Have you ever come across a job and become really excited and thought, I can do that! But then you look through the skill requirements and feel all that excitement slip away. Reading through a job’s required skills and realising that you don’t possess all of them can turn you off applying before you even look through the whole job description!
But you don’t need to fulfil every single skill on the list!
Here at Shout Bravo, we will let you in on a little secret, the skills on a job description are more a company’s wish list, rather than a checklist. Many job descriptions are compiled haphazardly, based on similar positions advertised at other companies.
The majority of the time, job descriptions are designed to limit the number of people applying for a role. It is very rare for a candidate to match every skill a job description asks for, but even if a candidate possesses all the skills that a company requires, they still might not fit within the company.
Read on for advice on being an excellent candidate despite not having every skill on the job description
Focus on the transferable skills you have; job descriptions are guidelines rather than set in stone requirements. If you have transferable skills for the role and have the number of years of experience that the company is looking for, then be sure to apply!
Make sure that your CV really showcases your experience aligns well with the type of roles you’re applying for, rather than focusing too much on the required skills in the job description. This will showcase that you’re perfect for the job and possess unique skills hiring managers may have not even thought of!
Really utilise your cover letter, even if you don’t have all the skills and qualifications the job description asks for, focus on those unique skills that you do have and how you can benefit the company in your own way and stand out from the crowd. If you have at least some of the qualifications and skills that the job description asks for and have an interest in the role, convey this in your cover letter.
Demonstrate your enthusiasm for the role, especially during the interview process, sometimes people that are hired for a role aren’t necessarily the most qualified and hold the most skills but are the candidates that show the most enthusiasm. Skills can be acquired, enthusiasm can’t! An enthusiastic candidate is also much more likely to stay with the company on a longer-term basis and employers are aware of this.
While we know that you don’t need to have all the skills on the job description, we also encourage you to remember to be realistic, there’s a huge difference between being almost qualified and not being even close.
Gender plays a huge role in how likely a person is to apply for a job if they don’t meet all the job skill requirements. Women are much more hesitant than men to apply for a job unless they meet every skill requirement in the job description.
Men are much more likely to apply for a job when they don’t have all the skills, while women tend to apply only if they meet 100% of them. Women are a lot more hesitant, and only look at jobs where their skills and qualifications align perfectly with the job description.
Milan research psychologist Zachary Estes has researched the differences in confidence between men and women. As Shipman and Kay say, “Estes’s work illustrates a key point: the natural result of low confidence is inaction. When women don’t act, when we hesitate because we aren’t sure, we hold ourselves back. But when we do act, even if it’s because we’re forced to, we perform just as well as men do.”
We hope that after you’ve read this blog post you feel more confident applying to your dream job because you don’t need to fulfil every single skill on the list!
Finally, here at Shout Bravo, we encourage everyone to have more faith in themselves and apply for the job, even if they don’t meet all the skill requirements. If you are at least 75% qualified for the job, then you should go for it.
