You Don’t Need to Meet Every Qualification to Apply for a Job

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What to do when we do not meet all the requirements specified in the job vacancy. Is it worth applying despite some inconsistencies? Is it better to save your and recruiters' time and look for a job for which we will fit 100%? Many people looking for a job give up applying for their dreams because they do not meet all the requirements specified in the recruitment advertisement. Is it right?

No ideals

First of all, it is worth knowing that the so-called ideal candidate who meets all the offer requirements may not actually exist at all. It is worth remembering that the offers represent only a set of ideal features that employers particularly care about. To get a job, we don't have to fulfill all of them.

Pay attention to hard competencies and experience.

It is not worth applying for a position if you do not have the basic, required hard skills: we do not know the required foreign languages, we do not support specific computer programs, or we do not have the required permissions. It is hard to imagine that a call center employee serving clients from the Portugees would not know Spanish. A graphic designer could not use basic graphic programs, and a construction manager would not have a building license.

It is similar to professional experience. If the position for which we apply requires more than 10 years in a given industry, it isn't easy to expect recruiters to be interested in a rookie application with 2 years of experience. But if an employer is looking for a person with 5 years of experience in a managerial position, a manager who has successfully managed his team for 4 years can confidently apply for the position of his dreams.

What will I learn from the description of the qualification?

From the description, you will get information about the learning outcomes' specific requirements for a given qualification. Learning outcomes include knowledge, skills, and social competencies. In the register, all learning outcomes are briefly described and specified by the verification criteria. The criteria precisely describe what the certificate confirms; therefore, they are important both for candidates and employers.

From the qualifications description, you will understand exactly what conditions you must meet to apply for a certificate confirming a given qualification. It doesn't matter how you learned the skill or knowledge. You can get a qualification if you meet the requirements described.

However, for some qualifications, there are prerequisites. This means that sometimes a health certificate or other documents confirming your entitlement, such as a driving license, may be required. Standards ensure the quality of the entire process and address specific conditions, such as:

methods of checking learning outcomes,

requirements for people who carry out the verification - assessors and committee members,

requirements for persons preparing validation or for a validation advisor,

The validation is to be conducted and the organizational and material conditions - for example, the premises, required equipment, validation timeframe, or other important issues related to the organization of validation.

When to apply

The safest measure is the fulfillment of 100% of the mandatory requirements and the vast majority of additional ones. In practice, fewer announcements are made with a breakdown into mandatory and welcome requirements. In such a situation, it can be assumed that the requirements from the top of the list are the priority.

We can also decide to apply if we have a basic knowledge of, e.g., required programs or applications, and we know that we can quickly develop it to a more advanced level. It happens that the employer - even if it requires perfect knowledge of a given system - accepts someone who is not yet so proficient in using the required program but has already had contact with it and quickly reaches the required level.

Put yourself in the role of a recruiter.

However, it is not worth applying for a position if we do not completely meet the requirements set out in the advertisement. If we want to do it, it is worth considering what the recruiting person who reads our CV will think about us and our application. Therefore, when sending an application to a position in which we do not fit at all, you should always consider whether it will definitely be our showcase.

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