Thread by @jasoncrawford

Maybe you've heard that you should apply to a company even if their jobs page doesn't list the role you want? Or that you should apply to a job even if the ad lists qualifications you don't meet?

Maybe this seems strange?

If you saw how the sausage is made, you'd understand:

First, at any sizable company, the jobs page is at best, let's just say, a lagging indicator of what roles they actually want to hire for right now.

Why?

Here's what the process is like: First a hiring manager decides they want to hire. Then they run it by their VP. Then they have to open a “req”. Maybe they talk to recruiting about what they're looking for, who then drafts a job post, which they review.

Then they have to get approval from finance. Then maybe they have to get the person who manages the careers site to update it.

At a large company, or a mid-size one with excess bureaucracy, this can take weeks.

But of course, the hiring manager wants to start hiring immediately. So if you manage to find the right person to talk to, who knows that all this stuff is in the pipeline, they will want to start the process with you even before the job is posted.

What about the “requirements” that aren't? Again, part of this is the process. The job postings are often written by recruiters, who only partially understand the role and its actual requirements. So they ask the hiring manager for a list of requirements.

The problem is, human beings are complex things, and we aren't easily categorized into simple shapes. So very few requirements are truly absolutes. It's a fuzzy boundary. And so the absolute minimum requirements for a job are very hard to define.

(If you don't sympathize with this, flip it around: imagine if a recruiter working on your behalf asked for the absolute minimum salary you'd accept, so they could filter job opportunities for you?)

What most people end up doing is making a list of nice-to-haves that seem kinda basic. They aren't strict requirements, but they're sort of thinking of a reasonable minimum candidate and listing their salient attributes.

What makes this worse is that the recruiters are also looking for ways to filter resumes, in order to make their job easier. So they press the hiring manager for things that can easily be determined from a resume, like number of years of experience, previous title/industry, etc.

If there aren't many hiring managers who can really come up with the minimum job requirements, there are even fewer who can push back on the recruiter this way.

“No, really, I don't care that much about experience or credentials, just find me someone smart with ownership and drive who can get things done.” “Sorry, I don't know how to filter for that on LinkedIn.”

All of this is just an instance of the general point that, in life, you don't need to just accept the options in front of you. You can, and should, “order off-menu”.

Or, as I've heard @MysteryKeith put it, if you are standing in front of doors marked 1, 2, and 3, sometimes you should take Door No. 4. It's often there if you ask.