To apply for a job knowing I can't do full time hours?

[LazyJourno]

Background: I am currently on maternity leave and looking to return to work. Previously I have worked in a general role with specialist responsibilities. I am looking to move into just that specialism but I need to get a professional qualification but to get that qualification I have to be working in the industry. My current employer has not behaved very well whilst I've been on leave and any job would mean a 2 hour daily commute.

I have seen a local entry level job which I am over qualified for. They are attractive because they are a civil service off shoot, have investor in people credentials and boast about their fantastic training and development opportunities. They also have an employee profile of someone on the site who they are sponsoring to do the qualification I need.

My problem is the salary for this role is not very much and would mean with childcare costs I would be making a loss if I did the role full time. If I did the role part time I would just about break even and could get qualified and then apply for roles where the salary would actually leave me with a little bit of money after childcare costs.

I enquired under my married name if they would be prepared to consider part time workers to fill the vacancies. They said no. They want 2 full time people and would not consider recruiting 3 people (for example) to fill the hours. Tbh the person I spoke to didn't seem to understand what I was suggesting (I think she thought I meant they might recruit 1 ft, 1 pt instead of 2 ft ) and said the HR manager would ring me... but she didn't and I called back to be told the HR manager only wants 2 full timers

So, am I being unreasonable to apply for the job in my maiden name (which I do use for work atm) and see what happens? I wouldn't bother except local jobs in this specialty don't come up very often and they are already recruiting 2 people any way so 1 f/t in the office all the time would give continuity and I would need very little training as currently do a much more senior job.

We are currently advertising for a post at the moment and I would be annoyed if having advertised for a full timer someone applied for the full time job and didn't say they could only do part time until interview. That is wasting the interviewers time as well as your own, plus many interviewers pay expenses and I wouldn't want to pay expenses for someone who had applied for a job they had no intention of doing under the job description.
Sometimes you want continuity in a job. We have alot of part timers, but for the post we are advertising we want a full timer and would only consider part timers if we couldn't get a good full timer.
Don't waste people's time and lie to them.
If the sphere of work you are applying for is a small one it's not worth getting a bad reputation as a time waster.

Will you be going back to your current job in the meantime?

I applied for a job knowing I couldn't do 15 hours but thought I'd go anyway.
Since I was the best person they'd seen, they gave me an extra hour so I could take it.

Give it a try, you have nothing to lose.

As you know, you get all sorts "trying it on", and all sorts of people applying without even having read the ad! Even if they have had "lots of applications", this very often translates to just a few interviewable candidates.

Go for it, and sell yourself!

Thank you so much to everyone for all your thoughts.

I have decided to apply because I meet the job specification (actually could do the job with my eyes shut ) so I should get an interview... and although I might not get this job there might be another one. And the last time I had an interview for a job was 2005 so good practice.

They are looking for 2 people so we shall see how it goes.

I won't be going back to my current job, although I have applied for 2 internal vacancies in the specialty I want but one is a promotion and one is a demotion. And both are an hour's commute each way.

Fingers crossed

Apply for it as interview practice, if nothing else. Then see what happens and what can be negotiated in terms of hours if you're offered the role.

We recently recruited a part time person, when we'd been advertising for and really wanted a full time person, because she was the right person for the particular job role.

Go for it - personally I would only mention after offered the job (claiming circumstances had changed if necessary), when any employer is more willing to negotiate.

I had to apply for posts within my civil service department when returning from mat leave as my whole team no longer existed. Most refused to interview me when I said I was returning part-time, but one was happy to consider it as no-one else had applied. In 9 months. They are so glad I'm there at all and not looking to leave that part-time really isn't a problem that rates on our radar.

I agree with Karen that the best time to negotiate for pt offers is after you have got the job offer. But that would mean 2 interviews on average.

Great if you can get it but not likely in this current market tbh. You do risk annoying them by wasting significant time (why on earth would you apply for a ft job when you can only do pt hours??) which could mean burning bridges in your small speciality.

I would think carefully.

COMPLETELY unreasonable

Sorry not read whole thread, but think you should apply and see how it goes at interview. Good luck