~by Haley Lynn Gray~
There’s a finding that has stayed with me since I first read it: men tend to apply for roles when they meet around 60% of the requirements, while women wait until they meet nearly all of them.
Whatever the exact numbers, the pattern is real, and I’ve watched it play out repeatedly. The job advert is treated by one group as a wish list and by the other as an entrance exam.
What’s actually in a job advert
Someone wrote it, usually quickly, describing an ideal candidate who does not exist.
Half the requirements are aspirational. Several were copied from the last advert. One was added because a manager had a bad experience three years ago. Nobody is expected to have all of them — and the person eventually hired almost never does.
So treating it as a specification you must fully satisfy means removing yourself from consideration on the strength of a document nobody took that seriously.
Apply anyway
If you meet a meaningful portion and can do the core of the job, apply. The worst realistic outcome is a no, which leaves you precisely where you were.
And there are second-order benefits people forget: you practise interviewing, you learn what the market values, and you become known to people who may be hiring for something else in six months.
The same pattern, everywhere else
This isn’t only about jobs — it’s the same instinct that shows up across a business.
Pitching. Not going for the larger client because you don’t feel established enough yet.
Speaking. Not submitting to the conference because you’re not the world expert. Nobody is, and the people on stage are simply the ones who applied.
Pricing. Not raising rates until you feel unquestionably worth it — which is a feeling that arrives well after the evidence.
And awards, panels, partnerships. All of them quietly decided by who put themselves forward.
Confidence follows the evidence rather than preceding it, so waiting to feel ready is waiting for something that arrives in the wrong order.
How to make it easier
Change the threshold deliberately. If you’d normally apply at 90%, apply at 60% and see what happens.
Count your noes, not your yeses. Aim for a number of applications or pitches rather than outcomes. It turns rejection into progress.
Ask someone else to read the advert. They’ll tell you you’re qualified. You won’t believe them, and you should apply anyway.
And if you hire people: write shorter adverts. Separate the genuine requirements from the wish list, and say which is which — you’ll get a considerably wider field, and you’ll stop filtering out capable people who took your list literally.
Apply anyway. Nobody meets all the requirements — they just applied.
