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Any advice for interviewing at a job you underqualified for?

  • Last Updated:
  • Nov 28th, 2018 5:23 pm
Sr. Member
Jan 25, 2015
955 posts
604 upvotes
Toronto, ON

Any advice for interviewing at a job you underqualified for?

Job requirements were 5 years of experience in a manufacturing industry when I have about 4 years in a sort of similar industry. Im going to prepare as much as I can but any advice would be appreciated.
10 replies
Deal Fanatic
May 18, 2009
7863 posts
2841 upvotes
Richmond Hill
did they say minimum 5 years? if you werent somewhat qualified, they wouldn't waste time interviewing u
Deal Addict
Apr 6, 2008
1807 posts
1168 upvotes
I wouldn't worry about it. A lot of times companies are shooting for the moon...they want someone with 5yrs experience in a niche industry, clean criminal check, three references, university education...and willing to work for 40 grand a year. Lol.

If you're close to the 5yr mark...just sell yourself in the interview. Explain that despite not having the 5 years you could offer other skills that others may not have.
Sr. Member
Jan 25, 2015
955 posts
604 upvotes
Toronto, ON
yesstyle wrote: did they say minimum 5 years? if you werent somewhat qualified, they wouldn't waste time interviewing u
Yeah, it said minimum. There was some things on there i did not possess and they know that lol
Sr. Member
Jan 25, 2015
955 posts
604 upvotes
Toronto, ON
fusion2k2k wrote: I wouldn't worry about it. A lot of times companies are shooting for the moon...they want someone with 5yrs experience in a niche industry, clean criminal check, three references, university education...and willing to work for 40 grand a year. Lol.

If you're close to the 5yr mark...just sell yourself in the interview. Explain that despite not having the 5 years you could offer other skills that others may not have.
Thanks, its an employers market now so I thought the competition must be high if people have all that.
Deal Addict
Apr 6, 2008
1807 posts
1168 upvotes
mikolyyyy wrote: Thanks, its an employers market now so I thought the competition must be high if people have all that.
I work in the trades, so I can't really speak for other industries, but for us it's definitely an employee's market. We can basically work wherever, I've had same day job offers. But it seems that it's the same elsewhere? Tons of decent jobs being posted, and seems as there is a lot of openings just due to people trading up with jobs. Guess it depends on the industry.
Deal Guru
User avatar
Mar 10, 2005
12349 posts
5403 upvotes
mikolyyyy wrote: Job requirements were 5 years of experience in a manufacturing industry when I have about 4 years in a sort of similar industry. Im going to prepare as much as I can but any advice would be appreciated.
All that really counts is if you know you can do the job. Also companies/hiring managers are looking for good people and not just skilled or experienced ones so as long as you have some experience and are confident that you can do the work, it should not hinder your chances.
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." - Epictetus
Banned
Oct 20, 2018
8 posts
14 upvotes
Europe
Showing the willingness to learn helps too. You might not have all the experience but are eager to do your best.
Deal Addict
User avatar
Jul 20, 2016
2913 posts
3056 upvotes
Toronto
I was chatting about it with my friends earlier today - I saw an article on Reddit yesterday (I'm particularly interested in data analysis/science, if you're as well give it a go: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautifu ... eeting_50/), and think it's worthy to share:

https://talent.works/blog/2018/11/27/th ... quirements

The Science of the Job Search, Part VII: You Only Need 50% of Job “Requirements”

We were curious about how many job requirements are actually required, so we analyzed job postings and resumes for 6,000+ applications across 118 industries from our database of users. We found that while matching requirements is important, you don’t necessarily need to match all of them.

Your chances of getting an interview start to go up once you meet about 40% of job requirements.
You’re not any more likely to get an interview matching 90% of job requirements compared to matching just 50%.
For women, these numbers are about 10% lower i.e. women’s interview chances go up once they meet 30% of job requirements, and matching 40% of job requirements is as good as matching 90% for women.
You only need 50% of job requirements
You’re just as likely to get an interview matching 50% of requirements as matching 90%. We saw a clear upward trend in interview rates based on matching requirements, but with an upper bound. When users applied to jobs where they matched 40 – 50% of job requirements, they were 85% more likely to get an interview than when they matched less, and applying to jobs where they matched 50 – 60% of requirements made them an extra 192% more likely to get an interview over the 40 – 50% matches.

But after that point, you’re in diminishing returns. Applying to jobs where they matched 60% or more of job requirements didn’t provide any additional boost in interview rate.

Job Search Tip #1: Apply for jobs once you match 50% of job requirements.
huuuu! (¬'-')¬ C-('-'Q) straight!
Deal Fanatic
User avatar
Dec 27, 2009
7941 posts
5483 upvotes
Victoria, BC
If they've seen your resume, presumably they know how much experience you have - and decided to interview you anyways. Just try to shine in the interview.

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