To ask if you apply for jobs you’re not qualified for?

[SoloWanderer]

Do you ever find yourself applying for positions even if you don’t meet all the qualifications listed? What motivates you to take the leap? Have you had success in these situations, or do you think it’s better to stick strictly to job requirements?

I did it and got the job. The first year was really tough. I felt like I was very much blagging it and worked hard in my own time to catch up in things I should have known at my pay level. I performed well and have been repeatedly promoted. My success has led to us changing the entry requirements for the role.

Obviously this isn't going to work in a role where you could cause harm without the relevant qualifications or experience.

My husband does all the time. That’s middle-class, white-man confidence for you. But we all could use a dash of that sometimes. Go for it, I say.

When I applied for my job, the two essential criteria were a level 3 qualification and relevant experience. I don't have the qualification but I had many years of experience in different roles and a lot of specialist knowledge which would really benefit the team I was joining. Got an interview, got the job and the qualification has never been mentioned since!

Apparently that's the difference when men and women apply for jobs. Women only apply for jobs where they fill most of the criteria and men don't. I also read that women don't apply for jobs if the wages are too high. One company advertised their position at a certain quite high wage and very few responded. They dropped the wage and were inundated with applicants. Women also rarely negotiate their wage.

Not personally but I know people that do.

Their thinking is that the perfect candidate is unlikely to apply and therefore the employer will have to compromise on something.

Or, that another job might be coming up in the same business and they might want you for that.

In the past I wouldn't have. But I read somewhere that men do it all the time and women are less likely to. So I thought fuck it, and did it. I got my last job - moving industry so starting at the bottom - with no relevant experience or qualifications. It was a temporary position so I've just got another job at a similar level but doing different aspects of the role so again with no experience but I demonstrated how much I'd developed in the last role with no experience, so they decided to give me a chance.

I think some of this came with age - the confidence to talk myself up wouldn't have been there 10-15 years ago. And I have transferable soft skills in other jobs which I can apply to new situations.

In terms of direct interview prep I would also advise imagining scenarios of the job you want and how you'd handle them. I got asked task-specific questions and had to say how I'd deal with them, which is much harder to answer if you've never experienced the situation.

Men do this all the time. I’ve recruited scores of people. A woman won’t apply if they don’t think they meet every point on the person spec. For a man six out of ten will do fine. It’s like a self imposed glass ceiling. In most cases there isn’t a perfect fit and anyway filling the gaps is what training is for.

Absolutely. I'm currently in a job where I couldn't tick the first three boxes on the list of essential qualifications, and I couldn't provide evidence of my educational qualifications - but I do have lots of experience.

I gained that experience because years earlier I had applied for a job where I had no experience or qualifications - but I was known to the organisation through volunteering with them.

My late dh worked his way up from a security guard to HR director this way. One big thing was that he didn’t care if he didn’t get the jobs he applied for, it didn’t knock his confidence or anything. It was a sort of hobby, see how far he could get!

What do you mean by “qualified”? If it needs to be specific academic qualifications or need to be professionally qualified as a solicitor or surveyor etc and I wasn’t then no (and super irritating when you get people without that applying).

But if there are say 10 “essentials” on the job spec and you don’t meet all of them then yes if I felt overall I could do the job well. various studies on how men will apply when they meet less.

I've often hired people who were right for the role but didn't necessarily meet the essential criteria, particularly in terms of qualifications. Less so if they don't meet the essential criteria terms of, for example, experienced use of a particular type of software

With my current role, I read the job spec and was confident that no one could meet all of the criteria as it was so varied. I actually met few of the criteria but had good transferable skills and experience. I was going to be the expert in the area so, provided I always knew slightly more than everyone else in the room and sounded confident, I was fine. I spent a lot of the first year saying that I didn't know the answer but would get back to them shortly and then doing just that. No doubt it would have been preferable for me to have the answer at my finger tips but they didn't even know how to go about finding the answer so it was fine

If you think you can do the job then, sure, apply for it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that.

For a lot of job adverts the list of "required" skills is often pretty arbitrary. I read them to get a broad view of what the job will entail and make sure I can hit the most important skills but I don't feel like I have to match all of them.

I’ve seen the stats about women not doing this but I (a woman) have always applied for jobs a step up, sometimes several steps up. Obviously if it’s something that needs a specialist qualification like dentistry or accounting then no, but in many other industries, you can meet the criteria in different ways through experience or transferable skills. I don’t have a degree and pretty much every job I’ve applied for asks for a degree or a masters. Several times I’ve got the job, and I’d say I get an interview at least 50% of the time

The NHS, band 7 upwards, is awash with people who do not meet most of the required criteria....

Yes. My current role (and one before that) required minimum degree level in a health/social care/medical field. I have no degree but had enough on the ground experience (mainly through voluntary roles) and related CPD that the education side of things was overlooked.

I have massive imposter syndrome though!

Yup this! I saw my dream job but didn't apply as I thought I was under qualified and didn't meet all the requirements. A person (ok man) I know very well and is much more junior and less experienced applied and got it.

Am kicking myself nearly 6 months later

Yes, loads to be honest, but I’m also like a PP husband who doesn’t care if I get knocked back. I also enjoy the challenge!

I have multiple times. Never got those jobs but got some interviews that helped me curve my career path. My thinking is- what’s the worse that can happen? Get a no? Or be in the same position as before applying?

Yes. I'm in the job now.

They wanted a professional qualification (any of the accountancy ones), but they're paying for me to do it anyway.

As for why I applied - nothing to lose by applying. All they can say is no.

I've applied for jobs where I had little directly relevant experience, yes. I went for an interview for once ages ago and it was so clear that I wasn't up for it that I just wished the ground would have swallowed me up. So I think there's no point going for jobs that are seriously streets ahead of where you are and what your abilities are. But of course you have to start somewhere.

If you get a job that's a bit of a stretch it can pay off in time so long as you have supportive people around you. It's good to have a job you can grow in. I don't know really. Depends on lots of things. What's happening in your life, age of your kids/ people you care for, whether you can get on-the-job training, how much you want your weekends, all of that.

It depends on the job, a surgeon with no medical qualifications is a no go. Yet a project manager without a qualification, go for it.

I haven’t worked for 8 years but prior to that I always did (I haven’t even got GCSEs!) i used to say I had 5 A-C GCSEs and some kind of IT qualification that meant i could do basic stuff. I justified it to myself that it wasn’t as if I failed all those things I wasn’t given the opportunity to even try although I was more than capable. Nobody ever asked for proof of qualifications and I got the jobs I applied for