HR/recruiters What do you think about contact before applying for role

[Hansper]

Applying for an Admin role in a University.

In the ad it says "For informal enquiries relating to this vacancy, please email abc@xyz"

I think if I contact them it shows a genuine interest. But then I wondered, if I contact them, they'll think I can't use my own initiative or that I'm needy?

If contact is welcomed then what would you expect to be asked? (One of the things I'd like to find out is it is 22hrs per week, one of which must be Tuesday, I wanted to know if they anticipate the other hours being over the remaining 4 days)

Thanks in advance.

I think about if they are qualified and could do the job; how much training they need and so how long before they are effective; and the fit with the existing team. I'm not recruiter but have recruited a lot in my work if that makes sense. I would have no issue with you clarifying the ad beforehand.

I think negotiation about working terms are best left until the point where they offer you the job and unless going through the application/interview process is very inconvenient waste of time for you, i would not contact, to enquire about your hours before they offer you the job. I would contact to enquire about the type of work you would to doing, responsibilities, career progression etc

I’ve recruited for roles before. I’m all for people asking questions beforehand.

I've done a fair bit of recruitment. I think it's better to ask questions up front rather than go through the whole process to find out the hours don't work for the candidate etc.

I think every recruiter would prefer the candidate to weed themselves out before the interview but the truth is after you've gone through the interview and they've decided you are the one you have a stronger negotiating position on terms.

Thanks all, appreciate the responses.

I am going to email them (after googling their name, I think they're the Manager of the Dept, rather than the HR/recruiter)

A final question: which is better, to email the questions or ask to have a brief chat about the role?

I’d want to talk rather than email.

At the University where I work the Line Manager is the recruiter - not HR.

Email and say you're interested and have a couple of questions. Would they be happy to have a Teams call or would they prefer you emailed your questions.

I used to work in a university and did a lot of recruitment. I honestly didn't care if people contacted me for informal enquiries first or not. It didn't make any difference to the outcome of the process - half the time, I didn't actually remember who I had spoken to and who I hadn't.

Sometimes a potential candidate really impressed me, and I would look out for their application, but the application still needed to be up to scratch in order to get shortlisted. I was quite often disappointed if it didn't turn out to be as good as I had expected.

Sometimes, the candidates really irritated me, and if I'm honest, I would be looking for reasons to reject them when the applications came in. My pet peeves were people ringing up to ask really obvious questions that had already been covered in the JD/info pack - just read the pack and stop wasting my time!

I was very happy to answer genuine questions about the role which weren't covered in the published info. Was also happy to give a view on whether someone sounded like they met the requirements for the role, eg if they weren't quite sure on how to interpret them. Or if people had questions about flexible working/whether we would consider a job share etc.

As a general rule, my advice would be to read and understand the published information, and to avoid asking questions that have been covered by that, unless you are asking for clarification of something that isn't clear. If you have genuine questions, then ask them. But don't feel that you have to invent questions just for the sake of making contact, because you're more likely to annoy them than to make a positive impression.