Frequently Asked Questions - Job Applicant

Thank you for your interest in staff positions at UC Berkeley. We ask all applicants to submit applications for specific positions on jobs.berkeley.edu.

You may apply to and be considered for more than one open position, if you are interested and possess the required qualifications.

Once you apply, you should receive a notification via email confirming your application. The hiring team may only consider your application once it is in our system via jobs.berkeley.edu. The hiring team will review applications and select top qualified candidates for a screening and/or interview process.

If you are selected to advance, you will be notified. Once a hiring decision is reached, you will be notified. Due to the volume we receive, we may not be able to provide live and/or individual updates to candidates. We thank you for your patience during the application and recruitment process.

The majority of positions on campus require a two-week posting period before applications can be reviewed. In most cases, the review process may take several weeks, if not months. After the department begins reviewing applications, they will contact applicants of interest directly for an initial screening and/or an interview. You may be contacted via email and/or phone. Please make sure to check your spam folder as in some cases e-mails can be filtered by your service provider.

You will receive an update regarding your candidacy via the email on your application and/or registered profile in our system. Due to the volume of applications we receive, we are generally not able to provide live updates to candidates for searches.

For a variety of reasons, including privacy protection, we are not able to provide that information.  If you would like to address your cover letter, you can address it to “Dear Hiring Manager” or “Dear Hiring Committee.”

The University requires that applications are submitted through our online system.

You may enter your username and get a new password sent to you via email and/or you may enter your email address and your username will be sent to you via email. Please make a note of the email address you used to register your username and password. We (UC Berkeley HR) do not have access to your login information, nor any ability to reset it manually. Only users can reset their own passwords.

Depending on the error message you receive, there are a number of possible solutions to this problem. Below are suggestions for troubleshooting:

• Check the spam folder for possible correspondences from our system and/or team.

• Please note that passwords expire once a year and require a reset.

• Try using the password reset to reset your password.

• If you have multiple accounts at the different University of California (UC) campus job websites, and the message continues to tell you your password is expired, it may be for a different UC campus site. 

• Ensure you are not logged into any other University of California (UC) campus job websites at the same time. 

• Use your browser’s “incognito” or “private” window to mask credentials that were previously used.

• Clear your browser’s cache. 

• Check for caps lock.   

• Turn off any autofill on your browser (or make sure that you do not have old passwords stored that need to be deleted).

• Try using a different browser. 

• If you are an internal applicant, ensure you are logging into the UCPath Portal, navigate to Recruiting Workcenter & then click UCB Careers.

• If you checked spam and if you’ve tried to register but received the notification that the email address already exists (not the username), then we may need to review and update your email in the profile or inactivate your profile so you can re-register. Please Contact HR(link is external) via this webpage.

• If you are still experiencing trouble, Contact HR(link is external) via this webpage, and please make note of any error messages you get and/or grab screenshots for assistance with troubleshooting.

In most cases, the review process may take several weeks, if not months. After the department begins reviewing applications, they will contact applicants of interest directly for screening and/or interviews. You will be notified of your candidacy; however it may take some time.

The “First Review” date does not necessarily mean that the job posting will stop accepting applications on that date. The hiring team may begin to review applications on or after the “First Review” date. If the position is still published then you may still apply through the system. We can not guarantee when the hiring team may begin or stop reviewing applications, after the “First Review” date.

UC Berkeley requires application activity to be received and tracked in our HR system. For this reason, all persons seeking employment as staff must apply via our website at Berkeley Jobs(link is external).

We can not accept applications through other websites. You have not successfully applied to the position unless you applied through Berkeley Jobs(link is external) If a position is not available on jobs.berkeley.edu then it may no longer be available and/or published.

After you have submitted your application you should receive an email notification acknowledging receipt of your application. If you do not receive this email, your application may not have been successfully submitted. Please make sure you have entered your email correctly, made a note of the email you used, and please also check the spam folder. The application should also appear on your list of applications in the system.

It may depend on the position. To apply, you will need to go through the system on jobs.berkeley.edu(link is external) and upload or copy/paste a resume. For some positions, the hiring team may require a cover letter and/or a diversity statement. This will be noted in the application process and the job posting.

The application system will ask you to enter or upload a resume. You can also use the “Copy/Paste” option to type your Work Experience in a text box if you do not have a formal resume. In some cases, the application process may require other materials.

If you are uploading files as part of your application, the system will let you know which file types it can accept. Generally, doc, pdf, txt, or rtf may be accepted.

Hiring Managers and Search Committee members can not see your application history, drafts or applications to other job openings.

If the recruitment is still ongoing, you can withdraw your application by going to "MY APPLICATIONS".  Then click the withdraw button to the right of the job opening. Once a recruitment has closed, you can no longer withdraw an application, and the button will be disabled.