How to overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying for jobs
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How to overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying for jobs
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Re: How to overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying for jobs
#2"Years of experience" is a BS requirement from HR. You need to figure how how to convey to the hiring manager that you understand the work/problem and that you know how to do/solve it in a way that will suit them.
Read _Ask The Headhunter_. Really. Best job-hunting resource ever.
Re: How to overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying for jobs
#3As an employer, I give you this advice: Just apply.
We make exceptions for smart or motivated people all the time. After all, your resume's gonna be viewed by a human who'll give it a subjective assessment. If by chance the company you're applying to is so rigid in their standards that they can only make decision based on objective measures, it's probably not a company that you want to be at.
Re: How to overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying for jobs
#4"Years of Experience" along with "Degree" are objective requirements that can simplify hiring. Some companies will be hard and fast about them, others will be more flexible.
But to note, if you want to claim that you have outstanding reasons why lack of years, or a degree, or a certification, or whatever ought to be disregarded, figure out why that is, and emphasize it.
If you have an active GitHub profile, an interesting blog, a self-published book - a great many recruiters will overlook their objective benchmarks.
Focus on your strengths, shore them up, and advertise them. Time wasted complaining that some recruiters are inflexible is not only pointless; it takes time away that you could be using to do something positive.
Re: How to overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying for jobs
#5The top rated answer though is pretty priceless. The easy way to over come the experience requirement, is to put in the time. But the relevant response is that when you don't know what you don't know, you're not nearly as effective as you think you are. I remember being so depressed at Intel one day when I figured out I was tons smarter than this senior engineer I was working with but I didn't have a shot at his job until I had more experience.
I advise folks, don't rush, breathe, look around you, learn. And then apply all that. But recognize its very hard.
Generally the advice here to just apply is solid too. If the skill set matches I and any other hiring manager will give you a look. And experience comes even when it isn't 'paid' so doing projects in your spare time is also a great tool.
Re: How to overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying for jobs
#6[deleted]
Re: How to overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying for jobs
#7Employers use "years of experience" as a concise way of indicating roughly how much skill they're expecting, as much as anything else. If you think you have that much experience, apply anyway and let your CV speak for itself.
If the company is the kind that filters out qualified candidates on a technicality, well, hopefully you didn't really want to want to have your time wasted by a callback from that company anyway. I'd still suggest not directly mentioning it anywhere, though, just in case it prompts an HR person to skip your application without looking any closer. It also communicates a lack of confidence. Again, your CV should be able to speak for itself.
Re: How to overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying for jobs
#8I just love when job ads require 2-3 years work experience, but also have a requirements list so long that would take 10+ years of dedication in 7 completely different, or contradictory, disciplines to qualify for the position.
Now Hiring: Visual Studio/.NET + Ruby on Rails developers with Oracle DBA and jQuery UI experience, XSL and Adobe Illustrator experience a plus
Re: How to overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying for jobs
#9I think the op's point was completely ignored: Different people progress at different rates. When you're in high school, you have roughly the same amount of schooling experience as your peers. That doesn't change the fact that you may be taking advanced classes while they take remedial ones.
It's easy to accuse the op of arrogance. And who knows, maybe he is arrogant. But in the end, that's just an ad hominem and is insufficient for dismissing his point, which I believe is a legitimate one.
Re: How to overcome “years of experience” requirements when applying for jobs
#10As an employer, I give you this advice: Just apply. We make exceptions for smart or motivated people all the time. After all, your resume's gonna be viewed by a human who'll give it a subjective assessment. If by chance the company you're applying to is so rigid in their standards that they can only make decision based on objective measures, it's probably not a company that you want to be at.
I fully agree, though I will caveat that many companies, mostly larger ones, have the vast majority of resumes funnelled through HR. HR may be much more inclined to just toss a resume that doesn't check every box that was listed as a "requirement" for the job than a hiring manager actually would. Of course, that may fall under the "it's probably not a company that you want" category, but it is well worth noting.