Job adverts written with a specific person in mind

[Mygardenandme]

Just a moan really. I knew there was a job coming up in a team I want to work in. Given what the job is and my experience, I thought I'd have a chance.

Someone on the team knows I was planning to apply and thought the same. They just forwarded me the final draft of the job advert. It's confidential but they wanted to give me a heads up so I wasnt disappointed.

It's so specific and prescriptive, it's obviously written with someone in mind. I dont know who but it says things like "must have this specific qualification". It's an internal role and the qualification is quite obscure and not at all related to what we do as an organisation. There are various other points.

I know it happens. I guess Id rather know I dont have a chance before putting loads of effort in but I'm disappointed and frustrated.

I would still apply. You could be mistaken and it’s not definite that anyone has the qualification. And in applying you show that you’re interested in progression. You have nothing to lose!

Apply anyway. But also have a think about what it is that makes this person the person they want to promote. Sometimes there's a very good reason for that. And thinking about it dispassionately may help with next time.

Still apply so that you are on the radar and short list. If you don’t get this one you will be considered for the next.

Apply anyway. Sounds like they want to keep the job internal and put off the external applications.

Thanks all, it is so specific I can't even attempt it. Of the 5 essential criteria, I can evidence 1 at a push. I cant evidence any of the desirable. I'm just wasting my time.

I can do the job but I cant blag the criteria with my experience. It's not teaching but imagine the essential criteria is someone with 3 years of teaching maths to 3 year olds in a classroom when I have 2 years of marking GCSE Spanish exam papers at home and the job is writing a GCSE blog.

I've no idea who the person it's written for is. I cant put the person who sent me the advert on the spot by asking them.

I'll drop the manager an email once the job is out saying Im disappointed I cant apply for this one but keep me in mind for other things. But worded better.

I'll get over it. I'm just disappointed because the last job I was successful in got it's funding withdrawn.

You know the statistic that men apply for jobs they are around 60% qualified for and women 100%.

You can do the job. Style the application out. It's great experience to do it anyway!

I'm in a totally different sort of sector but my last two jobs have been specifically created for me and totally dependent on my particular very unusual skillset, yet both have had to be advertised externally in line with standard policy (two different companies). I don't think anyone else applied for either, but I have always wondered what purpose this serves, really. It must be really frustrating for any other candidate there might be and yet also adds to the stress for the person who is lined up for the job.

Apply anyway. Regardless. Just had a similar process at work (not a job I wanted) and the person that got it didn't meet several of the essential criteria.

They’ve asked for an obscure qualification that has nothing to do with the job? So, using your teaching analogy, the job is run a GCSE blog and they’ve asked for a gardening qualification? Because they know the person they want has one?

If you can’t evidence any of the competencies, why are you so keen to work in the team?

Yeah pretty much. But just on the right side of irrelevent so that if questioned they could at a real stretch say it's linked eg a qualification in using Sinclair Spectrums.

Because if it was a sensible job advert Id meet the criteria.

I've been monitoring the programme and what the job entails.

I do wonder sometimes if employers are obliged to advertise a position even if they have a specific person in mind for it, and the selection process is somehow rigged in favour of the preferred candidate. If it's any consolation to you, OP, it isn't by any means just you.

A similar thing has happened recently to two people I know who are job-hunting. In once case, the applicant was rejected out of hand despite being very well-qualified for the post. In the other case, the applicant was initially offered the job, but a week or so later the offer was withdrawn. It feels like too much of a coincidence that the other person on the short-list was an "internal candidate"...

Hmmm I’d be wondering if that’s legal. I mean it could construe constructive dismissal if they’re blocking others qualified from applying but hard to prove

I’d apply. And say that - in politer terms.

Same here, I was once encouraged to apply for a job, internally…. and as I was putting my jacket on after leaving the interview, my social media had a colleague post while I was still in interview how excited she was about her new job offer:..🤨

That's not even close to meeting the threshold for constructive dismissal. For a start the OP would actually have to quit her job and then claim she had to leave because she didn't get a different one. There's no way to claim they forced her to leave.

How big an organisation?
Is it worth asking to have a chat with someone in HR about whether it would be worthwhile you applying? If after a chat they can see that things are being rigged, they might intervene.
If there's anything potentially discriminatory (eg requirement for a qualification in working with Sinclair Spectrums might be age discrimination because it's not something that's been available to younger applicants), that might be something that could be challenged. If you're in a union that might be worth exploring with them.

I'd be tempted to apply with words 'Although I cannot meet some of the criteria, I am aware the job role entails doing XYZ but I can do this by ABC'.

I had an interview for a job where the interview questions were obviously written with one person in mind. She was a volunteer, going for this paid position. The question answers we gave were marked and scored. There was no way for me to know the answers to them. You would need to have been a volunteer there to know...

Total waste of my time. I wish I had told them what I thought of them at the time.

Rather than assuming this is written for a specific person, there is always the possibility that they have made the criteria so tight to ensure that only people with the perfect experience can apply. This saves the employer and the candidate time. Not everything in life is sinister, sometimes it's just sensible.

Rather than assuming this is written for a specific person, there is always the possibility that they have made the criteria so tight to ensure that only people with the perfect experience can apply. This saves the employer and the candidate time. Not everything in life is sinister, sometimes it's just sensible.

It's not constructive dismissal. No one is being forced to quit.

At the very most, it might possibly perhaps maybe suggest a discrimination of some sort but that would be a stretch.

It's just a suck it up case.

I’ve seen job descriptions written with a view that either the organisation needs a skill it doesn’t have and guesses as to what the qualifications and skills should be (to the point where I saw one in my sector that specifically asked for a qualification that hadn’t existed for 20 years and had been phased out as so few people did it - it wasn’t written for someone in mind, the organisation just didn’t have a clue this qualification no longer existed). The “or” is they are trying to add things to the job description to ensure it meets a certain pay grade, knowing they won’t get candidates unless it has that salary but the organisations grading system wouldn’t score it high enough anyway. If you’re internal, have an open chat with the recruiting manager- what have you got to lose?

Pretty sure whoever sent it to you knows it’s not right (morally) then.
Bet it’s public sector somewhere.