Do I go for it?

[pcofmushu]

A promotion has arisen at work - the department had planned to advertise x2 roles, but Finance have only approved x1. There are only 2 of us who are suited (based on experience and qualifications) to go for it. It is internal only.

I know that ultimately it is either going to be me or them, and there would be no hard feelings. But why am I considering not bothering to go for it? My gut feeling says that my colleague has automatically got it in the bag, as they have worked here slightly longer than I have.
Does it work like that?

Tia for any advice, views or support x

I think you should def go for it, and in every place I've worked it's not been as simple as person with the most experience in terms of time served 'automatically' gets it. Don't get me wrong there are employers and managers with excellent, fair, objective hiring procedures and those that, well, don't and make decisions for a whole range of bizarre/illogical/prejudiced/stupid reasons, but either way it's rarely seen as a bad thing to put yourself forward. Even if you aren't chosen this time there may well be other opportunities in future and you might gain valuable experience and exposure just from having gone through the process.

If as you say it would be a no hard feelings type situation with you and your colleague whoever gets it, I really can't see the downside in applying. IME in the kind of situation where management have already made their minds up or decided who they want this is usually made pretty clear one way or another, even if for 'HR' reasons they're not allowed to explicitly say so, so I wouldn't give that too much thought, if that's what's worrying you?

Well if you don’t go for it you certainly won’t get it will you?

@maxelly

I think you should def go for it, and in every place I've worked it's not been as simple as person with the most experience in terms of time served 'automatically' gets it. Don't get me wrong there are employers and managers with excellent, fair, objective hiring procedures and those that, well, don't and make decisions for a whole range of bizarre/illogical/prejudiced/stupid reasons, but either way it's rarely seen as a bad thing to put yourself forward. Even if you aren't chosen this time there may well be other opportunities in future and you might gain valuable experience and exposure just from having gone through the process.

If as you say it would be a no hard feelings type situation with you and your colleague whoever gets it, I really can't see the downside in applying. IME in the kind of situation where management have already made their minds up or decided who they want this is usually made pretty clear one way or another, even if for 'HR' reasons they're not allowed to explicitly say so, so I wouldn't give that too much thought, if that's what's worrying you?

Yes you're absolutely right!

The job was spoken about a couple of months ago as "will be posted imminently", and nothing else was said. I think for me it's the fact that for the whole time the other candidate was on leave, there was no mention of the job advert. As soon as they return from their time off, the job is posted. I've already made up my mind that they were holding off for the other candidate to return from leave before posting it 😂 But I could be putting 2 + 2 together and getting 5!

I guess if I don't go for it then I'll never know, and at the very least it'll show that I'm eager and keen to develop.