Unfortunately it’s a “liars market” in that liars get “whatever” jobs they want, to hell with credentials.
Unfortunately I’m pretty much incapable of bullshitting, I’m honest to a gigantic fault. So many job listings with insane requirements and then people say “just apply anyway.” …no? They’re asking for a thing and I don’t have it. I’m not the kind of person to Google “how to do my job” after I’ve been hired.
I seriously need to get out of my job, but seeing all these “dog shit cleaners. Masters degree required. Pay: $2/hr” is insanely depressing…
Most jobs are terrible at distinguishing between requirements, responsibilities, and nice to haves. Most requirements are actually responsibilities which means you’ll need to learn those skills but don’t need to already know them. As long as you think you can pick them up you should be fine.
You apply anyway because half the time the things jobs “require” is the same marketing fluff they add everywhere. Similarly to you I have a hard time bullshitting because I try to be honest about what I know and what I don’t, and for the first few years of my career I was incapable of bullshitting. Then my credentials were required for a project and I had to sit down with a sales person to “fix up” my resume. It went something like this:
“Was Power BI used in this project?”
“Well, yes, but I didn’t really use it. I opened it maybe once.”
“I’ll mark it down as experience with Power BI”
Really opened my eyes to how things get done. Some of what gets added as “requirements” tend to never come up. During an interview it’s always worthwhile to prod a bit at the requirements to see what is and isn’t bullshit, because I guarantee there is always some bullshit that you will never need.
Similarly don’t be afraid to bullshit a bit on your resume because you can’t know everything about everything. Bit of technical jargon but I’ll get to the point, I swear. My first job switch was for a position that required experience with microservices. This was in the early days when people were still figuring out what these mystical microservices are. I was then working on a project that was using a microservice architecture, but I never felt like the project was getting any real benefits from that decision and the applications didn’t feel “micro”. Nevertheless I put it down as experience and I rationalized it as it’s experience either way. If it’s done right and I see it done the same way in a different project then it does mean I have the experience. If it’s not done right then I’ll have the experience of how it could be done wrong which means I still have some experience. Kinda BS but it landed me the position. I then learned that my experience was both right and wrong, so I quickly learned from the mistakes of the previous project, learned how to do it right and applied them in the new project. In the end I was highly regarded in the project despite at first feeling like I bullshitted myself in. As long as you’re willing to put in the effort to overcome your shortcomings you’re allowed to bullshit a little, because nobody cares as long as things get done without huge issues. Just don’t sell yourself on things you know you can’t overcome.
My team is currently hiring, and I got to listen in on the conversation with HR when they were developing the job posting. The job posting includes requirements that the team knows they are unlikely to find, especially finding all of them in a single candidate. The posting calls them requirements, but really it’s more of a wish list. If you come across listings where you meet half of their requirements (wish list), and think you can learn some of the others, you should apply.
Unfortunately it’s a “liars market” in that liars get “whatever” jobs they want, to hell with credentials.
Unfortunately I’m pretty much incapable of bullshitting, I’m honest to a gigantic fault. So many job listings with insane requirements and then people say “just apply anyway.” …no? They’re asking for a thing and I don’t have it. I’m not the kind of person to Google “how to do my job” after I’ve been hired.
I seriously need to get out of my job, but seeing all these “dog shit cleaners. Masters degree required. Pay: $2/hr” is insanely depressing…
Most jobs are terrible at distinguishing between requirements, responsibilities, and nice to haves. Most requirements are actually responsibilities which means you’ll need to learn those skills but don’t need to already know them. As long as you think you can pick them up you should be fine.
You apply anyway because half the time the things jobs “require” is the same marketing fluff they add everywhere. Similarly to you I have a hard time bullshitting because I try to be honest about what I know and what I don’t, and for the first few years of my career I was incapable of bullshitting. Then my credentials were required for a project and I had to sit down with a sales person to “fix up” my resume. It went something like this:
“Was Power BI used in this project?”
“Well, yes, but I didn’t really use it. I opened it maybe once.”
“I’ll mark it down as experience with Power BI”
Really opened my eyes to how things get done. Some of what gets added as “requirements” tend to never come up. During an interview it’s always worthwhile to prod a bit at the requirements to see what is and isn’t bullshit, because I guarantee there is always some bullshit that you will never need.
Similarly don’t be afraid to bullshit a bit on your resume because you can’t know everything about everything. Bit of technical jargon but I’ll get to the point, I swear. My first job switch was for a position that required experience with microservices. This was in the early days when people were still figuring out what these mystical microservices are. I was then working on a project that was using a microservice architecture, but I never felt like the project was getting any real benefits from that decision and the applications didn’t feel “micro”. Nevertheless I put it down as experience and I rationalized it as it’s experience either way. If it’s done right and I see it done the same way in a different project then it does mean I have the experience. If it’s not done right then I’ll have the experience of how it could be done wrong which means I still have some experience. Kinda BS but it landed me the position. I then learned that my experience was both right and wrong, so I quickly learned from the mistakes of the previous project, learned how to do it right and applied them in the new project. In the end I was highly regarded in the project despite at first feeling like I bullshitted myself in. As long as you’re willing to put in the effort to overcome your shortcomings you’re allowed to bullshit a little, because nobody cares as long as things get done without huge issues. Just don’t sell yourself on things you know you can’t overcome.
My team is currently hiring, and I got to listen in on the conversation with HR when they were developing the job posting. The job posting includes requirements that the team knows they are unlikely to find, especially finding all of them in a single candidate. The posting calls them requirements, but really it’s more of a wish list. If you come across listings where you meet half of their requirements (wish list), and think you can learn some of the others, you should apply.
Apply. Just be honest on your resume and honest in the interview. Source: I sometimes hire, but do not write the job postings.