I’m currently in the process of applying for some full time web programming positions, and one thing I have noticed as I browse the jobs boards is that a lot of employers who are writing these job ads construct huge lists of “required skills” that they’re expecting applicants to have.
Typically, these lists might contain anywhere between 6 and 10 things. Usually it’s a specific piece of software that they want you to have experience with.
In order to widen my job-hunting net, I am thinking it might be worth applying for the jobs where I only lack one of the required skills.
Is this unreasonable?
I have no interest in deceiving any potential employer by saying that I have skills which I don’t. I intend on being upfront that although I lack experience or exposure to xyz, I love learning and would be willing to invest the time and effort to get my skills in xyz up to the required level.
What would be the best way to bring this up with a potential employer? I would feel bad taking myself through to an interview stage, only to then inform them that I’ve possibly been wasting their time, as I lack one of the required skills.
Any tips/advice here would be appreciated. Thanks.
I don’t think I’ve ever applied to a job where I did have all the “required” skills. High-tech jobs typically include a wish list of skills that they would have to be very, very lucky to find in one person.
Just apply, include your resume, and don’t mention the one skill you don’t have. You don’t have to be upfront about it; it’s their responsibility to read your resume and ask questions in the interview.
Of course, don’t lie about it either. If they ask about it in the interview, that’s the time to say “I lack experience or exposure to xyz, I love learning and would be willing to invest the time and effort to get my skills in xyz up to the required level.”
My experience is that it’s better to state which skill(s) you don’t have.
If the employer has gone to the trouble of listing it, they want to know (and don’t want to wade through hundreds of CV’s making their own lists of who knows what).
It proves you’ve read the advert and are honest.
Yes, I would be upfront about what you don’t know, and tell the prospective employer that you are eager to learn that new tool/skill and talk about how quickly you were able to adapt or learn a new skill in a previous job or situation.
By all means, don’t let it stop you from applying. Many times the list of “required skill” are the employer’s wish list, and they are often willing to settle for someone who might lack one specific skill but shows eagerness and ability to learn.
Definitely apply, although I wouldn’t call out the skill I lacked. Let them spot it. I wouldn’t hide it and would be prepared to address it in an interview.
It depends on what that “required” skill is. If you are missing the required 5 years of management experience or if they are looking for a Java programmer and you don’t know Java, you are probably out of luck. OTOH, if the job listing provides a laundry list of obscure “requirements” as many tend to do, I wouldn’t worry about it. No one pours over resumes and does a point by point match against the job requirement. They look at your resume and think either you are a potential candidate or you aren’t.
This is the wrong attitude. It is not up to you to give a potential employer reasons to disqualify yourself from a position. If you are missing a particular skill or are weak in a certain area, you should study that as much as possible before the interview so you can speak intelligently about it.
I agree with msmith537. Most of the tech-type job ads I’ve seen are a list of every conceivable skill the manager or HR manager could think of. How many people are proficient in SQL Server, PowerBuilder, Oracle, .NET, Fortran, AND some piddly proprietary application you’ve never heard of? There’s no need to announce your deficiencies. When I was wading through resumes looking for a candidate, one of my jobs was making sure they had the necessary qualifications. They don’t know Quark? Eh, we can live without it.
One of the requirements for the position I have now was fluency in Portuguese. I don’t speak Portuguese. It didn’t come up until the interview. The reason I applied was that the company was looking for some pretty specific database skills. I figured that they’d have a hard time finding someone in the Tampa area with all these skills (which I have) and fluency in Portuguese.
And what happens when you show up the first day and they want you to start programming in a language you studied on wikipedia the night before your interview?
If I put on a job posting that I require familiarity with ADA, FMLA, ERISA, CA PDL, and CFRA, I’ll look for those on the resume. If I don’t see them, I’ll ask the candidate about them. The LAST thing I want is someone who read enough to “speak intelligently” about them. I want to know if you’re familiar with them or not. If you’re not, it’s not necessarily a dealbreaker. But if you pretend you know FMLA in the interview, you darn well better be ready to applying it correctly when you show up for work.
