Brief Overview of the CSU Open Pool Process:

‘Open Pool’ postings are utilized to gather applications for potential job openings that may become available in a department throughout a year. Open Pools are typically used for Research Associates, Postdoctoral Fellows and Instructor positions and remain open, collecting applicants, on the CSU Jobs website for 3, 6, or 12 months. Once an applicant has applied to an Open Pool posting, their application materials will be copied over to ‘Secondary’ Open Pool postings, and reviewed every time a new vacancy becomes available.

The open pool process involves three steps:

Create the General Open Pool posting to collect applications.

The General Open Pool is NOT created from a position description and is only used to ‘cast a net’ to collect applications for potential openings that may become available in the department throughout the year.

Create or modify a position description to use for the hire and conduct interviews.

Once a vacancy opens up, the department will review the current applicant pool within the General Open Pool posting and conduct interviews to identify an individual for hire. The department will simultaneously prepare a position description for the selected individual by submitting a newly created/modified position description to HR for review for a research lab seeking a research associate, research scientist or postdoctoral fellow, or in a classroom setting seeking a non-tenure track instructor.

Create the Secondary Open Pool posting from an approved position description to hire the individual(s).

Secondary Open Pool postings are NOT advertised. They are utilized to create a snapshot of the current applicant pool and to hire out of the General Open Pool. CSU cannot hire out of General Open Pool postings because in doing so, it would remove the posting from the CSU Jobs website, thus eliminating the department’s ability to continue to collect applicants. Instead, departments create Secondary Open Pool postings from approved position descriptions and request that when OEO reviews and approves the Secondary Open Pool posting, the current applicant list from the General Open Pool is copied to the Secondary Open Pool. Once copied, the department submits its hire request through the Secondary Open Pool posting. In doing so, the desired applicant is then hired into the correct position description and the General Open Pool remains open to continue collecting applications for future vacancies.

Open Pool Guides & Resources