A job advert lists twelve requirements. You meet eight confidently, have related experience for two and have never done the remaining two. Do you apply or move on? Understanding essential vs desirable skills helps you make that decision more rationally instead of treating every bullet point as an automatic pass-or-fail test.
Employers write job adverts in different ways. Some clearly label “essential” and “desirable” criteria. Others combine everything under headings such as “what we’re looking for”. Your task is to work out which gaps are likely to block an application and which may be negotiable.
Essential vs desirable skills are not equally weighted
An essential requirement is normally something the employer believes is necessary to perform the role, meet a legal or operational condition, or succeed without unreasonable additional preparation. A desirable requirement strengthens an application but is not necessarily a condition of appointment.
That sounds simple, but real adverts are messy. A hiring manager may describe a preference strongly, while a recruiter may use “essential” for a requirement that could be learned. Conversely, a qualification mentioned briefly may be genuinely mandatory because of regulation, insurance, licensing or professional standards.
So the label matters, but context matters too.
Identify the genuine non-negotiables
Some requirements should make you pause before applying if you do not meet them. Examples can include a legally required licence, professional registration, permission to work where specified, a security clearance that must already be held, a mandatory language level, or a qualification required by the profession.
Do not assume that every qualification is mandatory, however. Look at the exact wording. “Degree or equivalent experience” is different from “must hold”. “Experience with X preferred” is different from “minimum three years of X required”.
If you are unsure about a regulated requirement, check the appropriate official or professional source for your country rather than relying on a social-media discussion.
Look for the employer’s core problem
Job adverts make more sense when you ask what the organisation needs the new person to accomplish. A customer-support manager vacancy may list ten tools, but the core need could be leading a team, improving service performance and handling escalations. A marketing role may mention a particular analytics platform, but the deeper requirement could be interpreting campaign performance and making decisions from data.
If you can already solve the core problems and the missing item is a learnable tool, the gap may be manageable. If the missing item is the core capability itself, the gap is more significant.
Workforce Australia’s guidance on successful job applications recommends studying the job advert, tailoring the application and linking selection criteria to relevant skills, attributes and experience. That is a useful approach in other English-speaking job markets too.
Score your evidence, not your confidence
People often exclude themselves because they do not feel ready. A better test is evidence. For each major requirement, label yourself:
- Direct evidence: you have done this in a comparable context.
- Transferable evidence: you have done something closely related and can explain the connection.
- Learning evidence: you have begun developing the skill and can show progress.
- No evidence yet: the requirement is genuinely missing.
This exercise turns essential vs desirable skills into a practical application decision. A candidate with direct evidence for all core requirements and a few desirable gaps may be competitive. A candidate with no evidence for several core requirements probably needs a different target or a development plan.
Do not count bullet points mechanically
Matching seven out of ten requirements does not automatically mean a 70% match. One requirement may matter far more than five others. Managing a £5 million budget, for example, may be central to a senior finance role, while familiarity with one reporting package may be secondary.
Weight requirements by importance. Look at where they appear in the advert, whether they are repeated, how much of the role depends on them and whether they are difficult to learn after appointment.
Use transferable evidence carefully
Transferable experience is strongest when the underlying challenge is genuinely similar. If a role requires training employees and you have trained volunteers, there may be a credible connection. If it requires enterprise software implementation and you have only watched an online tutorial, that is not equivalent experience.
Explain the bridge. Do not expect the employer to infer it. A career changer might say that although their sector is different, they have managed comparable client portfolios, delivered against similar deadlines or led teams of a similar size.
The National Careers Service guidance on identifying and developing skills also encourages people to consider skills gained through work, education and daily life, including transferable capabilities such as communication, teamwork and problem solving.
When a desirable gap becomes worth fixing
A desirable requirement can become important if it appears repeatedly across your target market. Suppose a software package is optional in one advert but appears in eight out of ten similar vacancies. Even if employers will train, learning the basics may improve your competitiveness and reduce the amount of onboarding you need.
This is why comparing multiple job descriptions is useful. It stops you overreacting to one unusual advert while helping you identify recurring patterns.
Apply when you can make a credible case
You do not need perfect alignment to submit a worthwhile application. You do need a reasoned case for why you can do the work. If you meet the core requirements, can support them with evidence and can explain how you would close smaller gaps, an application may be sensible.
If the advert asks applicants to address selection criteria, do so directly. Avoid ignoring the missing item and hoping it goes unnoticed. If appropriate, acknowledge a learnable gap briefly and show relevant adjacent experience or active development.
Know when not to apply
There is also value in deciding against an application. If you are missing several central requirements, repeatedly targeting those roles may consume time that could be spent on a more realistic stepping-stone position or building the required experience.
You can use My Job Fixer to compare your current CV with a role and make the gaps more visible before deciding where to invest your effort.
Thinking in terms of essential vs desirable skills gives you a better question than “Do I meet everything?” Ask instead: “Can I show convincing evidence for what matters most, and are the remaining gaps realistic to close?” That leads to better applications and better career-development decisions.