Applying after "full consideration" deadlines: a waste of time?

In our most recent "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

Q: Is it a waste of time to apply for a job after the “deadline for full consideration” but still accepts applications until the position is filled?

I came across a few job ads that are great fits, but there are so many more still to come that I don’t want to waste time on a lost cause when I could put energy into apps that will be given full consideration. Has anyone had a positive experience applying late anyway?

Related Q: How do committees view these late submissions?

In my view, the market season needs to stop clustering deadlines all on the same days, e.g., 10/31, 11/1, 11/15, 12/1, etc. Interfolio can’t even keep up! Are committees understanding about this, the possibility of finding a job ad just a little too late, or “life happens”-type considerations? (I assume it’s best not to give an explanation so as to not call further attention to the lateness of the submission…)

Or, is it always best to keep working on the job ads coming up?

Good questions. I suspect many committees meet to discuss candidates soon after the full consideration deadline, so in some cases it could be a waste of time to apply after it. But I'm not sure whether this is always the case.

What do readers think? It would be great to hear from some search committee members.

Comments

[postdoc success]

I applied for a job (postdoc) after the full consideration deadline and got it. I emailed the search chair and asked if they already started reviewing apps, and they said no. So, in my case, reaching out worked in my favor!

[recent committee member]

In my experience, applying after the full consideration date is not a waste of time, as long as one is a great fit for the position. I have served on hiring committees in two of the past three years at my university and both times we had a full consideration date but the application portal stayed open until the position was filled. I always reviewed applications that came in within a couple of weeks of the full consideration date. I am sure that others on the committee did too because we discussed these applications.

It takes a long time to go through all of the applications and we had several meetings to discuss each candidate who applied. Because we had four members on the search committee, finding meeting times was a challenge. As a result, our discussions for first round decisions spanned a few weeks. (We waited until the full consideration date to begin our deliberations.) So, there were applications that came in after we had begun our assessments. As long as we were still in the process of making first round decisions, applications that came in during that process (again, a few weeks) were fully considered.

Although I would strongly recommend getting an application in at the full consideration date, there was some small advantage for applications that came in after that time but still within the deliberation window: I reviewed those applications more as a stand alone. That is, rather than reviewing 15 or more applications in one sitting during my own initial review of applications, if there was just one or two late applications when I checked, I reviewed only those because they were the only new applications. Moreover, if a strong application came in a bit late, it stood out more if initial discussions within the committee yielded only a few unquestioned applications to move forward.

To be honest, though, I did wonder why late applications were late. And while this might pull against what I said above, I suppose it is possible that a late but outstanding application (i.e., in terms of fit) could have made me question whether the person really wanted to apply to our job. We would have still moved that application forward and that would not have been held against the applicant but it is worth noting.

[Bill V.]

As others have said, there are lots of reasons that the department's initial review can get delayed--e.g., sometimes HR has to "approve" the pool before faculty can begin review, or sometimes arranging a time to meet is complicated. You can't know which cases are like that, but if your application comes in after the deadline but before the review has finished, it will probably be treated like the apps that came in before the deadline. If the department has already set a "long short list" for preliminary interviews, your chances go down quite a lot: Then the late app might not even get looked at unless the 12 or 20 or whatever on the long short list all flame out.

Interesting point about the clustering of application dates. I think that's an artifact of philjobs more or less forcing departments to comply with the "traditional calendar" for searches. Ads are usually posted a month or more in advance of the deadline, however, so perhaps the fix (if OP has a time machine) is to begin the application process much earlier in the cycle.

Consistent with OP's intuition, I'd say: Don't miss any upcoming deadlines by spending time on an application that is already late.