Applicant FAQ's UC Santa Barbara

Instructions for external applicants 

Instructions for internal applicants.

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 Santa Barbara HR) do not have access to your login information, nor any ability to reset it manually. Only users can reset their own passwords through the Candidate Gateway portal where they applied.

Applicants must submit applications for each position they are interested in applying to at:  https://www.jobs.ucsb.edu/ in order to be considered.

You can apply for any and all positions that you are interested in and feel qualified for. 

The University requires that applications are submitted through our online system. Please see the troubleshooting tips below.

Yes, you will be allowed to upload customized resumes and cover letters for each position you apply for. You will have the ability to keep different versions of your resumes on file in the “My Resumes” section to use as you apply for positions.

The “application 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 “application review date”. If the position is still published at jobs.ucsb.edu then you may still apply through the system. We cannot guarantee when the hiring team may begin or stop reviewing applications after the “application review date”

UC Santa Barbara 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 jobs.ucsb.edu.

We cannot accept applications through other websites. You have not successfully applied to the position unless you applied through jobs.ucsb.edu. If a position is not available at jobs.ucsb.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 or you entered an incorrect email when applying. Please make sure you have entered your email correctly, made a note of the email you used, and also check the spam folder. The application should also appear on your list of applications in the system.

When you log in to the candidate account you created, click on the Application Status section to see the application status for each job that you have applied for. This status is updated as departments make their hiring decisions.

It may depend on the position. To apply, you will need to go through the system at jobs.ucsb.edu and upload or copy/paste a resume. For some positions, the hiring team may require a cover letter. 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.

6-8 weeks and in some cases longer.

Depending on the error message you receive, there are a number of possible solutions to this problem:

• Chrome is the recommended browser
• If you receive an error in our system, it could be due to an update on our website and you will need to clear your cache/web browser.
• Check your spam folder for possible correspondences from our system and/or team.
• Passwords expire once a year and require a reset. Try using the password reset option 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.
• With any browser you are using, please clear your history/cache/cookies for "all time". We had an upgrade in early December which is causing some web browsers to divert prior to our upgrade.
• When saving your resume and cover letter please name your documents with under 20 characters of text and keep it fairly simple such as: Bobsmith_resume.
• If you are an internal applicant, ensure you are logging into the UCPath Portal, navigate to Recruiting Work Center & then click UCSB Careers.

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.”

If the position you applied for is still accepting applications and is published at jobs.ucsb.edu, you may consider withdrawing your prior application and submitting a new one so that you may update your materials. If the requisition is no longer available on the job board, then you will not be able to update your application and/or attachment(s). Please note, that even if you are able to submit a new application, it is not guaranteed that the hiring team will see the update if the recruitment is already in progress.

Department hiring managers and their Human Resources staff have established timelines for their open recruitments. It is in the applicant’s best interest not to contact the department directly. Some departments view this as an applicant’s ability or inability to follow directions.

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, based on a multitude of factors including each department’s own unique priorities and timelines. 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.