If a job is only advertised for a week, have they already got someone lined up for it?

[GentlyGentlyOhDear]

I've noticed a job I'd quite like to apply for, but the closing date is a week from when it was first advertised.
Just wondering if that means they already have an internal applicant in mind and are just going through the legal motions of advertising etc?
It takes a long time to do a good app so I hate the idea of wasting my time.

We do short dates for jobs we know we will get loads of applications for, so not necessarily already filled IMO.

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule - it may be that they have a candidate in mind, or as Frontier says it could be that they know they will get loads of applicants and so need to restrict the number of application forms they will need to plough throw at the shortlisting stage.

Great thank you. It is a part-time post, so I imagine it might be popular.
I will give it a go and hope for the best!

Conversely, out of interest, does that mean that a job that is advertised for a longer time, say six weeks, is likely to have fewer applicants?
TIA!

That's my experience yes. The only roles we would consider leaving open for 6 weeks would be specialist jobs where suitably qualified people are few and far between.

Agree with Frontier

Hi,
I've just landed a new part-time role. The advert stated that it would be withdrawn once a certain number of applicants had applied (typical for this employer). It was only up for about a week.

I didn't know anybody at the place, so i certainly wasn't lined up for the role.

Good luck

M

Also depends on the place.
We have recently had to do this. We want someone to start in September. But because of timings, staff availability to hold interviews, visits etc we could only advertise for a week. There is no one internally that the job will go to. If we had anyone spare internally we would advertise in September to allow us more time.

Thanks for all the feedback on this. I will send off the application and see what happens. I've only recently started keeping an eye out for jobs and it just struck me the range of time jobs are advertised for!

As others have said, there might be various reasons for doing this. It would be incredibly shortsighted of an employer to go through the motions with external candidates because they have an internal candidate in mind - presumably they're after the best person for the job. Re: the potential time wasting factor - putting in a good application seems like a small investment to make, given the reward that could be on offer.

IME if it's NHS, quite possibly

I have been the dead cert for an NHS job once (a promotion), I was told it would only be advertised for a week so I could look out for it and apply. I did get it.

We sometimes advert for one week if there is a candidate in mind. However, I can think of a couple of occasions where we ended up appointing somebody else who performed better at interview....