vacancy filled before closing date?

Truepat

From an employers point of view we are often asked to supply a closing date and, much as I would like to say 'when we fill the job', we are often pushed to give a specific date. We usually set it for about 4-6 weeks.

These days we get so many applications that it is impossible to interview everyone so as soon as we get a number of applications suitable for a first interview we start interviews - that may be 1 week into the process. The quality of those candidates will affect how we filter any later applications (i.e. we discard any applications that do not come up to the quality of the first batch interviewed), so there is an argument that you stand a better chance if you get your application in early (it does not always work that way though).

If we find an ideal candidate in the first series of interviews there is little sense in continuing with the process unless we have alternative positions available, that would just be a waste of time and money both for ourselves and the applicants.