Should I Apply for a Job If I Don’t Meet All the Requirements? What 3,810 AI Job Postings Said on Oct. 10, 2026
Usually yes, as long as you meet the must-have list: on October 10, 2026 we read 3,810 open postings on 19 AI-company job boards, and 980 of them told readers in plain words to apply even without every qualification, while 2,029 set apart a “preferred,” “nice to have” or “bonus” list the employer itself does not require. The catch is where that advice comes from. Three employers wrote 958 of those 980 postings, and eight of the 19 boards never say it at all.
What we read on October 10, 2026
We pulled the full text of every open posting on the boards behind our AI jobs tracker, through each employer’s public Greenhouse or Ashby feed, and then opened a sample of the real application forms.
- 3,810 postings on 19 boards, all with readable text. Google DeepMind’s US board returned an error, so it is unread, not zero.
- We searched each posting for “apply anyway” wording and for section headings such as “Preferred qualifications,” “Nice to have,” “Bonus points” and “We prefer,” then read the matched sentences by eye and dropped the ones about office days or relocation.
- 119 application forms opened at random (up to 15 per board) on the eight boards that run on Greenhouse, to see which requirements the form itself asks about.
Written and checked by Prof. H. An AI assistant helped draft this piece and run the page reads; every quote was read on the source’s own page on October 10, 2026.
Should I apply for a job if I don’t meet all the requirements?
Yes, if you miss items on the preferred list but meet the minimum list, because on October 10, 2026 more than half of the 3,810 AI postings we read (2,029, or 53%) labeled part of their wish list as preferred rather than required. Waymo does this on 358 of its 372 postings, under a plain heading: “We prefer.” xAI uses “Basic qualifications” and then “Preferred skills and experience” on 252 of its 305.
The split matters more than the length of the list. A posting with twelve bullets may only require five. Read for the heading first, then count what you have under the required one.
It is a no, or at least a pause, when you miss something under a heading that says it is required, such as “Minimum qualifications” or “Candidates must be.” Anthropic’s Fellows Program posting, read October 10, 2026, has both: a “Strong candidates may also have” list and, below it, a “Candidates must be” list that includes being fluent in Python.
Which AI companies tell you to apply even if you don’t check every box?
Anthropic, Sierra and Cohere say it on almost every posting: 645 of 645, 195 of 195 and 118 of 119 on October 10, 2026. Anthropic’s line reads: “We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every single qualification.” Sierra’s says to apply “even if your experience doesn’t precisely match the job description.”
Eight more boards say it now and then. Perplexity has it on 10 of 132 postings, Scale AI on 4 of 183 and Apptronik on 3 of 80. Agility Robotics, Physical Intelligence, Replit, 1X and Mercor each have one posting that says it.
Eight boards say it nowhere: OpenAI (815 postings), Waymo (372), xAI (305), Cursor, ElevenLabs, Nuro, Cognition and Figure AI. That silence is not a “do not apply.” Four of them, Waymo, xAI, Figure AI and Nuro, set apart a preferred list on most postings, so the headings answer the question instead.
Does “apply anyway” ever come with conditions?
Yes: at least two of the postings we read on October 10, 2026 attach a condition to the invitation, and those conditions are the real requirement. Cohere’s Staff Technical Program Manager, Machine Learning posting says to apply if some of the list does not line up perfectly, but adds “other than the ML TPM experience.” That one item is not optional.
Perplexity’s new-grad posting sets school criteria and then says: “While you’re welcome to submit your application if you don’t meet these criteria, we will be looking for other evidence of exceptional ability.” It asks you to describe that evidence in the form’s “Anything Else” box. If you apply without the criteria, fill that box.
Agility Robotics puts its invitation in a precise spot. On its Senior Safety Software Engineer posting, “Even if you don’t check every box below, we highly encourage you to apply” sits under “Preferred Qualifications,” not above the required list. “Below” means the preferred items.
What does the application form actually check?
Mostly where you can legally and physically work: of 119 real Greenhouse application forms we opened on October 10, 2026, 100 required an answer on work authorization, visa sponsorship or citizenship and 71 asked where you live, whether you would relocate or how many office days you can do, while only 7 asked how many years of experience you have and none asked about a degree. Figure AI’s 15 sampled forms required only a name, email and phone number, plus a LinkedIn profile on five; even the resume was optional.
The years questions were concrete. Anthropic’s Staff Software Engineer, Continuous Integration form asks how many years of professional software engineering experience you have, “not including internships.” Apptronik’s Senior Reinforcement Learning Engineer form asks: “Do you have 5+ years of experience in Reinforcement Learning (RL)?” Answer those truthfully; a yes you cannot back up will surface in the interview.
This is the limit of what we can see. A form that does not ask about a degree does not mean nobody checks; recruiters and screening software still read the resume, and we cannot see how they score it. Our piece on whether you can opt out of AI resume screening covers what employers say about that step.
How many years of experience do AI job postings ask for?
Five, at the median: on October 10, 2026, 2,211 of the 3,810 postings named a number of years of experience, and the smallest number in each posting had a median of 5. Only 477 of those 2,211 asked for 3 years or fewer. That makes years the requirement most readers fall short on.
Years are also the one most often softened in the text. One OpenAI posting for supply chain work asks for solid fundamentals “even if your total years of experience are modest.” We count that as a hint, not a rule. If you are a year or two short but match the work described, the postings that soften years are the ones to try first.
