After taking some time to write a cover letter and attaching necessary documents to an application made via Stack Overflow Jobs, my application has presumably been submitted twice, according to two equal confirmation emails.

What can I do in such a scenario? A potential employer receiving the same submission twice would think I am a complete idiot.

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    If you really believe that it may have a negative impact for the eyes of the employer, then you may seek advices on workplace.stackexchange.com for how to deal with such situation. – Cœur Dec 17 '18 at 9:33

If you received two confirmation emails with nearly the same timestamp, the employer probably received the same. If I saw two applications come in back-to-back from the same person, I would assume it was a tech error and not the applicant's fault. I wouldn't worry about it.

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    If I receive a duplicate submission, I use a diff-tool and check the documents for equality. This has already shown forgery of documents. I can only recommend this approach to anyone. So this may cause additional effort on the employer's site. The applicant should be prepared for an interview question about the duplicate submission (not a tough one, if documents are equal). – Thomas Weller Dec 17 '18 at 10:48
  • Yeah it's still not ideal though and is something that should be fixed. – Lightness Races with Monica Dec 18 '18 at 18:49


Why? Everyone, literally EVERYONE sometimes makes mistakes and, thank God, most of them (yours as well) are not worth worrying about. If your CV is impressive, you will get an interview invitation anyway. An employer which will change its decision to employ you only because of a duplicate submission is probably not the one you want to work for, is it?

Of course, you may be asked in an interview about this, so I would prepare a reasonable answer. For example a technical issue, if it was two exactly identical applications. Otherwise, I would explain why you have submitted two times. For example, you have forgotten something important to attach or to write.

And remember, you don't need to be perfect, but you have to be the best candidate in the pool at the moment to get the job offer, and two submissions doesn't play any role.

I wish you success in your interview.


I don't think you have to worry about this.

If your potential employer is interested in your application, he will contact you regardless of the two email. One does not decide that you are an idiot before he has even talked to you, and if he does you probably don't want to work with such an employer.

I wouldn't bother even to explain it by voice if you get the chance to talk with him, unless he brings up the issue. In that case just kindly explain that it was a technical issue and apologize if that caused any trouble.

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