midnight) and they had closed it early. I have been told it's because they chose the candidate.

Now, I have a big issue with this because I feel it puts women and people with disabilities at a huge disadvantage. I feel really off that they have closed it on the final day of school closures, before a weekend (when partner's could have been in a better position to provide childcare) and with zero information about the possibly this would happen.

I have emailed HR but had no response yet.

Sorry but companies are under no obligation to keep applications open, then can close when they like. At the moment there are many more applicants than usual for a lot of jobs. You need to be quick and not leave it to the last minute. It’s not discrimination.

What's it got to do with women and people with disabilities?

Your childcare really isn't their issue.

Yanbu. My employer did this recently and we ended up fielding calls from lots of peeved people. I thought it was really poor form.

No, I’m with you, if those are the terms they’ve listed on the website that feels to me like an obligation that they should meet. If they want to retain the opportunity to close before their own advertised deadline then they should state that instead.

What's it got to do with women and people with disabilities?

Women and people with disabilities are less likely to be able to fire off a quick application, so closing early puts them at a disadvantage.

There really is no obligation for companies. We had thousands of applicants for recent job adverts, way more than pre-covid. Of course we closed it early as there were too many to go through anyway, and loads of good candidates to interview. You have to be quick in the current climate!

It's very common for adverts to close early - I work in higher education and we closed an administration post advert two weeks early as we had received close to 200 applications. If we'd have kept it open, we probably would have received double that at least, and the recruitment panel simply didn't have the time to go through that many applications. It does say on the jobs vacancy page that adverts may close early. It may be worth you pointing this out to the company, but I've come to expect that vacancies may close early and I ought to apply as soon as possible just in case.

It's common in the NHS. They just take down the advert when they have enough applications. It's more common in some areas / fields than others, and helps to keep manageable numbers of candidates. My employer doesn't do this, but when a large retailed made redundancies we had 125 applicants for one part time entry level job. You can see why they do it when you're wading through that many applications looking for reasons not to interview, essentially.

I’ve had over a thousand applications for a 20k a year admin job!

@HeyDemonsItsYaGirl Thanks for explaining the reasons.

Would have thought that would be obvious to most people.

Your childcare really isn't their issue.

No, it's not, except schools are closed and they closed the application before they opened.

How are you providing child care when there's zero options and school closures?

I don't have a problem with them doing it had they stated it may happen on the application documents. There was no mention of this at all.

If you are eligible under the Disability Confident scheme I’d get in touch and ask to submit your application. I’d be surprised if they weren’t flexible for you.

@CockatooZoo

Your childcare really isn't their issue.

No, it's not, except schools are closed and they closed the application before they opened.

How are you providing child care when there's zero options and school closures?

How are there zero options? Childminders are still open, your partner could have taken a day off, you could have worked on it in the evening.

You are just searching for an excuse and grasping at straws, they are not required to keep the application process open if they have already found a suitable candidate.

@Jizzle ex partner and he works in intensive care so not really a chance to "take a day off". He didn't want to use the school place because it felt shit to do when I was at home.

Really not grasping at straws.

Yanbu, its very very annoying but employers can and do pull vacancies or close application process early if they have lots of applications.
If its a company you already work for its worth calling HR, might be worth a try even if its a company you don't work for.
I feel your pain, it takes a lot of time to put together a good application.

Women and people with disabilities?

What about carers?
Emergency workers?
Young people?
Old people?
Non-parents?

The list is endless. No one is more disadvantaged than anyone else.

They received enough applications and closed it.
Accept it and stop making excuses.
Next time submit it ASAP.

YANBU- extremely unfair and you must be so frustrated.

Next time submit it ASAP.

ASAP was Friday for me - that was soonest that I could.

The alternative is to keep applications open, then, once you have selected say 6 candidates for interview, just put the rest in the bin. The net result is the same.

@CockatooZoo

Next time submit it ASAP.

ASAP was Friday for me - that was soonest that I could.

You could have submitted it earlier. Worked through the night but you chose not to.

You've missed out.

You don't seem to be intent on using this as a learning curve however.

@MereDintofPandiculation but it would have also given everyone a fairer chance to submit an application that could have been considered.

I would not mind if they had actually canned me after the process of selecting a candidate - really doesn't bother me, but I wasn't given that chance.

@user643289 I can't work through the night due to a disability.

It’s unfair to anybody with restrictions on their time, surely, not just women and disabled people. Many applicants wouldn’t have been able to complete an application during the day because they work long hours. They’ll have missed out, too.

The nhs do this all the time