How to get interviews for university jobs

[Nitgel]

I am applying for a few support admin jobs that I meet the person specification for but don't get interviews. Is there something I'm missing ? I match my skills to the specification with smart and star examples and it takes so long. I just keep getting generic rejections.

As there are mass redundancies in the sector currently I suspect there are many applicants with experience.

That makes sense. Won't bother then I guess as its just waste of time :(

I work in a management role at a university.

I have been advised by HR that when I shortlist, as long as the candidate meets all of the essential criteria (they are scored on this part) with demonstrative examples and has the required educational qualifications then they should be offered an interview. You do have to be objective though and sift through the obvious bullshit that some people write.

usually people give no or weak examples to some of the essential criteria like relevant and recent experience of CPD

I’ve had candidates in the past with good and relevant work experience not be shortlisted because their written application did not meet all of the essential criteria.

I’m not sure if all universities follow the same approach? But once you get a foot in the door of an HEI it opens so many doors. But this can be a barrier in your position as there are likely internal candidates going for the same role and they will often have an advantage. Having said that, it’s not a given and external candidates are successful too.

You can always see if you can pick up any work as bank/temp staff. That’s often an easier way in initially if the university offers this.

I know it can be disheartening and lots of HEIs are making cut backs but there are still opportunities out there

We had 15 applications for one specialist admin role and I think they only interviewed the top 5.

Have you asked them for feedback on your application? This could highlight if you are having a weakness in demonstration how you meet the requirements.

I don’t condone using AI to write a CV or application - you can tell, however have you ran the questions and your answers through it and asked if you are demonstrating meeting the requirements?

At the university I work for we will look for candidates that meet a large number of the essential and desirable criteria. if you can spoon feed us that you meet the criteria with examples (even if it means repeating yourself multiple times) it will make our lives easier. This will sift you onto the "consider for shortlist" pile.

After that, it depends how many other good candidates we have. There may be already be internal candidates who we are obliged to offer an interview to, for one of a number of reasons, so the number of external shortlist places might be quite small. For an admin role, it's likely that there is a good number of experienced candidates.

Have you asked for feedback? It is likely to be fairly generic if you didn't get to interview but even something like "we had a lot of good applicants" will at least give you a clue.

Not university but we had 200 applicants for our recent midrange role, used to get 15 max. Requires a stem degree, coding skills and relevant experience so not like everyone could be applying.

I think there are far more well qualified people chasing jobs these days, and then others who just shove in an AI generated application which we still have to sift, it's so time consuming.

So, if I can offer any useful advice it would be that you may increase your chances by getting in early, we get given our apps in date order and have more energy near the beginning. And assume your sifter will just be skimming your app so make it very easy to find the important stuff - bold it in a single sentence at the top of each paragraph or similar.

Good luck..

Article in The Sunday Times says graduates from 2024, 2025 and 2026 are all chasing same jobs.

You could try working for places like Wellcome Institute, Alan Turing Institute or societies to do with eg ophthalmology. When I worked at Turing I got interviews for these and interest from universities but I wasn’t interested in these.

Agree with a pp bank or temp work can be a good route in too.

Agree with trying bank work! Also gives you an idea of the type of thing you want to do, which depts are nicer etc.

Thank you all. This is really helpful. Also re bank work would a specialist recruitment advertise these or the university directly?

I used to have to get admin staff from agencies to cover eg sickness, in a university. We had to use specific agencies (which changed from time to time). I suggest you phone a few and ask.
And yes, do spell everything out in the order they list the requirements of the job and person spec.

They are probably just moving internal people. My uni have had a few new people join the department recently as admin but they have all come from internal moves, which their manager has complained about as they have been crap at their last job so get moved sideways.

OP - @redskyAtNigh comment mirrors my experience of applying for roles in Higher Education. Whilst it's time consuming to do for each vacancy, I have found that when I have provided several examples of meeting the essential and desirable criteria, I have secured an interview.

This doesn't take away the fact that Higher Education roles are very competitive. I applied for over 30 Higher Education roles, over a 3 month period. I reached the interview stage for 6 of these roles and fortunately I secured one of those roles. The job, however, is a 12 month maternity cover contract so I'm still looking for other roles as there's no guarantee that I will be kept on after the contract.

It's a very tough market out there. Good luck!

Second what others have said. Reply to the essential and desirable criteria in order they are on the JD. Also consider splitting for fixed term posts such as maternity cover which are always harder to recruit for.

Plus speak to the job purpose. So the bit at the start of the job ad that says what the role is intended to do, and also show that you have done some research on the School or department or part of the institution you are applying for. This helps you not make your application and cover letter generic.

Yes it is important to understand the role. I still remember a painful interview for a role that is academic facing and no student contact and all the interviewee could talk about was how excited they were to support students

What are you so keen to get a job there btw?

The sector is on its knees. Hundreds of applicants per role, highly competitiveZ

Yes I understand. I thought my skills may be useful but I will not take it further

I got in via a 3 month temping job with Unitemps. While working as a temp, I was eligible to apply for internal roles- and got a permanent job last autumn. I've been lucky- there aren't many permanent jobs coming up as the uni is reviewing everything. So look up Unitemps and see if they recruit for your uni. I'm in my late fifties and hadn't worked at all for almost ten years due to various family crises. I didn't think anyone would employ me but here I am... (a rather exploitative just-above-minimum-wage role at the bottom of the academic administration heap... but it works for me.)

We’ve been getting 90+ applications on all admin vacancies.

Often these are from candidates already with direct or extensive admin in education experience.

I have to then shortlist 5-8 to interview.