Should You Apply? How to Check Your Eligibility for a Job in Five Minutes

October 26, 2026 · 13 min read

By Mazen AhmedCo-founder & Growth Product Manager at SeeraReviewed by Ahmed Hussein

Quick answer: Apply when you pass the checks that can actually rule you out: you can legally work where the job is, you hold any licence or clearance it calls mandatory, you are no more than about two years short of the experience it asks for, you have the degree or the equivalent it allows, and the posting is still open. Everything else on the list is negotiable. In 278,182 live job postings we analysed, 38% state no years at all and 62% name no degree, so most "requirements" are softer than they look. For a single posting, Seera's free resume match checker runs the years, degree and skills part for you.

A person in a grey sweater writes notes in an open notebook beside a laptop and a phone on a worn wooden table

Image credit: Greta Hoffman / Pexels

Where the numbers come from: on October 26, 2026, we ran every open English-language posting in Seera's job index through the same rules our matcher uses to read requirements: 278,182 postings (69% of the 404,395 open ones) from the career sites of 36,000+ employers. The rules read the years of experience and any degree a posting asks for, notice when a requirement sits under "preferred" or "nice to have", and count wording about visas and the right to work. The years rule agrees with an independent AI reading within one year on 97% of a checked sample. The strict master's-or-PhD rule is built to avoid false alarms and catches about half of real cases, so treat that figure as a floor. We publish counts only and name no employer.

Key Takeaways

Check (about a minute each) Rules you out when… What 278,182 postings say
1. Right to workIt requires a work authorization or citizenship you do not have93% say nothing about visas; silence is not a yes
2. Mandatory licences and clearancesA licence, registration or clearance is a must and you cannot get it in timeAbout 3 in 100 mention a security clearance
3. Years of experienceYou are 3 or more years short38% state no years; of those that do, 25% ask for 2 or fewer
4. DegreeIt strictly requires a degree level you lack, with no equivalent62% name no degree; 28% of the rest accept an equivalent
5. Skills and statusYou can show few of the must-have skills, or the posting has closedAbout 1 in 4 splits must-haves from nice-to-haves

Table of Contents

Why Most Job Requirements Are Not Equal

A job posting mixes two kinds of lines. A few are gates: if you fail one, the employer cannot hire you, however good the rest of your application is. The others are a wish list: the profile of an ideal candidate who may not exist. The mistake is giving every line the same weight, in either direction. Skipping a job because you lack one "nice to have" wastes a good chance; applying to one whose gate you fail wastes an evening.

The famous line on this comes from a 2014 Harvard Business Review article:

"Men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, but women apply only if they meet 100% of them."

The figure traces back to an internal Hewlett-Packard report that was never published, so treat it as a slogan rather than a rule. There is no right percentage of bullet points. What matters is which lines you miss. The five checks below take them in the order that rules people out, so you can stop at the first one you fail.

Check 1: Can You Legally Work There?

Time: about a minute. Look for: "authorized to work", "right to work", "work permit", "sponsorship", "citizen", "clearance".

This is the one gate no cover letter can open. If the job is in a country where you do not have the right to work, the employer has to sponsor a visa, and most postings do not tell you whether they will. In our data:

The rule: if you already have the right to work there, this check is a pass. If you need sponsorship, a posting that says "no sponsorship" or "citizens only" is a skip. A silent posting is a maybe, not a yes: check whether the employer appears on the country's official sponsor register (the UK and the Netherlands publish one) before you invest time. Remote roles count too. "Remote" often means remote within one country, and the location line is where that shows.

Check 2: Mandatory Licences, Registrations and Clearances

Time: about a minute. Look for: "must hold", "required", "valid", "eligible for", next to a licence, certification, registration or clearance.

Some roles are regulated: a nurse needs a registration, an accountant signing audits needs a licence, many defence and government roles need a security clearance, and plenty of field and driving roles need a valid licence on day one. About 3 in 100 postings in our data mention a security clearance; regulated professions add many more gates of this kind.

Read the wording closely, because three versions look alike:

Language requirements belong here too. "Fluent German required" for a customer-facing role in Munich is a gate; "German is a plus" in an English-speaking engineering team is not.

Check 3: The Years of Experience

Time: about a minute. Look for: the largest "N+ years" figure in the requirements, not under "preferred".

Years are the requirement people misjudge most, in both directions. Here is what live postings ask for:

Years asked Share of all postings Share of postings that state a number
None stated38%—
0–17%11%
29%14%
3–414%23%
5–720%33%
8 or more11%19%

The level in the title tells you a lot, but not everything:

Product roles are the most likely to name a number (76% of product postings) and to set it high: 70% of those ask for five years or more.

The rule: if you are within about two years of the figure, apply. If you are three or more years short, treat the job as a stretch: apply only with a strong reason, such as a referral or directly relevant work you can show. Seera's matcher draws the line in the same place: a shortfall in years lowers a job's level, and a gap of three years or more never ranks above "stretch" (junior and internship postings are exempt).

