Do employers wait until after the job posting closes to contact candidates for formal interviews?

Question

I applied for a job with an agency back in August. On September 2nd a telephone interview was conducted. The telephone interview was a short screening interview that lasted only about 10-15 minutes. I have not heard anything back but the job posting has not closed. The posting will not close until the end of this month.

I was told that generally, employers will only screen applicants before the job posting closes. They use this as a method to slim down the applicant pool. Once the job posting closes, official interviewing offers are extended.

Is that correct?

I know that every employer is different and that the hiring process is usually long and extensive especially at larger establishments.

Answer 1

It really can go either way.



However, usually the formal interviews occur all together, after the job posting has closed. The reason is that it allows the people doing the hiring to compare the different applicants--and to have them all fresh in their minds. So the interviews might be scheduled within a range of a couple of days.



If it were done while the job posting was still open, you'd have two problems: (1) Someone who seemed like a prospect early on (back in August) might have fallen to 7th or 8th place by late September after better applicants appeared; and (2) If you conducted a formal interview on one person in late August and another in late September, it'd be very difficult to fairly compare the two.



Hope that helps.