Today's the deadline for applications for the second job. I got the form in the mail on Wednesday so all it can do now is add to the general confusion over the two nearly identical jobs at the same time.

I think I mentioned before some of the differences in forms. A couple of absences I didn't note... (my this is an exciting blog, isn't it?). I've applied for jobs at this particular university on previous occasions. Back in the late 80s - although obviously they were at a much lower level. Never even got an interview. However, I do recall that the application forms they had then asked a couple of things that are no longer there. First they asked if I had any relatives working at the university. Second, they wanted applicants to list any previous jobs they'd applied for at the same place. (If they couldn't keep track of them, they expected me to?!)

Fortunately, given all those previous applications and having a sibling at the place (whose immediate excitement was where we might have lunch together!), either times have moved on and they don't need/want to ask the questions anymore. Or the different level of post doesn't require those questions. Or perhaps they're not allowed to under some new regulation.

Perhaps no surprise to discover that the form was indeed identical to the one I'd just sent off. No change in the identically named job specs/person specs/job description/job application however. Only this time two of them didn't even open for some reason! Fortunately the two critical ones did.

However, as I went through the form - or rather went through my previous application to reuse that - it became increasingly apparent that there was nothing to actually change. The two posts are so similar and so much cover exactly what I do now between them, that I'd generalized the specifics enough that it was impossible to change the wording on them to make any improvements.

The only actual revisions I made were to the job reference number (!), the dates I'd be unavailable for interview and to include on the continuing development list the fact that I (along with a colleague) have been invited to present a paper at a conference later in the year.

If not revising the application section makes me a bad person.... so be it...