How to Nail Your Interview When You’re Not Fully Qualified

You’ve just found it – the job of your dreams. It’s described exactly the way you imagined it. You picture yourself how you nail the interview and get closer to your dream. You can already see yourself in the job, what work you will be doing, how fulfilled and happy you will be.

And then you reach the requirements section and you realize you don’t meet some of the criteria (in this fantasy you’re applying for a store manager position and the job requires a minimum of 1-year experience as a manager).

But you decide to apply anyway. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

2 weeks – nothing. But then a lovely sounding lady from HR calls you for an interview. The excitement is quickly followed by anxiety and self-doubt.

Can you really nail your interview and get the job of your dreams? After all, you don’t have any manager experience.

Yes, you can!

I’ll take you through 4 powerful things you can do to nail your interview.

1. How to answer questions on qualifications and skills which you don’t have?
2. When it’s a good time to up-skill yourself ahead of the interview?
3. 3 powerful ways to boost your confidence.
4. Tips for researching the company and the interviewers (a.k.a. it’s stalking time)

Just in case you’re still debating whether or not it was a good idea to apply, here are 6 reasons why it was:

---

1. Reframe your skills and experience

Imagine that you’ve applied for the store manager position. At the interview, you’re asked: “How do you ensure store compliance with health and safety regulations?”

You can’t answer with “I am not sure of the requirements. I’ve never been responsible for this before”. This answer not only demonstrates you lack one of the required skills. It also shows no willingness to learn or a can-do attitude.

So if you want to nail your interview when you don’t meet all the requirements, you have to prepare in advance. Particularly for questions on competencies or knowledge, which you know you don’t have.

How to prepare for questions on qualifications which you don’t have?

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Go over the job listing and identify what skills and technical knowledge you lack. If you want to be extra prepared, find similar job listings from competitor companies. In the store manager scenario, this may be health and safety, basic accounting, creating a business strategy etc.
2. Prepare your answers to such questions in advance. Look at your CV and identify similar situations you’ve been in. For example, you may have been one of the first aiders at your previous workplace. Demonstrate resourcefulness, willingness to learn and draw on examples from past experience, even if it’s not exactly the same.
3. At the interview, be honest if you haven’t been directly responsible for or involved in that. But remain confident (more on that below) and provide as an elaborative answer as you can, giving some of the examples you prepared in advance.

If they asked you “How do you ensure store compliance with health and safety regulations?” here’s what a good answer may look like:

My experience with health and safety includes being one of the first aiders at my previous workplace. Although I only had responsibility for first aid, I had the opportunity to appreciate the complexity of the wider health and safety regulations and the importance of adhering to them. For example, during unscheduled evacuations, I had to work closely with the fire marshal, store and building manager, etc to ensure all staff and customers are safely evacuated. The health and safety of the staff and customers are of huge importance and non-compliance with the regulations can incur a significant financial cost and reputational damage. So if I got this job, I’d spend the necessary amount of time to fully familiarise myself with the requirements and procedures and to ensure full store compliance.

2. Pick up the skills you lack

What you can do instead, is to demonstrate you have basic knowledge together with a willingness to learn quickly, as explained above.

3. Boost your confidence

Interviewers are trained to pay close attention to your body language and voice cues.

An average answer delivered with confidence makes a longer-standing impression than the best answer delivered in an insecure way.

But it can feel difficult to show confidence when you know you’re not fully qualified for the job. Here are 3 things you can do ahead of the interview to boost your confidence.

Boost your confidence #2: Write your power statement

You have a unique and powerful blend of skills, strengths and knowledge. You have to celebrate this, instead of criticising yourself for lacking some of the required competencies.

Having a good self-awareness of this unique and powerful blend will boost your confidence and highlight your transferrable skills thus increasing your chances to nail the interview.

I recommend you write it down in the form of a power statement. You can use the below script or write it in your own words. Once written down, take a photo of it and save it in your favourites. This way you can always refer back to it when you need a confidence or motivation boost.

I have a unique ability to understand, connect with and motivate the people around me. But I’m also a good organiser and have an unrivalled can-do and get-things-done attitude so I produce results for myself, my team and the company. These strengths, combined with my past experience as a shift supervisor and sales assistant and my education in business administration make me competitive and well prepared to take on the challenge as a store manager.

This is your unique blend of values – what’s most important in your life, what makes you happy and fulfilled; strengths – your natural patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving – what you naturally do best; knowledge – from formal or informal education; and other skills you’ve developed throughout the course of your life.

Celebrate your skills and knowledge, instead of criticizing yourself for lacking some of the required competencies.

If you’re unsure how to pinpoint your values, knowledge and strengths, check out this practical guide, which will also help you put it all together in a personal development plan.

Boost your confidence #3: Practice your body language

Practice makes perfect.

It’s a cliché but it’s true for confidence. The more you do something, the more confident you are in doing it.

So stand in front of a mirror and answer the questions on the skills and qualifications which you don’t have. Do you sound and look confident? What pose do you feel most comfortable and most confident in?

4. Research the interviewer and company

If you don’t have all the required skills and knowledge, you can shine bright and nail your interview with building a rapport with the interviewer and demonstrating knowledge about the company.

Pro-tip #1: Many companies have interview questions relating to their core values, such as ‘Tell me about a time when you witnessed an unethical behaviour. What did you do?”. Research the company and its core values and prepare for questions like this.

Pro-tip #2: Many companies don’t share their values publicly. So check company reviews and interview information on websites such as Glassdoor or Fairygodboss. Questions related to values are asked company-wide so you’re almost guaranteed to find something there, especially for a big company.

Pro-tip #3: Ask who will interview you and check their social media profiles. Find a similarity (did the same major, grew up in the same city, went to the same university, has the same hobby etc) and incorporate this in your answers (in a natural way of course). For example, if you have 2-3 hobbies but you know your interview is interested in football, just like you, mention this casually during the introduction and small talk. We naturally gravitate towards people who are like us. So this will help you build a rapport more easily.

Conclusion

If you have an interview for your dream job but you don’t meet all requirements, don’t panic! You’re one step closer to your dream job because you can still nail your interview with these 4 simple but effective steps: (1) reframe your skills, (2) pick up skills you don’t have, (3) boost your confidence and (4) research the company and the interviewers.

Want to take your career a step further, check out these 3 steps to take charge of your professional development and growth now.