Job specification

[Ronnie1234]

If applying for a job & you tick majority of the boxes but do not have the full experience / requirements in one or two areas would you mention this in the cover letter? Or not mention until interview

It could be tested at interview so I'm wondering whether to be honest from the start.
It's a software application hence why could be tested & if it is a definite requirement thinking better to be honest than they waste time interviewing

Don't say youve done it but don't draw attention to not having done it

Can you do the job? Can you get familiar before interview?

It's rare someone meets every bullet point. And research shows women are less likely to go for jobs on that basis but men more likely to go for it meeting I think about 60% of the spec

I was just going to say that a man wouldn't think twice about applying for it under the same circumstances. Go for it OP and good luck!

You are assuming you will get an interview. Where employers apply criteria based short-listing, if you haven't evidenced that you meet the criteria then you wouldn't get an interview. Therefore it is moot - if it matters that much that it is a criteria then they should not be interviewing you; and if they do interview you then it either doesn't matter or they are idiots.

Honestly it depends on the skill. I work in tech and recruiters I know don't really care about a skill or two missing as long as they're ones you can pick up pretty easily.

So if it's, have 2 years experiences of X - as long as you can demonstrate you can do X it's fine. Or if it's a minor ability, as long as you could teach yourself before you start, not a problem. If you're being hired to develop a type of software you know nothing about, it's a bit different 😉

As someone upthread said, men don't think twice about this. I've literally had men apply only ticking one of MANY 'essential requirements' and we've hired him based on personality and ability to learn quickly. On the flip side, I've had women nervously explain in an interview they only have 2 1/2 years experience of something and not the 3 we asked for.

That’s not necessarily true - it partly depends on what other applicants they’ve had, and which criteria are truly a priority. It’s absolutely worth going for it anyway. Hiring just isn’t as rigid as you seem to think and no, it doesn’t mean they’re ‘idiots’.

PS this is a really bizarrely rigid take on things. Hiring is nuanced. A job description is often a theoretical wishlist about a person who may or may not exist. When people apply, they often won’t fit that exactly but may have strengths or experience that outweigh the missing bits. Only companies that are really crap at hiring would stick to your attitude. This wasn’t helpful advice to give - you might have discouraged OP from applying for a job they could get, although I hope you haven’t.

Yes, I was surprised at the published shortlisting criteria for one of our vacancies.

The only way you'd not get an interview would be if you met none of the essential criteria.

We want the moon on a stick for the money we offer, so are rarely inundated with applicants and it clearly said that they would consider interviewing anyone who met at least one requirement (out of about 8) depending on the number and quality of applicants.

To be fair, many vacancies, especially in the public sector do give the impression that you only have a chance if you meet all criteria, often because the vacancy is a promotion in grade/pay for someone who is already doing the job but they have to go through the pretence of open competition for reasons I never fully understand.

Nope it can just mean they have skill gap in the organisation. It would be great if a single employee could provide cover for multiple roles.
So a wish list of stuff an ideal employee can bring to the table is fine.
Ranking for the shortlist is still needed where there are not enough applicants but most fit the essential functions and inhouse or other training can fill out the missing gaps.

Thank you
It is public sector but external advert
I could learn the skills - maybe not before interview but could brush up on some.
It's excel - requirement criteria is advanced I would say I'm intermediate at best if that but I could learn / pay for a course don't know if it would start before interview if selected for interview. I have experience in all other criteria areas.

Definitely go for it! Good luck!

If its excel I would go unless they are looking for a specific cert. Or the job is handling data in excel. Otherwise its being able to manage the coding that will already be in place.

"Wish list" and "essential criteria" are not remotely the same thing though. If it isn't an essential criteria for the post it shouldn't be on the person spec. Or it should be listed as desireable. That is what criteria based selection is based on. If they then go on to ignore the basis on which they have identified the need for the role, then they are simply making it up as they go along. If nobody meets your essential criteria then the question is why - have we got the construction of the role wrong, is the pay wrong etc - not "should we employ somebody who doesn't meet our requirements".

If I had a glaring gap I would address it and bring in experience that demonstrates transferability, but something like Excel competence is subjective (I suspect many men would consider their "intermediate" experience as "expert").

Excel is easy to learn, don't outright lie, but no I wouldn't down talk your experience, make it sound as good as you feasibly can! You can learn what you need down the line. As an employer, I'm much more interested in the soft skills that are hard, if not impossible, to teach, Excel can be taught.

You are assuming that the OP is going for a job with a specific function in a bigger organisation.
The OP is going for a government job so they will be niche by design. If they are looking for excel skill which are undocumented its down to the OPs evaluation of her skills.

Lots of smaller organisations will have overlap between roles or a manager may have been doing odd elements which did not fit into the core roles which other team members were hired to do.

The team needs capacity for holidays and growth so have an chance to hire in a FT rather than PT. The manager and team work out all the skills needed to provide cover for all their jobs. But in a pinch one of the team continues to provide specific task cover and the new employee gets training.

The OP has a basic degree of competence its how will that cross over into a new role eg the OP can pull data and run the data through excel and may be qualified to be put in charge of the census web pages but not qualified to write policy based on census data calculations.

Is it something you can learn quickly?

If so I'd skate over it in the cover letter, wow them in the interview, then mention that you're a fast learner and are very confident that you will pick up using this program easily if appointed .

Go for it op!

but something like Excel competence is subjective (I suspect many men would consider their "intermediate" experience as "expert").

This. Pivots and xlookups may well be regarded as expert skills by some, intermediate by others. If you can't do these they're easy to learn.

Thank you all! Mainly for your positive tips and advice! I've seen there is books online , guides & even Excel online courses that I could signup to further my knowledge and skills.

Has anyone got any recommendations of further resources or materials I could use?

I wouldn't raise it in the application but if they raise it in an interview, then is your chance to say something (positive). Don't sell yourself short.