[furyofantares]

If you match half the qualifications, ignore that and apply. You probably have lots of unlisted skills they are looking for, too, and you can probably pick up new things if nobody is filling the role.

They are looking to meet a bunch of needs. You have an idea what the needs are and think you can meet many of them. So apply. It's unlikely to be set in stone that the needs have to be met by hiring the exact roles listed in the job posting.

[Mahh]

I'd say that the point is more on the company's perspective.

Even if some people realize <what you said> and know to just go for it, the job description scares away some people who could otherwise be qualified.

And a new startup probably can't afford to scare away potential hires.

[furyofantares]

It's really hard to convey what you want to in a job listing, especially one that lists specific roles, like job seekers expect. And I'll agree that this one may not be very effective.

But it's a really hard problem. One suggestion I would have is to have a really clear list of things you're looking for that's separate from your individual job postings. Part of the goal with job postings is to get all the skills you're looking for listed somewhere on the posting site, because you want to make sure if someone with that skill sees your site, it registers with them. Need someone familiar with A/B testing but can't fit it into the well-defined roles people are looking for? Put it in a paragraph above all the roles.

I agree that a new startup doesn't have a lot of room to scare away potential hires, but they also don't have a lot of room to waste time looking into everyone that spams their resume to anything it matches.

In some respects a tradeoff needs to be made here, and I'd rather select for people who are willing to dive into something that looks a bit above their head than select for people who are looking to apply to jobs they are already perfectly capable of.

[tomjen3]

Agreed and the same thing goes for 'years of experience' when I applied right out of college this summer I just ignored those completely -- I got rejected a lot, but honestly that is to be expected.

[samstave]

For me, when I see postings like that it is far more telling about the maturity of the company and as such, I wouldn't want to even apply.