Is a "midnight" closing date accidentally or intentionally misleading? [closed]

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Applications close at midnight on [date]

Strictly, that means that any applications received during the day in question will NOT be accepted. Often, I think this is a mistake, and they actually mean that applications WILL be accepted up to and including 11:59pm on [date]. (Indeed, the more helpful examples state 11:59pm as the time that applications close, for the avoidance of doubt). Of course, the natural response from an applicant is to make sure the application is submitted before [date] anyway, so it becomes a non-issue. Nonetheless, the ambiguity always irritates me . And it got me thinking: would a recruiter ever stick to the strictly correct interpretation of a "midnight" deadline, and use this as a deliberate tactic to weed out applicants who lack attention to detail and have poor time-management? [This is intended as a general question, but if it needs narrowing down, my particular experience is of applying for academic and teaching jobs in the field of biology.]

Would a recruiter use this tactic to weed people out? Maybe, who knows, though many would find that tactic ridiculous, arbitrary, and not at all useful. There is no general answer to this, and it will completely vary from recruiter to recruiter.

Pretty sure I read it here that one particular recruiter would take half the applications and throw them away without a single look, his rationale being that he wouldn't want to hire someone unlucky. This is a brilliant example of both the unpredicatability of the application process, and a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Ah, technically right: the best kind of right. Even if your interpretation of midnight wasn't different from how any sane person would see it, the question is entirely pointless. Virtually no candidates will wait until this late into the process. Any that do or who learn about the position late in the process can still apply and in most cases they will still be considered. VTC as opinion-based since the question posed has no useful answer.

3 Answers 3

Regardless of what technical definition chronologists (is there such a thing?) or astronomers might have invented, most people understand "until midnight on Thursday" to mean any time on Thursday, up until the midnight that separates Thursday from Friday.

I doubt someone would use this as a tool to weed out applicants. If they did, it would be a bad idea. Even assuming that they are insisting that the "correct definition" is that "midnight Thursday" means 1 minute after 11:59 pm Wednesday:

(a) Would a clear understanding of such a technicality be relevant to the job? If it's a job involving timekeeping, maybe so. But most other jobs, no. It would be a totally irrelevant criterion. Like hiring an accountant and quizzing all applicants on the dietary requirements of frogs.

(b) If someone gets his application in before the deadline, does that mean he understood the definition? Or just that he was playing it safe and getting his application in at least a day early? Likewise, if someone submits an application an hour after the deadline, does that mean they didn't properly interpret the deadline, or that they thought, "bummer, I missed the deadline. Well, let me send in the application anyway, maybe they won't enforce the deadline strictly." Most of the "passes" would be false positives and many of the "misses" would be false negatives.