Ask HN: Tips for applying for a position for which you're underqualified?

2) Please do recognize that we're in a down economic period and employers can afford to be more stringent with the requirements. Your odds of getting an interview are probably lower than average.

3) That said, wasting ~15 minutes of your life to make a half-decent application for a job you really want seems worth it.

But what if you didn't go to high school together? If you're in the same age range, snag some pictures from his (this will only work if he's a bro, by the way) facebook or yearbook and deep fake yourself into them. If you're not in the same age range, that's ok, maybe your brother was in his class. Get a list of names and nicknames from the yearbook so you can "remember" seeing him at a kegger or a house party, the time J-Dawg was making out with Ashley and blew chunks all over her.

Personal introductions also help.

As a manager I try to look at the entire picture and rather have someone ambitious and capable than someone resting in their laurels. Of course sometime you just need some seniority to stand up to your stakeholders, so it depends on the role.

I also wouldn’t be in the position that I am today if I just applied according to requirements.

So give it a try.

Every other job I see in my area of experience wants someone who’s has done a lot of work with their preferred proprietary software platform/APIs, low code tools, iPaaS, or some specific cloud product I don’t have experience with.

I could pick a lot of this stuff up quickly (have done it plenty of times in the past), but companies don’t seem to care, even if you make it past an ATS screen.