AIBU To apply for a job without all the 'essential' criteria?

[EnidSpyton]

Looking for experiences of people who applied for jobs they weren't fully qualified for according to the 'essential' JD criteria but still got it anyway...

I've found a job I'd love to apply for and while I know I could do it and have most of the experience and all of the qualifications, there's a pretty essential element I don't have any experience in. I don't personally think it should be a barrier as I feel my experience in other areas makes up for it, but would the org feel the same?!

My usual attitude with work is 'if I were a man, I'd do it anyway' - there's some statistic I've read that says men apply for a job if they meet 60% of the criteria, whereas women will only apply if they meet 100%. I'd say I meet 80% of the essential, and 100% of the desirable for this job. But it's going to take me at least half a day to apply for it, I'm tight on time at the moment, and I don't want to spend the time on the application if I have no chance of getting it. Interested to know what others think and if you'd bother throwing your hat in the ring if you didn't meet 100% of the criteria.

This is the issue. I have 'lived experience' due to my passion for the art form, and a masters degree in the art form, but no professional experience in the sector whatsoever. At the same time, I know the community groups they're trying to reach out to inside out.

Focus on the lived experience and your inside knowledge of these groups. Lived experience can help you to reach these community groups and tailor your approach to fit their needs. It's a different perspective but a very valid one. Talk of your passion for this field and the unique insight you've gained because of that.

I’m public sector and finding it as hard to recruit as the rest of the country. Just recruited two people who didn’t meet essential criteria but had transferable skills.

If you apply you at least give yourself a chance. If you don’t apply you won’t.
I had very very few of the essential criteria for my current job but still got it!

You have nothing to lose by going for it.

It's possible to write such a good personal statement about all the experience and understanding of all the essential criteria you meet whilst skirting round skills that allow to to meet the ones you don't.

I always think the stringer personal statements get interviews over poor ones that do show you've met all criteria.

Definitely do it. I've gotten most of my jobs this way.

If it's public sector all applications are anonymous so you won't know age, sex names etc. we have to score on criteria the highest scoring get interviews. If you haven't got relevant qualifications and/or experience you will score zero. You won't make it past this stage.

Go for it, otherwise you'll never know. Two thoughts spring to mind.

(i) Any job you apply for will start considering the people who don't meet the essentials, if they don't have enough people who do. If there are likely to be 100 applicants, don't bother. This sounds quite specialised (ie there won't be), so it's worth a punt.

(ii) Any person spec is limited by their thinking at the time. They think their ideal candidate is someone with practical experience in this art form through past employment. They probably hadn't thought about or realised that they might attract someone with a masters degree in it. You may well find that interests them.

Just be careful you’re not setting yourself up to fail in the role of you get it.

We have appointed a couple of people without the essentials and they’ve massively struggled in the role.

Go for it OP. Even in your responses, your passion for the subject shines through. Good luck xx

I’ve just been through this and while pre interview I was told that there were lots of things I could bring out with the job spec, the CBI was SO role specific, none of my examples matched the questions and so it was a waste of everyone’s time.

My current role I applied whilst meeting 0 of the criteria.

I actually phoned the hiring manager to ask him for his advice on things I could do to get my CV up to scratch to get into this line of work in a few years. We hit it off and he told me to apply and see what happened.

He gave me the job after seeing lots more senior candidates. Sometimes a personality fit will win out or the hiring manager will change their requirements based on who they meet.

I’ve been in the job 2 years, got promoted recently, absolutely love the work and although I am still developing the experience, it’s a perfect fit for some of my natural strengths.

I think meeting most of it makes it worth applying
When I’m recruiting I will interview if over 75% of essentials are met - we then interview top 4 based on mixture of that and desirables plus how strong their whole application is
I’ve recently been headhunted for same role by 3 different means but am not applying because I don’t want to waste their time as I meet less than half of what they feel essential
On experience and person spec I smash it though which is a pity - I do wonder how much of a place lack of confidence holds women back

Public sector here.

Got my current job without having one of the essential criteria. I put something like 'although I don't have experience with xyz I have researched it on xyz' and a lot of blurb about how I learn quickly and am highly adaptable.

Got an interview and got the job. As it turns out the criteria was pointless as it's something you learn as you go along and would not prevent you from performing the job role without it at all. Sometimes I think they put things like that in to reduce the number of applicants.

Always apply if you meet 50% of the criteria. You don't know how realistic they're being (and they probably don't know either).

The job market is hot and it's a great time to apply for something you're really not qualified for.

I'm public sector and recruiting at the moment so far we have over 200 applications for 2 jobs and it doesnt close till next week, so for these if you don't meet essential criteria you're out. However if there was 20 applications it would be a different story. You've got nothing to lose go for it.

But if it's a public sector role they won't interview you.

Not necessarily, if the essential criteria is a social work qualification then obviously not but if it's something less tangible and none of the candidates have it they may decide to overlook it.

At the moment we aren't getting many candidates so I'd advise you to give it a go.