Hello all, someone advised me to wait till near a job deadline to send my application in so it’s near the top of the pile. Good advice or bad?

Utter rubbish.

If your application is good, then any time is the right time.

I don’t think it matters, as long as you don’t miss the deadline.

Do you want to work for an employer who doesn’t use an objective measure of the quality of applicants, anyway?

When recruiting I used to skim read the applications as they arrived. Bin the ones i didn’t like and put the rest in a pile for a proper read when the deadline had passed. If I had 30 applications received perhaps 5-6 made the ‘keep’ pile

Thanks, I’ve seen two jobs I really want so I’m trying to get the applications spot on. There’s not much in this area, so I suspect there will be lots of applications.

Tosh. Large organizations filter job applications through HR, the smallr companies I’ve worked for won’t read them till after the deadline. I suspect even skim reading like WCA says is unusual

That said, and this is purely IMHO, if there’s a “contact for an informal chat” name or phone no, use it. Line up some decent questions and call them. When someone does that with me, I remember them, so effectively it’s part of the interview process

garbage, I skim em bin some straight off and keep two or three to interview

I’d go so far as to say that getting your application in early shows a modicum of enthusiasm and eagerness rather than a lastminute.com attitude (but that could be bullshine too) 🙂

Early. If there’s competition then many employers will think – right, we’ve got a dozen applicants, let’s start interviewing right away. Later applications won’t make the cut.

Don’t leave it to the deadline, some organisations will get so many applications and CV’s that they will stop accepting well before the deadline.

Just send them an email telling them you’re awesome and you’ll be in in the morning to sort stuff out with HR and start work.

Alternatively, send your application when you’re ready, I doubt it makes any difference how close to the deadline you send it.