Do early candidates really have a greater chance of getting a job

Do early candidates really have a greater chance of getting a job?

TL;DR Yes, for more reasons than you may think. Use a virtual assistant to apply for jobs if you are too busy. Try the free trial of jobzisupport.com to see if it works for you.

Long Answer

Despite the many articles about skills shortages job hunting in the UK is tough at the moment. Many job ads will have over 100 applicants in just 24 hours, and if it has that many applicants, it is probably not worth applying. Of course, many of those applicants will not be suitable and not make the first screen, but there are likely to be plenty that will. Whatever the particular hiring process, most managers will want to interview just a handful of candidates who have already been screened by HR.  Making it onto the initial shortlist will put you in the best position to get hired. Just being an early candidate does not guarantee getting onto the shortlist, but for the reasons described below it massively improves your chances.

Experience and Expertise 

Before I go into the unfair advantages of being an early applicant, I would like to make the obvious point that the biggest factors (aside from nepotism and favouritism) in helping you get on the interview shortlist is your work experience and expertise. If you cannot demonstrate the expected experience and expertise to the role in your CV, you are unlikely get on the shortlist regardless of how early you apply. This also means it is not worth making an application if your CV is not ready.

Reduce the Competition

Assuming you have, at least to a great extent, the expected experience and expertise, then being an early applicant means you will be competing in a smaller applicant pool in the early stages of the process. Your CV will stand out so your chances of being shortlisted increases simply because there are fewer candidates to compare you to. 

The other factor that comes into play is that the initial shortlist of applicants may involve offering different options for the hiring manager, e.g. some with more experience of X industry/application/process/regulation/language compared to someone with more experience of Y. Since it is somewhat unlikely that no single candidate is perfect, then it is important to be selected as the X or the Y candidate. If you submit an early application, you have a much greater chance of being the X or Y candidate. 

Increase Visibility

This is similar to the above argument, but not quite. By applying early, your application stands a higher chance of being seen before the pile gets too big. Recruiters will often prioritise reviewing initial batches, meaning your application gets immediate attention. In fact, depending on how the first one or two tranches of applicants go, further applications may not even be looked at.

As someone who has recruited for many roles over the years and has many friends and colleagues in the HR and recruitment space, I can say with confidence it is simply impractical to sift through more than a few tens of relevant applicants for a single role. 

Quite simply, if you are the 100th or even the 50th applicant your application is likely not even to be looked at, let alone fairly evaluated. There will always be exceptions, but in general HR teams or People Operations teams are often overworked and are under significant pressure to shortlist candidates for interviews. Those people who apply early are just more likely to be considered and shortlisted, at least in the initial shortlist. 

Large Corporates vs SMEs

Smaller organisations that are recruiting are usually doing so because they need additional staff urgently. In addition, smaller organisations tend to have smaller and less well-resourced HR teams. They simply cannot spend much time and effort recruiting for each role. These two factors mean that early applicants will have a much bigger advantage when applying for jobs in smaller organisations than compared to bigger organisations. 

However, 61% of all jobs are in SMEs1, so not getting your application in early is hurting your chances.

High Demand Skills

The situation with roles with high-demand skills is a bit more complicated and really depends on the situation. On one hand roles with high-demand skills and expertise may not carry much early bird advantage because the employer will be more willing to wait to hire the person with the required skills. However, people with high-demand skills may be more likely to be hired quickly for fear of losing them (especially by smaller organisations). In any case, it is always better to get the application in early.

Conclusion

Overall, applying early is a great strategic move that massively improves your chances, but it's not a guaranteed path to success. Focus on creating a strong CV that highlights your qualifications and aligns with the job role requirements. Most of the popular job platforms such as LI, Indeed, CW jobs and others have job alert functions so it’s worth getting a few set up with Boolean searches. However, by far the easiest way to do this is to use a virtual assistant application like jobzisupport.com. jobzisupport.com will automatically search for jobs for you and also apply for jobs for you too. Using jobzisupport.com will mean you will always be an early applicant and have a much better chance of getting that job.

Reference:

According to the Federation of Small Businesses

Total employment in SMEs was 16.7 million (61% of the total). Employment in small businesses (with 0 to 49 employees) was 13.1 million (48% of the total). 

https://www.fsb.org.uk/uk-small-business-statistics.html