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Given my current schedule (including work) I am often up very late at night. I am looking for a new job and was wondering, does it look bad if a employer receives an application form at 3am or sometime where most people are sleeping? I am looking for more regular jobs (around 9-6) and expect to have to adjust my sleep schedule and am prepared for this.

TickTack1
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    You can always schedule the mail to "auto-send" at 10am or whenever u want – Mario Garcia Jan 25 '17 at 13:45
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    3am is still more professional than during office hours when you're supposed to be doing your current job instead of slacking. – Agent_L Jan 25 '17 at 14:21
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    For some jobs, e.g. programmer, it's not weird *at all* that you work late. – Martijn Jan 25 '17 at 15:08
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    If a hiring manager were to pay attention to the time an application was submitted, hypothetically, they'd probably be more concerned about one submitted during the working day while you're supposed to be at work at your current job. But it seems unlikely that they'd pay attention to those kinds of details. – Jonathon Cowley-Thom Jan 25 '17 at 15:43
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    @JonathonCowley-Thom Even then, you could simply be on a day-off anyway. Or in another timezone at the moment you submit. Basically, since there is no way to know for sure, I wouldn't expect anyone to care. – ereOn Jan 25 '17 at 21:13
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    @Martijn: For a programmer, it is weird to work at 3am. – gnasher729 Jan 25 '17 at 23:13
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    If I were even going to notice that an application had been send at that time, my first guess would be that the candidate had had a really long day at work and were so fed up with it, that it was time to start applying for other jobs. – kasperd Jan 26 '17 at 05:26
  • I had several teacher telling me that it would be a bad idea. – Antzi Jan 26 '17 at 09:01
  • @closetnoc: That sounds just badly organised. We inform and prepare our help desk the day before, then we deploy at 9am when everyone is there, and have all day to fix problems in a calm manner. – gnasher729 Jan 26 '17 at 15:09
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    I think I asked this question a while ago... Is it a bad idea to apply for a job online late at night? – George Jan 26 '17 at 16:10
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    I'd like to point out that as a hiring manager at a bar, people who came in during rush hours (9 pm and after) and submitted their application were promptly ignored... – USER_8675309 Jan 26 '17 at 22:13
  • @gnasher729 Poorly organized? Not at all. We deployed when the least number of users were using the systems. Keep in mind that just one of well over 1000 partner systems earned 250million per month. Yeah. They would be upset if we deployed at 9am when they expect the system to be available.Like I said, with 30 years experience in mission critical systems at the highest levels, it is extremely common that developers and DBAs are on hand. – closetnoc Jan 27 '17 at 02:05
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    Is this question a troll? It is impossible to create such complications out of thin air – Rui F Ribeiro Jan 27 '17 at 07:19

5 Answers5

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Short answer: no.

The hiring manager will come in the next morning, have 3 new applications and won't care enough to look up the time-stamp when exactly they came in.

nvoigt
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    Often they would never know anyway. I get my candidates listed each day by my HR team. All I know is that eg 4 more came in yesterday. – Rory Alsop Jan 25 '17 at 13:16
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    The applications I receive have gone through a vetting process (Visa and other concerns independent of the exact position), so I don't always get them the next day. I only know a day (without time) and only use that to prioritize the review order. – cdkMoose Jan 25 '17 at 18:49
  • "3 new applications" - i'd love to work in your industry! Most companies and positions I know the #s for are in 100s of applicants per position. – user13655 Jan 25 '17 at 19:22
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    @DVK But how many applicants does each person deal with? –  Jan 26 '17 at 06:14
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    @DVK, I wish I were in your industry, I have zero applications... (a specialised IT/developer position) – Tero Lahtinen Jan 26 '17 at 14:19
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If you are in current employment you might have no opportunity to apply for other roles during the working day, so applying for jobs at night is pretty much what most people have to do.

For companies who perceive this as negative, they would have to make assumptions as to why you applied late at night, and if they do that then you should ask yourself do you really want to work for them?

You will find that most don't even look at the time in which an application was received, a lot of HR departments deal with printed CV and cover letters and will never even know when you applied for a job. Smaller companies might know, but are unlikely to care.

The biggest factor in terms of when to apply for a role should be making sure you apply for the role as soon as possible.

Professor of programming
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  • I agree with all this, and would add to, "For companies who perceive this as negative", the same would apply if you mentioned at interview anything else that would reveal you have been up at 3am in the past. The interviewer might consider it immoral to hit the hay at anything past 11pm, and if so they might judge you "no hire". But part of the interviewing process should be to filter out potential employers who allow that sort of opinion to prevent business getting done, so if that happens then your end of the system is working. – Steve Jessop Jan 27 '17 at 10:48
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Absolutely not.

There are at least 10 reasons that I can imagine for why you would apply late at night, and none of them would be of any interest whatsoever to me as an employer.

I'd hazard a guess that the majority of the employers doesn't even look beyond the date portion of the timestamp, at all.

Magisch
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No. few people, if any, look at the timestamp of an application. I don't. Even if I did I would simply assume that you were employing a tactic to submit as late as possible to be the first application I saw when I got in, so if anything I would think you were either clever or using every available moment to job hunt.

Old_Lamplighter
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    Or you were traveling and in a different time zone. Or there was a lag in the email system and the message was received hours later. Or... any number of possibilities that make this not worth judging someone on. – user1717828 Jan 25 '17 at 15:03
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    @user1717828 well, nothing to assume a negative, in any event. – Old_Lamplighter Jan 25 '17 at 15:44
  • @user1717828 : Or there was a lag in the email system - that does not affect sent timestamp only delivery. – rkosegi Jan 27 '17 at 05:23
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Generally I agree with what Agent L and Jonathon Cowley-Thom have said. Given that so many hiring managers are inundated with applications nowadays, I doubt they'd have the energy to consider the time you applied. Depending on what kind of electronic application system the employer is using, they may not even be able to see the time that you applied. In general I think it would take a lot for a hiring manager to consider that.

I'd also like to point out that when it comes to federal jobs, they're almost all posted on the USAjobs.gov website. While some are posted at various times throughout the day, most are posted at midnight when their system updates. I consider myself a very well versed applicant, and I'm very motivated about my career. So depending on my schedule, I often stay up late into the night, or get up very early in the morning to check what jobs have posted. Especially considering that many of the more desirable jobs will close after receiving a set # of applications. The system is automated and my resume/transcripts/certifications are all uploaded, so I have applying down to a matter of minutes.

DITR
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