Is it Bad to Apply for a Job You Aren’t Qualified For?

There’s a prevailing bit of wisdom that floats around colleges and guidance centers, and it goes a bit like this:

You miss all the shots you don’t take! Apply for your dream job, over reach! Shoot for the moon.

Listen, if you follow that advice, without qualifications, you’re never going to get anywhere. Besides being a cliché ridden mess, it’s just not sufficient advice for anyone who is looking to realistically get a job.

The truth of the business world is that employers don’t care about your dreams, your goals, or any of the stuff you care about. They care about how much they can make from your efforts. That means, in a more rude way, they care about how competent and productive you are and how cheap you are.

The secret that most people don’t know is that college guidance officers, career counselors, and many of the people who work in the job coaching world is that they have never worked in a corporate hiring environment.

This is especially true of people who work in schools. They are so far removed from the actually job process that their guidance is almost always worthless.

And one of the big mistakes that people make is to apply for every job they see online. That’s a colossal waste of time.

If you’ve been told that you should simply apply for every job on Indeed and every job posted online to a company website, then you’re putting yourself in a bad position.

I’m going to cover why it’s a bad idea to apply for jobs your not qualified for, as well as some helpful actionable tips for people who are looking for work.

How Do You Know if You’re Qualified or Not?

This one’s pretty simple really. Read the job description. If you read the job description, then you should notice that there are job qualifications attached to every job post.

It doesn’t matter if you are reading something on Indeed, or something on posted on the company website. The company or the recruiting agency that posted the job is going to have listed job requirements.

All that you need to do is read those rules and then assess yourself honeeslty.

If the job requirements say that in order to be qualified for the job you need to have a bachelor’s degree, then you should not apply if you only went to high school.

If the job requirements state that you need to be a Registered Nurse, then you sholdn’t apply if you don’t have a Nursing license or if you’re only an LPN.

And there are more subtle things that people tend to miss. If, for instance, the job posting states that you should have 5 years working in a Hedge Fund, and you’ve never worked in a financial company then obviously you shouldn’t apply. But what about people who have worked for a major bank?

Well, in this case, you’re not qualified. Hedge Funds are not banks, and the people who are going to get the job would know that.

The major challenge for employers and companies that are looking to hire people is finding the right qualified candite.

It can be very challenging to wade through the many resumes that people submit, most of which are totally irrelevant and not at all qualified.

You won’t ever get a job that you’re not qualified for just by sending in your resume. That requires nepotism, or connections of some other sort or non-merit based reason.

If you are sending a resume online to a job opening, then you should make sure that you are an appropriate candite for the job.

That means that you need to have all of the qualifications met and you are exactly what they are looking for.

If a company is posting a job online, they don’t want to have people apply who are not a good fit and who don’t have the qualifications. That is just a waste of time for them.

In fact, if you apply for a job and don’t have the right qualifications, it looks bad and can hurt your changes of making any headway with the agency or the company in the future.

Should You Just Apply For Every Job?

Absolutely not. This is terrible advice that is given to people who don’t know better by people who don’t know better.

This is a huge waste of your time, and it’s also going to create a terrible impression with companies and agencies.

Here’s why it’s a bad idea to just apply for every job that you see posted online.

1. Your Resume Won’t Be Read

You’re just wasting your time for the most part. Most job applications have automatic screening filters that make sure that applications and resumes that don’t have the proper qualificatons don’t ever make it to the hiring manager. So, no one will see your resume if you’re not qualified.

2. You’re Going To Annoy The Recruiter or Company

If your resume does make it through to the company, then you’re going to annoy them. If you are not qualified and decided to submit a resume, then the recruiter or hiring team manager will think that you’re either dumb, or else so unaware of how the corporate world works that you are not worth wasting time on.

3. You Cost People Money

It costs money for companies to run ads online. The business model for big sites like Indeed is to charge a company money for everyone who clicks on a posted job.

If you are someone who isn’t qualified, yet you apply to a job posting, realize that you very well could be costing that company money.

Imagine the hiring manager for a Pharma company who was hiring a account executive. In their job posting they mention that the person needs to have 5+ years experience doing outside sales, experience with hospitals and clinics, and a bachelors degree.

Now what do you think that they would think if someone who went to trade school to be a nurse applied for the job. Nurses can work in hospitals, but they don’t have any of the experience to be account executives.

Every person who sends in an application and who isn’t competent or qualified is a waste of time for the person involved in weeding through these resumes.

So, what happens is that at best the resume is ignored. However, oftentimes, especially in a recruiting firm that handles jobs for multiple different companies and roles, is that the person is flagged as a do not use or do not call.

So, while it seems like it’s not a big issue, it can in fact end up ruining your changes of ever getting any type of job which you might be qualified for. If you are not getting a call back from a recrutier, this might be one of the reasons why they won’t get back to you.

What Are The Odds You’ll Get Hired?

Almost none. If you apply for a job that you’re not qualified for, the odds are that your resume will be filtered and screened and the hiring team will never see it.

Job boards are run with algorithms  that prevent people who don’t have the proper qualifications from getting work.

Employers can setup filter screens to weed out people who either don’t have the right experienced, the proper education, or who work in the wrong field.

Hiring teams and recrutiers look for qualified people who can fill the role.

Even if your resume does make it through the automated ATS systems, anyone who views it will tell that you’re not qualified and not call you. And, as mentioned above, they might go ahead and flag you as someone to never work with.

And this isn’t something that a hiring manager or recruiter will tell you outright. It’s not feedback that you’ll ever get from a recrutier. They don’t give negative feedback. You simply won’t hear back from them.

Can You Do the Job?

It doesn’t matter if you think you can do the job, what matters is if the employer thinks you can do the job.

Frankly, most jobs within a sector are pretty similar. A competent person can do them. The problem is finding someone who has the skill set, the qualifications, and is competent.

When designing a resume, it’s important to make sure you come off as a competent person.

There is a lot of debate in the business world surrounding resumes and how truthful you have to be on them. Can you lie on a resume? Can you embellish?

Good questions to ask before you send in your resume. You don’t want to end up being contacted by a recruiter for a job and then completely failing to impress them.

If you don’t know how to use Excel, or SalesForce, then you shouldn’t list it on your resume. If by some chance you get a job by faking skills, you won’t last at the job.

It’s important to recognize the difference between a union or government job and a private sector job. Private sector jobs demand people know the skills that are on the job posting.

If someone manages to get hired and cannot perform the task, they will not be employed.

A company won’t just keep someone on board who can’t use Excel or is unable to analyze data sets just because they fooled a junior level HR person.

What’s The Downside To Applying For A Job You’re Not Qualified For?

As we have seen, the downside to applying for a job that you’re not qualified for is that you’re unlikely to get it, so you’re wasting your time.

But more importantly, you are burning bridges.

Suppose that there is a job with the company in the future that you are qualified for. If you send in your resume again, there will be a record that you wasted their time before.

While it’s not a guarantee, it is likely that they will consider you a person who is incapable of serious effort.

It’s even more of a problem if the job was posted by a large temp agency that uses a ATS to track all of it’s applicants. Temp agencies still exist and they are hired to weed out the undesirable and unqualifed people. If you give a bad first impression it could sour you forever with that company.