[softwaredoug]

You're running into a classic problem.

Employers AND job seekers being overly focused some kind of perfect skills-to-role match. When the reality is, the best employees want to be challenged by new experiences. And employers say their best employees can grow outside of their comfort zone and evolve with their role.

The best you can do in these situations is project enthusiasm to learn & grow. How do you do this? One way is to explicitly share all the ways you've done this in the past. You emphasize how much you enjoy the process of diving in and learning about / mastering new technologies. You say it with joy.

[akkpxl]

> The best you can do in these situations is project enthusiasm to learn & grow. How do you do this? One way is to explicitly share all the ways you've done this in the past.

This feels like circular reasoning. How do you "explicitly share all the ways you've done this" with just a resume or on a job application? Side projects? It would be helpful if you could give some concrete examples.

[softwaredoug]

You say “oh wow learning underwater beekeeping would be really cool! I once had to learn to manage an ant circus. I learned how to do this on my own, here’s how… I imagine they’d be really similar in X, Y, Z ways. But probably different A, B, C ways.”

You give a thoughtful, enthusiastic response that emphasizes your love of learning, your humility, and highlights analogous experiences. No bullshitting needed at all.

[akkpxl]

Sorry, this still doesn't answer my question. What are we giving a response to? A job application or an interview? OP says they're getting passed up since they don't fit the checkboxes.

[DesktopMonitor]

The above advice is sound and addresses OP's post content as much as it needs to. Try taking a holistic view of the comment you're poking at by integrating it with everything else that's been recommended above and a path forward for OP and similarly concerned people clearly begins to show itself.

[BobbyTables2]

I’ve interviewed candidates who did NOT want to learn/grow. Pretty much said so when asked…