Have you ever got a job you weren't exactly qualified for?

[JackThayer]

And if you did, how did you sell your self? Did you acknowledge that you might not be the best fit bit are willing to learn or just sort of skip over it?
I've found a job I would love to do but its more like adjacent to my current job and I'm not very good at selling myself!

Yes! I have the soft skills and experience to do my job: project management, communication, stakeholder engagement, managing relationships, dealing with crisis etc. But I don't have the technical and sector specific knowledge/background. I moved from one sector into another.

Because the interview was competency based I could demonstrate my skillset easily and provide examples of where I'd done similar work but in a completely different area. They could see I was passionate about the subject and that I could apply myself, but was also honest that I did have gaps and was keen to learn.

I guess it also depends how competitive the role is and if they need you to hit the ground running.

It's not been the easiest transition, I've had to make a huge commitment to learning and development and also drawing on colleagues technical experience. I bring plenty of skills they don't though.

I have, and in a new sector too. I was honest about what I could and couldn't do and gave examples of where I'd picked things up in the past. It's always worth a punt. My role had been advertised in December and I found out later that they'd had few applicants, considered readvertising but decided to give me a chance to save themselves the hassle.

I've since been on the other side of recruitment and it's not uncommon to have no fully qualified applicants and to have to decide whether to proceed with someone close enough or keep advertising, so you shouldn't feel you're doing anything exceptionally cheeky. You'd be surprised what people (usually men, tbf) will have a crack at with close to zero relevant experience.

Frankly a lot of jobs will require a certain amount of “learning on the job” - so if you have some adjacent transferable skills it’s worth giving it a try. Be transparent about strengths as well as areas you’d need to develop further. You obviously might not get the job if there are more experienced candidates but If the gap between your existing skills and the new job isn’t too wide go for it. This is how people learn and progress.

Most of them, I take the view that if I meet 50% of the requirements and think I can do the job then I'll apply and do my best to get it.

Is started as a 17 yr old doing telesales, moved through a whole load of call centre roles and levels till I was call centre manager. Then moved into IT service Delivery and now Director Level Cybersecurity, Governance, Risk & Compliance.

No qualifications beyond some bad A-levels but I do make sure I keep up to date, do free online courses, read a lot, speak to people who have the knowledge, engage in mentoring/shadowing/development schemes at work.

Me I had a career change and moved to a new sector. I was upfront every step of the way about not having experience but I did research beforehand on my existing skills and how they can be transferred to the new role. It definitely worked as I didn't get the job I originally applied for, they offered me a more senior one. I have been in the role for 15 months now and my lack of knowledge hasn't held me back at all.

I applied for a post I had zero experience in but I had worked in another dept for the same type of organisation. I remember my boss at the time saying if you get an interview well you can talk yourself in to anything. I did get it and stayed 6 years.

Yes, my first networking job, I got on the basis of an operating system I didn't know well.
On my first weekend, I got the security guard to let me in and I worked through two installations to brush up my skills before anyone spotted my lack of experience.

I have never applied for a job that required 'essential' qualifications I didn't have because I'm scared of rejection out of my own stupidity for not listening to the requirements and wasting everyone's time. I will apply if they are 'nice to have' but never if they are listen as essential. If i am working towards the qualification of missing a bit of the experience length I would apply. But completely no relevant qualifications or experience to requirement? Noway.

I have taken jobs that I wasn't qualified for because they were offered to me and I was assured there would be training.

Usually the employer is desperate eg mat cover that nobody wants, high turn over shitty jobs, employer not paying enough for the experienced and qualified staff they really need, employer too busy to go through the advertising and hiring process properly.

The training usually doesn't scratch the surface and I quickly realise how out of depth I am, my mental health starts to suffer and I lose confidence and motivation as I make more mistakes and feel like I let everyone down. A month or three later everyone expects me to know my role and get irritated when I ask for help, looking at me like I'm an idiot. I get that in such companies the 'mentor' is probably not paid enough to train and support long enough so they resent the added responsibility to their load. it creates tension when a mistake happens, you're supposedly hired at a certain level but you're asking others sometimes more junior for help. It makes you lose credibility and respect among colleagues like is she a liar? A scammer? Did she get it because she knows someone or because of her looks? The insinuation is that you got the job without merit.

So now I would now neither apply nor take out of depth jobs.. however, plenty of people are on the opposite spectrum to me, they havr misplaced high self confidence, maybe a touch of narcissism, they think they are so marvellous and brilliant even when they are the biggest bullshitters. They talk the talk, they know how to charm people and they get places that on paper they have very little qualifications for.

So my opinion is, if you have high self confidence and thick skin go for it. If you are sensitive, if you care too much about doing a job well, if the consequences of a mistakr on the job is too high like people dying or losing money then I wouldn't recommend it.

I know they say men go for high jobs anyway but they also tend to be more stressed at work and generally do a lot less at home than women. Life home balance and support at home is something to think about when aiming for jobs that will be strerching you at least for the first 6 months while you learn to make up for the qualifications shortfall.