Made a typo in an application and now I’m worried

[Ritakk]

I sent an email and I misspelt the word “for” as “fo” it wasn’t in any part of the application just for the email that I sent with everything attached. Have I messed up?

It's not the end of the world, but if there's lots of applicants and it comes down to 10 they'd consider shortlisting then lack of proof reading might be a deciding factor.
There's no benefit worrying now.

It’s done now. Nothing you can do about it.
Just wait it out calmly and keep cracking on at any others in the pipeline.
Good luck

@AttaGirrrrl is it a bad thing :(

You need to get some perspective... you can't do anything. It's not the worst thing you could have done. It's not the end of the world.

As the error was in the email rather than the covering letter or application form, you may find that the panel don’t even see it. It is likely to just be skim-read by someone in HR and your documents printed off and passed on.

I am often involved in shortlisting and interviewing, and have never seen the email correspondence. Learn from it for next time, and proof read everything, but don’t overthink it for now.

@MrsHamlet I appreciate that but with all due respect I find your response rather blunt. Yes I know I should move on but it’s not nice to be so harsh. I appreciate you’ve got lots of experience however I’m dyslexic and i don’t like to declare it and to me the mistake just worried me. There’s no need to be so blunt.

@user1471539385 thank you! Relieved my mind a bit now!

@LolaSmiles yeah you’re right. It’s something I’ll make sure to quadruple check next time. As a dyslexic I can check things 100 times over and sometimes still not spot the error. I’ll get someone to check for me next time

If you're dyslexic you really need to tell your employing school so they can make adjustments, as I do for my new staff.
Since you never like my advice anyway, I shall bow out.

@MrsHamlet I appreciate your advice completely. I also agree I should tell employers however my university careers advice service said err on the side of caution incase some employers could see it as an issue

Your university service are giving harmful advice if they're specifically telling students with disabilities not to declare them to their employers.

@LolaSmiles they said it’s probably best to declare at or after interview especially as I’m an English trainee.

There is a big difference between erring on the side of caution (what you suggested they said) and disclosing information at the appropriate times (what they actually said).

Basically don't lie in an application form (for example, ticking no on any questions about disabilities if you know you're going to expect adjustments for a disability later) and when you have a job offer and are completing the new starter paperwork, don't lie.

@LolaSmiles my biggest worry is not getting the job on the basis of the dyslexia.

If they would discriminate on the basis of your dyslexia, you are better off not working for them.

Being completely honest and completely yourself are the only ways to get a job that is a good fit. Be you, but on a really good day. No more, no less.

If they'd be somewhere unlikely to appoint based on someone accurately disclosing dyslexia at the right time in the process, they're not going to he an understanding workplace.

Or to put an even more blunt spin on it, if someone lies about having dyslexia to get a job and the then a school may be less likely to accept "but I'm dyslexic" as an excuse if issues arise because the candidate chose to lie to the school.

Picture this hypothetical situation:
Candidate lies to get a job, then after getting the job downplays or lies on their new starter forms. Teacher is now in post and finds they're being picked up for literacy errors in their marking, their lesson materials are regularly full of errors and parents have started to call the HoD. Reports are due and they are also full of mistakes because the teacher hasn't had time to proof read them all. Over the course of a term or two, there are concerns building about the teacher's capability. The HoD has to have a meeting with the teacher to raise performance issues. The teacher then says "but I've got dyslexia and I don't have time to check my materials and the reports were too much for me to proof read. I really need someone else in the team to proof read my reports for me". This is the first the HoD or SLT have heard about this teacher's dyslexia.

@LolaSmiles yeah you’re right. I’ll keep this in mind now going forward. It’s best to be honest than lie and if they don’t want me based on my dyslexia then it wasn’t worth it at all.

[quote Ritakk]@MrsHamlet I appreciate your advice completely. I also agree I should tell employers however my university careers advice service said err on the side of caution incase some employers could see it as an issue[/quote]
Not a teacher, but parent of a dyslexic child. This is exactly the approach which will perpetuate discrimination

Just on when people should declare a disability...

It's not 'lying' to say on an application form that you don't have a disability and then declare it when offered the job.