If you are short on a degree rather than years, read what “bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience” means. If you are starting out, our list of entry-level AI jobs with no experience and AI jobs that do not require coding start lower on the ladder.
How do you decide in five minutes whether to apply?
Sort the posting into three piles before you decide, the same way the 2,029 postings with a preferred list on October 10, 2026 already sorted it for you. The steps below take about five minutes per posting.
- Find the must-have heading. Look for words like Minimum, Basic, Required, Must, or Waymo’s “You have.” Count how many of those you meet.
- Find the preferred heading. Preferred, Nice to have, Bonus, Ideally, “We prefer” or “Strong candidates may also have.” Missing these alone is not a reason to skip.
- Check the hard limits. Work authorization, location and office days are what the forms asked most. If you cannot meet those, the rest does not matter.
- Look for a condition. “Other than” or “we will be looking for other evidence” marks the one item that is not flexible.
- Apply on the employer’s own site, and use any free-text box to say what you have in place of what you lack.
Before you send many at once, read whether you can apply to multiple jobs at the same company and whether you need a cover letter. For older listings, see whether to apply to old job postings.
Where does the “men apply at 60%, women at 100%” figure come from?
It is widely repeated, but on October 10, 2026 we could not reach a primary source for it, so we quote no number from it. Articles that repeat it trace it to an internal Hewlett-Packard report that we could not find published. The Harvard Business Review article by Tara Sophia Mohr, dated August 25, 2014, did not load in full for us.
What we can show is what employers write now. Anthropic’s postings give their own reason, read October 10, 2026: people from underrepresented groups are “more prone to experiencing imposter syndrome,” so the company urges them “not to exclude yourself prematurely.” That is the employer’s claim, not a study we checked.
What does UCL Careers say about job criteria?
UCL Careers, the careers service of University College London, made a short video on why you do not need every criterion on a job description. It is a UK university service, so its terms differ a little from US postings. We list it for context; none of our counts come from it.
Missing requirements, preferred lists and forms: quick answers
Should I apply for a job if I don’t meet all the requirements?
Usually yes, if you meet the required list. On October 10, 2026, 2,029 of 3,810 AI job postings set apart a preferred list, and 980 told readers to apply anyway.
Does preferred qualifications mean required?
No. Preferred items are the ones the employer would like but does not demand. Postings that use the word put the must-haves under a separate heading, such as Minimum or Basic qualifications.
How many qualifications should you meet to apply for a job?
No rule gives a percentage. Meet the required list and the hard limits, such as work authorization and location, which 100 and 71 of 119 forms we opened asked about.
Do employers check years of experience on the application?
Sometimes. Only 7 of 119 Greenhouse forms we opened on October 10, 2026 asked about years directly, but the resume is still read, so years matter.
Is it bad to apply for a job you are underqualified for?
Not if you are honest. Many employers invite it in writing. Answer every form question truthfully and use the free-text box to show what you can do.
More from the Jobs Desk on reading a posting
Reading the posting: what hybrid means in a job posting, why remote jobs have location requirements, why salary ranges are so wide and what it means when a job posting is taken down. On the form: what to put for desired salary.
Employers named here: whether Anthropic is hiring, whether Waymo is hiring and whether Scale AI is hiring. If you are changing careers later in life, see AI jobs for people over 50. To see every open role, browse every open role and apply on the employer’s site on our jobs board.
Have a posting you want us to read? Ask the desk, or visit the Jobs Desk. We are not recruiters and take no money from employers. Postings can close at any time; the employer’s own page wins. Never pay to get hired, and see our job scam rules.
Cite this
On October 10, 2026, of 3,810 open postings on 19 AI-company job boards, 980 (26%) told applicants to apply even if they do not meet every qualification, 958 of them at Anthropic, Sierra and Cohere; 2,029 (53%) set apart a preferred or nice-to-have list; and of 119 Greenhouse application forms opened, 100 asked about work authorization, sponsorship or citizenship, 7 about years of experience and 0 about a degree. Source: profhlab.com AI Jobs Desk, Should I Apply for a Job If I Don’t Meet All the Requirements?, with daily numbers on the AI jobs tracker.
How we counted: full posting text came from each employer’s Greenhouse or Ashby public feed on October 10, 2026. An apply-anyway posting contains a sentence inviting applicants who do not meet, match or check every qualification, requirement or box; sentences about relocation or office flexibility were read and excluded. A preferred list is a section heading such as Preferred qualifications, Nice to have, Bonus, Ideally or We prefer. Years are the smallest number of years of experience named in a posting. Forms are a fixed random sample, read through the Greenhouse questions feed.
Postings and forms read October 10, 2026: Anthropic, Account Executive, AI Native; Anthropic Fellows Program, AI Safety & Security; Sierra, Enterprise Sales Engineer; Cohere, Staff Technical Program Manager, Machine Learning; Perplexity, Member of Technical Staff (New Grad); Agility Robotics, Senior Safety Software Engineer; Waymo, 2027 Summer Intern, BS, Depot Automation; xAI, AI Tutor – Chinese; Anthropic, Staff Software Engineer, Continuous Integration; Apptronik, Senior Reinforcement Learning Engineer.
Also checked October 10, 2026: Harvard Business Review, Tara Sophia Mohr, Why Women Don’t Apply for Jobs Unless They’re 100% Qualified (August 25, 2014), which did not load in full for us; UCL Careers on YouTube.
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