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.

Or, they've not hired the best applicant.. we will see, it will be very easy for me to find out who it is

Op are you the poster who applied for a job and a shared an application with a mentor who then applied for a job? There is something familiar about the above.

@Penistoe No, not me.

Yes having a disability is of course "an excuse"

This type of thing has always happened, which doesn't make it any easier to live with.

Apocryphal tale which did the rounds when I was at uni, waaaay back in the 1980s. Put a 1st class stamp on your application as employers don't even bother to open those with 2nd class stamps

I feel you’re getting a hard time here OP, but I agree with you. If the deadline is X, why would you need to work through the night or have your partner take a day off. Sporadic childcare is not easy to organise- if you’re not already using a childminder you can’t just rock up at ones and dump your kids 😂.

Imagine if a university assignment is X, but then they ‘close it early’ so only those already submitted Ifs

I think you should push the issue with them, OP, as they should have given you an interview under the Disability Confident scheme. The mere existence of this scheme should tell some of the posters on the thread how much the government needs to help people with disabilities into jobs and the reasons why. I'm shocked at how dismissive some posters have been.

I do think it was pretty poor of them to close the application process early without notice.

The mere existence of this scheme should tell some of the posters on the thread how much the government needs to help people with disabilities into jobs and the reasons why.

This, and this, through and through. Thank you, and to @Bloodyhamabeads

@DPotter - glad I wasn't an 80s uni kid!

OP you might consider asking to have this thread taken down. If your specialism is as niche as you claim you’d be better off building a relationship with the hiring team and ask them to consider you for future roles rather than whining about a common and legal HR practice. I get that it’s frustrating, but if they truly had another candidate in mind would someone with your level of obstacles with all your caring and disability issues want to be messed about and dragged in for a guaranteed interview that would in truth be a waste of time for you?

Perfectly normal. Once you got your candidate, you close. No need to interview more people if you have already chosen one. Actually, i would say it’s unethical to keep the job posting open under these circumstances.
While there might be a better candidate somewhere out there, the waste of time is worse than the (potential) win of getting somebody slightly better.

It's well known that short deadlines disadvantage female applicants. I don't think it's too much to ask that they put somewhere a line to say that applications may close early.
Obviously the OP could have applied earlier, at some inconvenience, had she known it was necessary. The point is she didn't know!

Yanbu job applications can take ages to do and so it’s not always possible to do a good application instantly whilst looking after children. If there was a firm deadline given it makes sense that you would take the time you had to do a really thorough application rather than just send something in quickly.

I’ve applied for several jobs close to the deadline as I’d only just seen the advert.

If it’s quite a niche field which wouldn’t get many applicants then is it possible that someone they knew of and wanted applied for it so they hired them rather than going through the whole process.

I think it has gone to someone internal, which is fine.

I know one other person that applied for it (or was going to apply for it but also got caught out). I know them as they were in my research group - they've literally just found out now that is has closed. I did not know until I just got several grumpy texts.

I don't know how anyone quickly fires off a specialist research application... STAR questions, publications, previous funding, personal statement - it's really not something you just "quickly fire off".

@SnackSizeRaisin

It's well known that short deadlines disadvantage female applicants. I don't think it's too much to ask that they put somewhere a line to say that applications may close early. Obviously the OP could have applied earlier, at some inconvenience, had she known it was necessary. The point is she didn't know!

She said she COULDN’T have applied any earlier due to being a woman/ her disability so knowing it might close early would have made no difference either way. So I’m not really sure what she’s complaining about

Am surprised by the number of posters saying this is a frequent occurrence - I’ve never known it to happen before, so maybe it varies across industries
It has happened to my son a few times. He has spotted a job and the closing date has been a couple of weeks away. He has gone to work on it the following night and it has been closed.
Its one if those things when there's too many people after the same job.
To make things worse he has even had email reminders asking if he wants to continue with the application!😂

I think they already had their candidate chosen. One of my daughter’s friends works in public sector role,she had been doing it as a temporary role for a few months but when they made it permanent they had to advertise. Unless she’d started singing or swearing in the interview there was no way she wouldn’t have got the job, they wanted her and were completely biased towards her. Completely wastes everyone’s time but there you go.

