I’m saying this as someone who’s written a bunch of job postings.

Including a few for roles I ended up filling myself 😉 Even those had “requirements” I didn’t meet, and still don’t.

@slothrop And if trying to complete the sentence “You should hire me because…” triggers imposter syndrome (“why should they hire *me* rather than someone else, when there’s so much I *don’t* know?”) — then try completing the sentence “I can help you with…”

(Once you’ve completed the second prompt, just stick the first prompt in front! Oh look, now you know why they should hire you.)

@slothrop my partner does stats on this and it turns out that broadly speaking men go for jobs if they meet 30% of the "must haves" but women don't apply unless they meet something like 85%.

I might have the numbers wrong but they're about that ballpark.

@slothrop
Sometimes i tell recruiters when im not really interested ”sorry but i don’t have 3 years experience of x and that was in your requirements”.

And they are usually like ”but how much experience do you have of x?”

Sometimes the answer is zero, but i have 6 years experience of working with a similar product doing the same job.

@slothrop this is 100% true for non-government jobs, but incorrect for government jobs in the US where you must clearly indicate that you satisfy every minimum qualification to get past the first step.

My husband who works for county government wrote up a great post about applying for government jobs: https://dnidzgorski.wordpress.com/2017/03/16/applying-for-government-jobs/

@slothrop I once applied for (and got!) a job where I had 100% of the qualifications they were looking for - it was a great deal... for them. For me, I was stuck in a job with very little ability to grow, and truly hated it.

Conversely, I left that job because I got offered a job I had applied for where I knew it was a stretch, but I thought I could do the role. I remember telling my wife that I had just applied for a dream job that I was in no way qualified for. I got the job, and have been here for nearly 5 years. Best job I've ever had.

Moral of the story - not only should you throw your hat in the ring in instances where you don't have all the qualifications, be wary of applying for jobs that are a way better deal for the employer than for you.

@slothrop
True.

I once didn’t apply for a job because it said “Extensive experience in X.” I was new to the workplace so didn’t apply. They couldn’t find someone ‘suitable’ I was asked why I didn’t apply. I told them the reason. I then applied and got the job.

Would have saved us all a lot of time and money if they asked for skills rather than experience.

@slothrop

The surest route to working at a company you want to work for is bypassing the initial screening entirely.
To do that you have to forge relationships with people at the company. It takes a lot of work & there's no guarantee of success, but it's the highest probability path (assuming you're a good match for the kinds of people/skill sets the company wants).
Start with searches on LinkedIn to find a network link to follow. You may have to traverse several connections to get there.