It is up to the individual if/when they declare a disability and the only reason to really is if you will require some adjustments under the Equality Act 2010.

LolaSmiles re: your hypothetical situation. Ideally, the person should disclose their disability early on so that adjustments can be put in place to avoid performance issues arising. However, even if someone doesn't and declares their disability during a performance management process, the employer is still obliged to make reasonable adjustments. Not making them would be discriminatory, as would judging someone performance without taking into account their disability once they'd disclosed it.

Performance management is actually the most common time for people to disclose a disability. It's is fear of discrimination that prevents people declaring it beforehand.

WatchingTheRaindrops I disagree that individuals choosing not to declare their disability is what perpetuates discrimination. It's stunningly naive to think that disability discrimination is a thing of the past, I'm afraid.

I would agree with OP's career advice - get further along the recruitment process before declaring anything. It's easy for organisations to just not offer someone an interview if they declare a disability on their application form, much harder to withdraw a job offer if someone declares a disability when they're appointed.

Having said that, being dyslexic can be a positive in education - you'd be an excellent role model in terms of what can be achieved and how the law can support people.

Best of luck OP.

christinarossetti19
I'm not saying they shouldn't make reasonable adjustments, just that there's space in the process to declare disability that requires adjustments.
For my current job I declared mine on the new starter forms after I had a job offer, and had a discussion with occupational health before starting.

If we're thinking about professional relationships then someone choosing to tick 'no' to a disability, not give work an opportunity to put appropriate adjustments and support in place isn't going to promote positive working relationships if their actions cause lots of additional workload for colleagues, and has an impact on the quality of their teaching (which also creates additionalwork for colleagues).
The amount of additional work when there's parental concerns about a teacher can be huge, and can easily be avoided if someone mentions they need adjustments at the numerous times given instead of saying nothing until concerns about their performance are raised.

Quite LolaSmiles. It's sensible to declare a disability either during interview when you can present it as a strength or once you've been offered a job.

Not at the application stage, when the question is 'do you require adjustments for the interview?' in which case OP and many others can honestly answer 'no'.

I'm not saying that people should wait until performance management kicks in at all, simply that that is the most common time to declare a disability.

Given that you declared your disability once you'd been offered a job, I'm surprised that you termed OP not declaring her disability at point of application as 'lying'.

christinarossetti19. I disclosed when it first came up in the application process, which IIRC was at the same time as any health declarations.

I'm not suggesting anyone should write in their application 'and by the way...', but throughout the process there's times when it's appropriate for prospective employers to ask. At that that point explicitly answering "no" when the answer is actually "yes" and you know that you'll be expecting reasonable adjustments is dishonest and makes life more difficult for the person.

Eg. If you think your dyslexia is likely to be an issue at interview then surely you ask for the adjustments at the appropriate time. You wouldn't say no, potentially perform worse and then later say "oh I didn't get the job because I'm dyslexic".

There's no reason dyslexia should be a barrier to teaching, and if someone knows they're likely to need reasonable adjustments then they're setting themselves up to struggle by saying they have no need for adjustments.

Oh, you said that you disclosed your disability on the new starter forms once you'd had a job offer, not at point of application. That was what I was responding to.

Answering 'no' to 'do you need any adjustments for the interview' when you don't isn't lying. If you do need adjustments, then of course you say yes, or choose to do the interview without the adjustments that would help.

As I said earlier, usually the best time to disclose a disability is when you know that you need adjustments. It's not 'lying' not to disclose it before.

It is lying if someone does need adjustments though, or if they think that for whatever reason their conditions/disabilities/additional needs would mean they won't perform well. If they're quite content to have no adjustments at interview then that's fine, as long as they don't later argue that the reason they didn't get a job was because of the thing they chose not to request adjustments for.

I don't think it's that controversial to advise people to tell the truth when applying for jobs, and to disclose at appropriate stages in the process, rather than minimise/say no when asked only to change their mind later.

That's exactly what I said from my first post.

People should declare a disability if/when they need adjustments, and that it's not 'lying' to not disclose a disability during the application process although declare it once offered a job.

Or once it becomes obvious that you need adjustments in a particular role.