11/3/13 - Don’t hate Mondays—they’re the best day to apply for a job

By David Yanofsky
http://qz.com/133105/dont-hate-mondays-theyre-the-best-day-to-apply-for-a-job/#

The next time you find yourself with “a case of the Mondays” act fast and apply for a job—it’s the best odds you’ll get all week.

In the US at least, 30% of Monday job applicants make it to the next stage in the hiring process, according to Bright.com. The least successful application day is Saturday—when only 14% of applicants advance.

Bright.com aggregates job listings and analyzes resumes to automate job recruitment. It analyzed more than 500,000 job applications and more than 15 million views of job postings on the site by US job seekers since January 2012. It measured an application’s initial “success” by whether it advanced in the hiring firm’s internal process (e.g., by having an interview scheduled).

It found that job applications are highest on Tuesday—when only 20% of applicants succeed—and lowest on Saturday. Job seekers browse job listings on a mostly even basis throughout the work week, then peruse fewer on the weekends.

Bright.com’s listings cover a representative sample of 70% to 80% of jobs in the US, according to Jacob Bollinger, a senior data scientist at the company, though it doesn’t have postings for jobs that don’t require resumes, like those in construction, food service, and agriculture.

The median income for a job listed on Bright is $58,000. In 2012 the national median income was $51,017 according to the US Census Bureau.

Why Monday applicants do better isn’t clear, but it could be that the kind of person who applies for jobs on a Monday is intrinsically more hirable. But Bollinger says getting your application early gives a hiring manager time to discuss it with colleagues and arrange meetings in the same week. Applications that come in later may have a higher chance of falling between the cracks or getting pushed aside.