Most people look at one date on a job, the posted date, and decide from it whether to apply. There are three dates on a job that matter, and they answer three questions. When did this start? By when must I apply? Is it still open? Mixing them up is how people miss a deadline, or spend an evening on a role that filled last month. Our post on why a job’s posted date is unreliable covers the first date. This post is about the second and third.
The three dates
Posted. The day the ad was published, or the day a source says it was published. Some sources give the day of the last edit instead, so it can move forward without the job being new. It tells you the age of the ad at best.
Deadline. The last day the employer says it will accept applications. It may be written as “applications close 30 November”, “apply by”, “closing date” or “valid until”. It is the only one of the three that the employer chooses and states to you.
Closed. The moment the employer stops taking applications or removes the posting. It can come on the deadline, before it, or well after. It is often not shown anywhere.
Why the deadline is not always real
A deadline can be firm or soft. Public bodies often state a fixed closing time: Ealing Council in London, for example, sets 23:59 on the closing date unless the advert says otherwise, and anything later may not be looked at. Many companies, especially private ones, review applications as they arrive and close the role when they find someone, whatever date the ad shows. Some keep a posting live for months and never remove it.
Which one you face differs by employer and by country, and the posting often does not say. Read the application page for words like “rolling”, “reviewed as received” or “late applications will not be considered”. If it says nothing, treat the date as the latest possible day and apply earlier.
The three dates side by side
| Date | Who sets it | Where you find it | How far to trust it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Posted | The employer or the source | The ad, a board’s listing, the structured data | A rough age only |
| Deadline | The employer | The ad, the form, the structured data | Firm at many public bodies, soft at many companies |
| Closed | The employer, often without saying | The ad disappearing, or a form that refuses you | Only the employer’s own page tells you |
Where to find the deadline on a posting
Look in these places, in this order.
- The top and bottom of the ad. Closing dates are often in a summary box or in the last paragraph, away from the job description.
- The “how to apply” section. Dates are often repeated there, sometimes with a time.
- The page title or the application form. Some forms show a countdown or refuse submissions after the date.
- The page’s structured data. Many employers add a hidden block of data to the page that search engines read. A job posting’s block can include a “valid through” date. You can see it by viewing the page source and searching for “validThrough”. Not every employer fills it in, and it can be out of date, so treat it as a clue and not a promise.
If you find no date at all, say so in your notes. A job with no deadline is not a job with no end.
What do the structured data dates mean?
The hidden block uses a shared vocabulary, schema.org’s JobPosting. It defines datePosted as the publication date of an online listing, and validThrough as the date after which the item is not valid. Google’s guidance for employers who mark up their jobs adds two details worth knowing. It says validThrough is required only when a posting has an expiry date, and that an employer who does not know when a job will expire should leave it out. So a missing validThrough is normal and tells you nothing. The same guidance tells employers to remove a posting that is filled early. A copy on another site may not follow.
To look for it yourself:
- Open the posting on the employer’s own site.
- View the page source (in most browsers, right-click and choose the view source option).
- Search the source for
validThroughand fordatePosted. - Compare the dates you find with the dates in the visible ad. If they disagree, trust the visible ad and ask.
Two traps with deadlines
The time zone. “Closes 30 November” has no time or place attached. It may mean the end of that day where the employer is, or at midnight in some other zone, or at a stated hour. If the ad does not say, assume the earlier reading, that it closes when the day starts where the employer is. For an employer on the other side of the world, that can be most of a day earlier than it looks to you.
The system, not the calendar. A portal may stop accepting forms at the hour, and an upload can fail at the last minute. Aim to submit a day early when the application takes more than a few minutes, and keep the confirmation you receive.
Here is a made-up example. A posting from [Organisation] says “Closing date: 30 November” and gives no time. Assume the close is at the start of 30 November where the organisation is, and send yours by the evening of 28 November. If it turns out the portal stays open until midnight on the 30th, you lost nothing.
A card can outlive the job
An aggregator’s copy of a posting is only as current as its last read. Zorlya, for one, does not close a posting that has disappeared from its source. The platform’s notes record that postings which vanish from a board stay open, and that closing them is open work. So a card with no deadline may belong to a role that closed weeks ago. Zorlya also carries over the date its source reports and does not decide it for you. The original posting is the one place to confirm all three dates. Each posting on Zorlya names its source and links to the posting it was read from, so open it before you spend time on an application.
A short routine
When a role looks right, do four things before anything else. Open the original posting. Write the deadline and its time zone in your tracker, or write “none found”. Decide your own submit-by date, a day or two ahead. Then work backwards from it. The post on tracking applications shows what to record, and a written next date is what stops a deadline from passing quietly.
Questions people ask
Is a job posted a month ago still open?
It might be. Some employers keep roles open for months, and some leave filled roles online. Open the employer’s own page and look for the same role and a working application form.
What does “valid through” mean on a job?
It is the date after which the posting is no longer valid, by the schema.org definition. An employer may leave it out when it does not know when the job will close.
Why does a closed job still appear on a board?
A board’s copy is only as current as its last read, and nothing tells it when the employer removes the original. The employer’s page is the one to trust.
Can a job close before its deadline?
Yes. An employer that reviews applications as they arrive may close a role once it has enough candidates, whatever date the ad shows. When a posting says “rolling” or “reviewed as received”, apply early.
Does the posted date tell me when a job will close?
No. It says when the ad appeared, or when a source last saw it change. Read the deadline separately, and check the employer’s page for whether the role is still open.
Which date should I put in my tracker?
The deadline with its time zone, or “none found”, and your own submit-by date a day or two before it.
What we know and what we do not
Zorlya keeps the posted date its source reports and does not decide it for you. It does not close a posting that has vanished from its source, so a role in your feed may have closed. The original posting, linked from every role, is the place to confirm all three dates.