Two details change the count. When a posting lists several figures ("5+ years of software engineering, with 2+ in a backend role"), the largest is the real ask. And count relevant experience honestly: internships, freelance work and a substantial side project in the same field all count; years in an unrelated job usually do not. If your resume has no dates on it, Seera's matcher reads it as zero years. Our profile test measured what that costs.

Check 4: The Degree

Time: about a minute. Look for: the degree line, and whether it says "or equivalent", "or equivalent experience" or "in lieu of".

Degree requirements are rarer than most job seekers assume:

The rule: a strict requirement for a degree level you do not hold is a gate; skip it. A degree with "or equivalent" is a pass if you can point to the equivalent: years in the field, certifications, shipped work. Say so plainly in your application rather than hoping nobody notices.

One caution. Dropping a degree line on paper has not always changed who gets hired. A 2024 study of large US employers by the Burning Glass Institute and Harvard Business School found that the move to skills-based hiring had changed outcomes in "not even 1 in 700 hires". "Or equivalent" gets you through the gate; your evidence still has to do the work.

Check 5: Must-Have Skills, and Whether It Is Still Open

Time: about a minute. Look for: the required skills, the "preferred" or "nice to have" block, and the posting date.

About 1 in 4 postings in our data splits its list into required and preferred. When a posting does, only the first list counts for eligibility. When it does not, the first few bullets are usually the real core and the tail is the wish list.

Count the must-have skills you can show, not just claim: a project, a role or a result on your resume or portfolio that proves each one. Most, not all, is enough to apply. If you can show only one or two of five core skills, the job is a different profile today, however interesting it is.

Then check that the job is still open. Apply through the employer's own career site, which usually takes a posting down when the role closes; job boards often keep or re-list old ones. In our index, postings that closed were a median of about five weeks old, so a listing that has sat open for months deserves a second look. How to find fresh job listings covers what posting dates do and do not tell you.

Apply, Apply With a Plan, or Skip

Your five checks Decision What to do
Fail check 1 or 2SkipUnless you can fix it before the start date, such as a licence you can obtain
Pass 1 and 2; within two years; degree or its equivalent; most must-haves shownApplyLead with the must-haves you meet
Pass 1 and 2, but missing only nice-to-havesApplyDo not mention the gaps unless asked
Pass 1 and 2; one real gap (years or a core skill)Apply with a planName the gap and the evidence that offsets it in your cover letter or first message
Pass 1 and 2; three or more years short, or few core skillsStretchApply only with a referral or standout proof; otherwise save the time

Five minutes per posting adds up, which is the point: twenty careful applications usually beat a hundred unread ones, because each one goes to a job you can actually get.

Which Checks a Tool Can Do for You

Checks 3, 4 and part of 5 are mechanical, which makes them a good job for software:

Checks 1 and 2 stay with you. Our checker does not know your visa status or which licences you hold, and the visa badges on Seera's job matches are signals from the posting or our employer research, not guarantees. A level is also not a verdict: in our own accuracy test, the order of matches proved more reliable than the labels, so read the reasons before you decide.

Check one job against your resume, free →

Common Mistakes

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I apply for a job if I don't meet all the requirements?

Usually yes, as long as the requirements you miss are not gates. Apply if you have the right to work there, hold any licence or clearance it calls mandatory, are no more than about two years short on experience, and have the degree or the equivalent it allows. Missing items under "preferred" or "nice to have" should not stop you.

How many of the qualifications do I need to apply for a job?

There is no fixed percentage. What matters is which ones you miss. Meet every hard requirement (right to work, mandatory licences, a strict degree requirement) and most of the core skills, and the rest of the list is negotiable. The often-quoted 60% figure traces back to an unpublished internal report, not a study.

Should I apply if I have fewer years of experience than the job asks for?

If you are within about two years of the figure, yes. If you are three or more years short, treat it as a stretch and apply only with a strong reason, such as a referral or directly relevant work. In 278,182 live postings we analysed, 38% stated no years at all, so check before you rule a job out.

Can I apply for a job that asks for a degree I don't have?

If the posting says "or equivalent experience", yes: name the equivalent clearly in your application. If it strictly requires a degree level you do not hold, it is a gate. Strict master's or PhD requirements are rare; in our data, 62% of postings named no degree at all, and 28% of those that did accepted an equivalent.

Does a job posting that says nothing about visas mean the employer sponsors?

No. In our analysis, 93% of English-language postings said nothing about visas either way. If you need sponsorship, treat a silent posting as a maybe: look the employer up on the country's official sponsor register where one exists, or put the question to the recruiter early.

Useful sources and further reading

About the author

Mazen Ahmed — Co-founder & Growth Product Manager at Seera

Mazen is co-founder and Growth Product Manager at Seera. He works on how job seekers, students, and career changers grow their careers online, and writes about hiring, standing out, and building a professional presence from scratch.

Reviewed by Ahmed Hussein, Founder of Seera · Software Development Engineer at Amazon.

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