Back

πŸ“£PSA: APPLY πŸ‘TO πŸ‘ THAT πŸ‘JOB πŸ‘ POST/POSITION πŸ‘

If you're job hunting and you've ever felt or thought that you're not qualified/good/experienced/[fill in the blank] enough, then I'm here to tell you to APPLY TO THAT JOB POSTING ANYWAYS!

I'm on the hiring/interviewing side (yes, we're hiring for all the things!) and I continue to see an imbalance of male candidates than female candidates in our candidate pool.

Obviously, there is a lot of research out there that points to why men tend to apply to job postings more than women, and I'm here to say that we see those research findings flourish in our industry and I always wish we had more females candidates to interview.

Anecdotally, I also saw this playing out when I was a TA for a design bootcamp. The male students always overshot their perception of how qualified or capable they were while the females students needed a lot more coaching and support even though they were way more qualified and talented than the male students mentioned before (not always the case; there are always exceptions to every generalization).

Don't be one of the statistics! Just apply! You do not have to do every requirement or responsibilty perfectly. You can learn on the job as long as you have a great attitude.

At worst, the company will consider you for future positions. It's always easier to reach back into the talent pool than look for new people to go through the interviewing process.

Don't hesitate to reach out for a resume review, portfolio review, or questions. Anything to get you to apply to that job!!

P.S.

When interviewing, please just make sure to answer the question. You would be surprised how many times people go off on a tangent and don't actually answer the question that was asked.

When I was applying for my first job out of college, I was invited to interview for a role that sounded interesting, maybe not exactly what I was looking for, but it was something. By the time my interview date rolled around, another position had opened up on their team - one that was much more in line with my interests. Since I already had an interview scheduled, they just had me meet with the other hiring manager while I was there, and then I was first in line to do a proper interview for that role once they were ready. And that's the job I ended up getting offered. When I was job searching for my current role, a recruiter reached out to me about a role at a dream company. It was a step up from what I was doing, but I was so interested in working there, and I had already heard all the "go after the jobs you're only 50% qualified for" advice. After getting through the interview, the recruiter said the hiring manager felt I wasn't quite at senior manager level (and I honestly agreed), but they wanted me on their team, so they down-leveled the role to manager, and made an offer. In addition to "go after the role even if you don't have 100% of the qualifications", go after the roles that are close but not a perfect fit. You never know how things will work out. New roles are always opening up, things can always be adjusted based on the right candidate. If the company and the people are good, it's worth pursuing.
LOVE hearing this story and thank you for sharing!