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Comment by zappo2938 | Hacker News Reader

"Apply for jobs you’re a bit under qualified for. Most job descriptions describe the perfect candidate. Those features are a wish list not a must have. This applies even more in start-ups where genuine passion for the company gets you a long way."

This sound like very good advice.

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Yeah exactly, hiring managers have this list in their head, and what they're basically doing is crossing off items that dont apply for each candidate. essentially the ones with the least things crossed out will likely be top of the pile...

In my experience it's a weighted list though, and things like having a compatible personality and a personal drive for wanting "this" job, often counts a great deal more than the technical skills on the job description.

Unless we're talking contracts of course, then you'll simply want the best technical candidate because you need someone who can deliver good quality on time.

As a currently unemployed developer I take this advice everyday but it really hasn't generated any results (and it really shouldn't be at my current experience level).

I've heard countless times from other developers that they would be happy to hire a competent programmer with no familiarity with their stack because it's better than waiting 6 months to find a dev with the preferred experience. I've never seen or heard about this in practice.

No. In major market cities (SF, Boston, NYC), chances are they're already moving forward with a candidate who does fit the qualifications. Tjey're not hard to fund in those markets.

They are hard enough to find that they are willing to fly in candidates from across the country.

If you're a unicorn-grade developer (God-tier school, significant time solving Major Problems), maybe. My job search experience has been that it's pretty much "perfect match or gtfo". If I had a nickel for every time I heard "While we were impressed with your qualifications, we decided to go ahead with another candidate with more experience in the tech stack we're using. Best of luck in your job search" I could pay my internet bill at least.

LPT: "More experience in our tech stack" generally means they just didn't like you.

> If you're a unicorn-grade developer (God-tier school, significant time solving Major Problems), maybe.

I'm not from a God-tier school, but I've been on teams solving non-trivial problems. And I was flown across the country before I had experience like that.

> My job search experience has been that it's pretty much "perfect match or gtfo".

I've seen a lot of that, too. Maybe their own nth degree persnicketiness is why they have problems filling positions and are willing to fly people in from far away. I was once flown halfway across the country by a medium-small webdev company just north of the golden gate bridge.

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