You found the perfect entry-level role. Then you hit the line: "5+ years of experience required." So you closed the tab. Reopen it — that number is rarely the wall it looks like.
That job posting is a wish list, not a contract
Here is the thing nobody tells you about job postings: a hiring manager often jots down their dream candidate, then hands it to HR, who pads it out, then a template adds a few more lines. By the time it reaches you, "required" has quietly absorbed everything anyone wished the person might have. Nobody on the other side expects all of it to walk through the door.
So "5 years of experience" frequently means "we'd love someone seasoned, but we'll happily take someone who can clearly do the work." The number is a filter the company hopes thins the pile — not a locked gate. The real question is never "do I have 5 years?" It's "can I do the core of this job, and can I prove it?"
Sort the list into must-haves and nice-to-haves
Read the posting once more, slowly, and split every line into two buckets. Most postings tell you which is which if you watch the verbs and placement.
- Must-haves usually appear at the top, repeat in the job title, or use hard words: "required," "must have," a specific license or certification, "you will" statements describing the actual daily work.
- Nice-to-haves hide in soft words: "preferred," "bonus," "a plus," "ideally," "familiarity with," and that long block near the bottom listing ten tools you've never heard of.
A year count is almost always a proxy. "5 years" is shorthand for "can run this independently without hand-holding." If you can show you can do that — through internships, projects, freelance work, a previous job, or volunteering — you meet the spirit of the requirement even if the calendar disagrees.
"5+ years of marketing experience required. I've had one internship and a part-time gig, so I don't qualify. Next."
"The must-haves are: write campaign copy, manage a content calendar, and report on results. I did all three at my internship and ran a side project's social. The '5 years' is a wish. I meet the core — I'm applying."
The before/after that gets you in the room
The shift is entirely in your head, and it costs nothing. Same posting, same you — one version applies and one doesn't.
"I don't have 5 years, so applying would be a waste of everyone's time. I'd just get rejected."
"I meet the core requirements and I have proof. The years are a preference, not a rule. The worst outcome is a no — and a no I never asked for is still a no. I'm applying."
A useful rule of thumb: if you meet most of the must-haves, apply. You don't need to match the nice-to-haves at all. People who hit roughly 60% of a posting and apply with confidence beat people who hit 90% and talk themselves out of it. The application you don't send has a 0% success rate — that's the only guaranteed rejection in this whole process.
Make your proof do the talking
When you apply slightly under the year count, don't apologize for it or even mention it — let your evidence answer the "can you do this?" question before they ask. Show impact, not just activity. Map your real wins straight onto their must-haves.
"You're looking for someone who can [core task from the posting]. At [company / project], I [did that exact thing] — [the concrete result, e.g. grew X by Y%, shipped Z, handled N accounts]. I move fast and I learn faster, and I'd bring that to this role from week one."
Notice what's missing: no "even though I only have two years," no "I know I'm not exactly what you asked for." You're not lying about your experience — you're refusing to disqualify yourself before a human even reads the file. Let them decide. That's their job, not yours.
One honest caveat
If a role lists a true hard gate — a required license, a legal certification, security clearance, or a specific accredited degree — that's not a wish, it's a wall, and applying without it usually wastes your time. Everything else, the years and the long tool lists, is negotiable. To sanity-check what a role typically pays and expects in Canada, the wage and requirement data on Job Bank is a clean, free reference.
Open that posting you talked yourself out of. List its must-haves in one column and your proof in the other. If you meet most of the core — apply today, before you can argue yourself out of it again.
Useful: Government of Canada Job Bank
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