Should I bother applying for a role already earmarked for a colleague?

March 6, 2026 — 5:01am

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I have applied for a position that is internal to my organisation. My issue is that sometimes it seems in the organisation I work for, people are earmarked for positions before they have been advertised. For this role, I found out from a reliable person, that it is the same situation.

I have reached the next stage of the application process, but am now in two minds about interviewing for the role. I think potentially I would have a really slim chance of getting the role even if I performed well in the interview. Should I even bother to commit to the interview?

This earmarking you’ve been told about is something I think a lot of us either suspect or know to be a feature of modern recruitment. While policies, and in some cases laws, mean that for many jobs a thorough recruitment process is a requirement, in some situations this process is all for show. It’s a mere pantomime preceding a result that was never in doubt.

But just because this open role has a whiff of fait accompli about it, I wouldn’t necessarily say that you should pull out........

© The Age