They made an offer extremely quickly to someone in your case, so advertising the job was probably a tick box exercise. Best of luck next time.

And yes, men might have been at more risk from the virus but women have definitely suffered more from the effects of lockdown.

@CockatooZoo

I've RTFT with my mouth open, at some of the replies you've had.

YANBU.

I'm in Ireland, with extensive experience in academia, private sector & public sector employment - so across many different work environments. I've never heard of this happening (closing before the deadline). I see many saying it's common place eg w NHS so maybe it's just not something that happens here.

If it did, I'd have missed out on most of my roles, including my present role, which is a management level role at third level.

I always like to start preparing my application early, then tip away at it gradually before submitting close to the deadline.

That's no indication of my efficiency or other attributes, as one poster suggested. It's just how I like to approach it.

However, if I knew early closing was an issue, of course I'd proceed differently, as OP would have too.

I also agree with OP that for positions like she mentions, both CV and application / cover letter need to be specific so it is a lot of work, and the poster who implied the CV would be standard is totally uninformed.

OP I'd be gutted in your case. I agree with contacting HR / Hiring Manager & letting them know.

I'm sorry you had so many harsh & unfair replies here tonight OP. But there were some helpful ones tucked in there too. 💐

One of my daughter’s friends works in public sector role,she had been doing it as a temporary role for a few months but when they made it permanent they had to advertise. Unless she’d started singing or swearing in the interview there was no way she wouldn’t have got the job, they wanted her and were completely biased towards her. Completely wastes everyone’s time but there you go.

While I can't comment on this specific case of course, many people assume this & it's mostly not the case.

It's important that an interview is carried out for a permanent post. It isn't always the case that the incumbent gets it. A good organisation will judge on performance on the day, and sometimes the person already in the role doesn't get it.

Equally, it allows the incumbent to prove themselves & validate their suitability for the role.

So, if done correctly, it doesn't waste people's time & doesn't indicate bias.

But there were some helpful ones tucked in there too.

There absolutely were, and I am very grateful for those posters.

Thank you for your lovely post too.

To the hiring managers who cancel other interviews after finding the right candidate - does knowing you will do this affect the order that you hold interviews in? Aren't you at all concerned that the practice reinforces unconscious bias and allows deliberate discrimination in who you recruit?

Sort of feel more detail is needed here.

She said she COULDN’T have applied any earlier due to being a woman/ her disability so knowing it might close early would have made no difference either way. So I’m not really sure what she’s complaining about

Really? Can you not?

If OP had known it was a possibility it might close early, she'd have had the information she needed to decide whether to apply or not.

If she had no option to apply sooner, she'd have decided not apply, I assume. Or to take her chances.

Thinking she'd a chance, based on the closing date, then realising her work was wasted, is completely unfair.

@CockatooZoo

But there were some helpful ones tucked in there too.

There absolutely were, and I am very grateful for those posters.

Thank you for your lovely post too.

Good luck @CockatooZoo I really hope you might get a positive response from the organisation, or if not, that another opportunity comes your way soon. 🙏🏻

I'm sorry again for some of the frankly horrible replies here - can posters not make their points, even where you disagree, without being aggressive & nasty? Asking OP to disclose her disability, somehow to 'prove' herself, is awful.

Yanbu it would've pissed me off too, job applications can take ages. They could at least put that they may close the application early if they have enough applicants. They're are just so many people unemployed atm that quite a high percentage of job ads get a large amount of applicants, no matter what the job is

It's well known that short deadlines disadvantage female applicants
Because Cari g children makes it much harder to apply to a job than working 40h a week and having even less opportunities to find even 10 minutes to do something else then your job! Because you know, men are more likely to work FT...

Give me a break! Is this where we are going? The moment they are not happy because things didn't go their way, the sexist card comes out?

Men have caring duties just like many mums work FT. Those who really want a particular job manage to find the time to fill in an application. It really really isn't that hard.