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Let's say you've applied to Acme Company, they turn you down. Three months later, another job with Acme Company shows up on a jobs board. Is it too early to apply?

Here are 3 possible scenarios:

  • Scenario 1: It's the exact same job. They just reposted it to a different job board.

  • Scenario 2: It's fundamentally similar job, but with a different team.

  • Scenario 3: It's a fundamentally a different job, with different skills.

To put some perspective on this, I know that Google does not allow people to apply for the same job within 30 days. But if you apply for a different job, Scenario 3, you can apply within 30 days.

What's a reasonable wait time?

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  • 2
    Sentence one: they already turned you down for that job. – user70848 Aug 27 '19 at 21:07
  • I see some similarities between the other questions, except that I am not preconditioning that your skills have improved between applications as the other question asks. And in my 3rd scenario, that job is fundamentally different. It's just for the same company. Ex: the first 2 jobs are for attorneys. The last job is head of food services. – user70848 Aug 27 '19 at 21:29
  • Aside from skill improvement, what do you think would be the purpose of waiting? – AffableAmbler Aug 27 '19 at 21:34
  • I guess the downsides of applying too soon are: immediate rejection; looking desperate/unemployable; opportunity cost of applying. So the purpose of waiting might be pursuing other jobs at companies that have not rejected your application in the past and jobs where you can make a first impression. – user70848 Aug 27 '19 at 22:38
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    In 3 months, it could be the job that's changed, Maybe a different manager, different projects. Depends on the job/company. – user70848 Aug 28 '19 at 0:35
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Ignoring for a moment company policies, which will vary from company to company, the answer most likely depends on why you didn't get the original position.

Here are some answers --

  • You were one of several highly ranked candidates in the final interview round

In this case, it may well be that you'd once again be highly ranked and wind up being successful. If it has been several months your name may not have been kept in consideration because they thought you might have had a job already. You should consider applying.

  • You didn't make it to the last round of interviews, but nothing in your interviews was disqualifying

In this case, you would likely face the same competition for the position again. Sometimes the competition is really high and sometimes it isn't. Right now the job market favors candidates and you might well be one of only a few candidates for the position. If you do give it a try you might ask where you stand in the competition. Because, next bullet.

  • You didn't make it very far, or you've been rejected more than once

Face it, sometimes you're just not the right candidate, or they just don't want you. If they aren't giving you positive feedback by getting you further into the process, please don't annoy them with more attempts at being hired. Move on. Try somewhere else.

The big risk with repeatedly applying is appearing overly anxious or showing that you maybe aren't getting interest from other companies.

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  • It could also be that they're The Company -- best perks/pay in the field. So while you're accepting other jobs at lesser companies, The Company is the grail. I think AskAManager.org recommends in situations like this to email whoever you had contact with at the company, and ask if it would be weird. Or if you got filtered out due to not understanding their HR system (like you wrote you have worked with a variety of Object Oriented languages, and they are looking for specifically the term "C++"), then sometimes the same person just has learned how to communicate better that they ARE the fit. – April Salutes Monica C. Aug 29 '19 at 14:35
  • @April - Unless I had an outside-of-work relationship with the HR person I would never, ever, just don't do it, contact the HR person directly. I hate to talk-up LinkedIn here on SE, but the best way to utilize LinkedIn for the situation is to contact any contacts you have. There've been times when I've "connected" to someone on LI so I could see their profile. If the hiring manager, or a technical lead, did that the first time around, I'd send them a message, asking about the position. – Julie in Austin Aug 29 '19 at 18:09
  • I wouldn't email a person at the company if you never made it to interview, but if you interviewed, didn't get the offer, and now Job #2 comes up, then it may be worth checking with your interviewer: is it worth my applying, or do you think you'll be going in another direction? It may be bad fit, and unless the culture changes, you won't get a hire, or they think you're just not ready for that type of role at all, regardless of details, but it may be that job X wanted more SQL than you had, but New Job Y might require that and more of Your Skills, even if the listings are similar. – April Salutes Monica C. Aug 29 '19 at 18:45
  • If the person "agreed" to make an out-of-work connection, you're right. By all means, they connected with you on LinkedIn or Facebook, or even if they just handed you a business card during an interview, so go ahead and contact them. But if you got their email address by guessing, or looking THEM up on LinkedIn, it would be an intrusion. The thing to remember is that interviewers often have to juggle time for interviewing duty. Don't add to that by circumventing the system and contacting them directly unless you have a good reason why you thought it was okay. – Julie in Austin Aug 29 '19 at 18:51

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