I was recently promoted to a position created specifically for me. As part of this process, I was asked to write a job description and a list of requirements. The exec team reviewed this and decided that a number of additions were warranted.
Upon reading the result, I discovered myself to be distinctly unqualified for the position I both created and hold. In addition to the skills I listed (all of which I possess), it requires one of two degrees I don’t have, knowledge of two programming languages we don’t use, and admin experience on a platform we don’t own or run.
Nobody I spoke with during or after the promotion process ever brought this up. Lesson learned: take “requirements” with a grain of salt. I’m not saying you should apply to be an Apple technician if you’ve never used a Mac, but if you have any idea what the holder of the position actually does day-to-day, it should be relatively easy to determine which skills are actually must-haves.
The state of <redacted, see my location tag> has a tendency to ask for RockStar qualifications with Peanuts for compensation. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a job listed, relisted, then the last available warm body hired, regardless of qualifications.
Do it. A Job interview is often a meeting where both parties bend the truth.
Not to hijack, but does anybody recommend this for other fields? My daughter is currently looking for work as a vet tech, and has been very discouraged that most jobs require at least one skill she doesn’t yet have. It’s obvious nobody should be bluffing or trying to swat up overnight on a job involving living critters. Would it be worth it for her to apply anyway, letting them know up front that she can’t do X, but is willing to learn?
Here’s another vote for applying for positions, even if you don’t have every last qualification listed. It may be that certain things listed may be very simple applications, and they know you’ll pick it up in a short amount of time. Also, they may be listing things that are home-grown applications that are specific to that company. (My company has many of those). Of course they know that a person coming in from the outside would not be familiar with them.
And SparrowHawk, go ahead and recommend she apply for those positions.
Not to speak for msmith537, but I don’t think he was advocating lying about your skill set. Instead, study up on those skills you lack so you will be able to discuss them in your interview. I don’t know how many jobs I’ve seen that “require” expertise in Scrum or Agile Programming, when just knowing what they were put you heads and shoulders above most applicants.
Well…me for one. Had you asked me about ten years ago.
I master it. But everyone isn’t a supergenius.
Seriously though, I’m not talking about lying on your resume or misrepresenting yourself. I’m talking about if you have 90% of what they are looking for, you go learn as much about the other ten percent so if they ask you about it you aren’t like “derrrr…I don’t know what that is.”
Yes you can apply, all it means is that you’ll go on a list. If the employer finds someone who can do that, well you’re out, but if the employer can’t find someone you’ll be on the list.
But be prepared to say, and mean it, that you are totally willing to learn that new software or skill if you get the job. It’s very important that if you say this, you follow through, THAT will impress them if they see you are actually trying to.
Sometimes it doesn’t work. For instance, I have very advanced skills in Excel. There’s little I can’t do.
The H/R lady used Quattro Pro, which is Corel’s version of Excel. The two programs are basically the same, except for the layout of where what functions are go. And I’ll I needed to use QP for was a payroll report.
But this H/R lady was 100% convinced QP was such an exclusive thing that someone who knew Excel to an advance degree would be left behind.
I went to an Internet Cafe which had QP and studied it for a day. Now I can say I used it.
What about applying for jobs where you don’t have the necessary experience? Like, you have 90-100% of the other qualifications, but it asks for someone with 3-5 years experience in that position, and you’ve only got 1.5 years. Still worth applying?
Why not? It’s not like they are going to send street toughs to your house to rough you up. Worse case scenario is that your resume is tossed immediately which means you just wasted some time.
I think it’s totally fine, provided the skill is something you think you can reasonably pick up. A lot of computer stuff can be picked up if you have reasonable proficiency in related areas. Know C? You can learn Perl, no problem. Know C++? Java will be a cakewalk.
What I would do is study up as much as possible as msmith recommends, and then be honest but super positive if they ask you about it, e.g. “I know some Perl, but I’m not an expert. Given my C background, I’m confident I can get up to speed quickly if the job requires a lot of Perl.”
