How to Overcome Being “Underqualified”

Do you ever dream of a job that you’re simply not qualified to do? As a teenager, I used to dream of being an NBA basketball player. Later, I envisioned what it might be like to be a professional golfer. Throughout my life, I’ve admired people who could physically build things. In all three of those scenarios, for me they could not even be considered dreams. More like hallucinations or mirages.  🙂

What I came to realize was that those scenarios simply weren’t going to be possible for a variety of reasons, the most clear ones being:

• I didn’t have the physical ability to perform at that level
• I didn’t have the aptitude to comprehend the steps necessary, and / or
• I didn’t have the inner drive to pursue the potential of those dreams

The Challenge of Being Seen as Underqualified

My wife and I recently watched the movie, “Rudy,” a biographical sports film about the dream of Rudy, a young man who had a goal of playing for the University of Notre Dame football team. Wonderful film with many life lessons along the way. The scenario Rudy faced was summed up well by the stadium’s groundskeeper: 

“You’re five foot nothin’, a hundred and nothin’, and you got hardly a speck of athletic ability. And you hung in with the best college football team in the land for two years, and you’re about to graduate with a degree from the University of Notre Dame. Son, in this lifetime, you ain’t got to prove nothin’ to nobody but yourself.”

Incredibly inspiring scene. But my point here is that Rudy possessed NOTHING that made him remotely qualified to play football, let alone for an elite college team. Yet he persevered and pursued his dream despite being unqualified.

But what if you DO possess the ability, aptitude, and desire, and you’re convinced that you can do the job. The challenge is that others making that decision don’t see what you see. They see you as underqualified.  

What do you do if you’re unemployed or unfulfilled and find yourself in that spot?

What Scripture Says About Being “Unqualified”

God Qualifies the Called

First, let’s remember that with God all things are possible. In fact, when we look at the Scriptures, it’s hard to find a story about someone “qualified” that God called to do something. Rather, God qualifies the unqualified, and He can do the same with any of us. Whether you look at Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, Esther, Mary (mother of Jesus), or Jesus’ whole group of disciples…none of them had the earthly qualifications we would naturally think would be necessary for God to accomplish what He did in and through each of them.  

In fact, even the Apostle Paul, who was a “Pharisee among the Pharisees” had to go through God’s intervention on the road to Damascus to be equipped properly for what God wanted to do with him.

One of my favorite illustrations of the underqualified theme is Gideon. In Judges chapters 6-8 we see an incredible story of God using Gideon to overcome the Midianites, the Israelites oppressors. One of my favorite verses in these passages is Judges 6:11-12.  

“Now the Angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth tree which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed the wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him, and said to him, ’The LORD is with you, you mighty man of valor!’’

I love the irony of God’s angel finding Gideon hiding out and calling him a mighty man of valor, with NOTHING to indicate to anyone that Gideon was anything close to that. What follows in the story illustrates how God used an underqualified man to accomplish His purposes. So much so that Gideon is mentioned in the famous passage of Hebrews 11, the “Hall of Faith.” 

Discerning God’s Calling vs. Self-Assesment

The question for all of us when we don’t feel qualified to do something is to ask God if it’s His will or ours?  Is it our vision or His calling? Is it for our own glory or His? What might He be wanting to accomplish in and through you?

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Why We Often Undervalue Ourselves

Next, let’s remember that someone else should be assessing you as underqualified. Not yourself. Sometimes we are our own worst enemies. We project our shortcomings and fears onto the recruiter or hiring manager when, in fact, it’s our own self-assessment. We fall victim to the “imposter syndrome,” where we are afraid someone might find out “who we really are or what we’ve really done.”  

One way to overcome that is to go through our Unique Distinctions process (see links HERE and HERE) to put your best foot forward with a realistic and feature-oriented lens of who you are and what you’ve done. Let them see what you do BEST and bring that to the table, so the recruiter or hiring manager can fully compare that against what they believe they need MOST.

How Employers Actually View “Underqualified” Candidates

Why Job Descriptions Rarely Reflect Reality

Now let’s go to the organizations’ perspective for a minute. Once you’re past under-assessing yourself, how exactly do you know you’re underqualified?  From a job description?? Remember, most job descriptions are truly not that descriptive (see link HERE). Most of them are rapidly CPA’d (Cut, Pasted, Assembled) to enable the hiring process to begin. If you’re counting yourself as underqualified, for example, because the job description wants 5 years of experience, and you’ve only got 3…well, think through the many variables that make up that experience. How much of that experience:

• Had rigorous supervision with defined toll gates
• Had Key Performance Indicators to measure the outcomes
• Had a competent supervisor
• Had adequate resources to do the work in the best way
• Had realistic time tables to complete the work
• Had clear objectives and didn’t waste time

I could go on and on and on. Hopefully you’ll quickly see the many variables present in “number of years of experience,” and conclude with me that the specific number of years “requirement” isn’t really a requirement, but a targeted outcome.  It’s a starting point a hiring manager thinks they would want, along with almost everything else in the job description.  

I would contend that for every job with a desired outcome, there’s also a myriad of “special circumstances” at play that can be obliterated with the “right person” coming along for the job.   

Real-World Story: When Potential Matters More Than Experience

Here’s a live, short story example. I’ve been offering guidance to a young man (let’s call him Jack) who has significant technical engineering and project management experience in his field. Yet he wanted to go into sales, and he has no sales experience. Through networking, he met a small business owner (let’s call him Tom) who is a manufacturer’s representative for electrical components. Tom was impressed by what Jack brought to the table even though, in fact, Tom wasn’t actively looking for another account manager. Tom bypassed the “requirement” of 3-5 years of sales experience and offered Jack the job. I believe he saw Jack’s unique distinctions and saw the new opportunity through a different lens because Jack is a sharp young man. Tom believed in Jack’s character depth, willingness to learn, and potential for long-term growth in other areas.

Steps to Take When You’re Labeled Underqualified

Even if you’ve been told you’re underqualified, don’t throw in the towel on your dream too quickly. Perhaps you’re a new college graduate with no experience, or maybe you’re an accountant who wants to produce movies. There are many steps available to pursue to overcome being underqualified. (See link HERE)  

How Crossroads Guides Help You Move Forward

Every situation is unique, and that’s what a Crossroads Guide is there for – – to listen to your goals, discover more about your experiences, and help you put together a solid plan to keep moving forward for God’s purposes in and through your life. You can request a free consultation with a Crossroads Guide HERE.

Remember, God can qualify the unqualified through many different avenues for His purposes.  Offer yourself freely to Him today, and watch Him go to work! Blessings!

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Dave Sparkman currently serves as the volunteer Crossroads Career board chair and local ministry leader. He is also the founder and managing director of Spark Your Culture, a corporate culture consulting firm. Prior to that he worked at UnitedHealth Group, a Fortune #5 public company, serving in the role of Chief Culture Officer. His unemployment experience came from the implosion of Arthur Andersen, where he served as the West Region Managing Partner, People.