"Should I apply if I don't meet every job requirement?" is the wrong question

How imposter syndrome gets in the way of your job search.

The answer to the question is simple: if you want this job and you meet most of the requirements, definitely apply.
The reality is more complicated: if you find yourself repeatedly putting off applying, there’s an emotional pattern to address first.

Most job seekers have heard this advice: “it’s ok if you don’t meet all the requirements, apply anyway.” It’s this exact thought that often causes procrastination. On one hand it makes a lot of sense to just apply and see what happens. On the other hand thoughts like “what if they see that I’m not qualified” can come up. This kind of self-doubt is a thought pattern linked to Imposter Syndrome (a topic I studied in depth for my MSc). Overthinking keeps the procrastination going which leads to just about everything other than applying to jobs seeming more interesting: cleaning last night’s dishes, dusting the windowsill or searching for the missing spare key in the cracks of the couch. Perhaps the best idea is to finally start Game of Thrones. After all, so many people have recommended it in the last 10 years.

So a better question to ask is this one.

Why do I procrastinate applying to jobs?

Usually, it's fear of rejection.

You might have asked yourself, “is this what searching for jobs will feel like for the rest of my life?”

I have good news for you: it doesn’t have to be like this.

Let’s go a bit deeper into rejection. Or more specifically, the fear of rejection. It’s a very human, very understandable fear. After all it’s hardwired into us. As you may have heard, back in the old days (say the stone age) humans lived in tribes. People relied on each other for survival (1). A tribe would have people in different roles, working together for the collective. For example, men and women would go hunting wild animals for food (and yes, you read correctly, the popular narrative of only men hunting and women gathering has recently been challenged (2)(3)). Getting kicked out of the tribe usually meant certain death. Starvation or turning into food for a larger animal. So the fear of rejection alerted our stone age relatives of a very real threat. Our nervous systems have stayed largely the same since then. Today rejection still hurts. It totally sucks. But in most cases getting eaten by pre-historic predators is not the logical consequence of rejection.

Today the stakes are much more nuanced. Fear of rejection can range from denting your confidence all the way to a financial crisis. Especially now, in 2026, good jobs are not exactly growing on trees. All the more important to make some progress on that fear of rejection because it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. The fear causes avoidance, meaning you don’t apply, which means you don’t get rejected but it also means you don’t get a job. In a way though, that’s still rejection. Self-induced rejection. In many ways that’s worse than getting rejected by a hiring team but that’s a topic for another day (I’ve already gone on the stone age tangent.)

Finding it hard to hear ‘no’ as the outcome of a hiring process you invest in heavily is quite normal. Where it gets tricky is when each ‘no’ starts turning into evidence that you are not good enough. This kind of internal dialogue is often linked to Imposter Syndrome, which in turn is linked to procrastination (4). Instead of going deeper on that label, try to see it like this: there are many moving parts to a hiring process so a ‘no’ could mean many different things. Here’s 3 examples I’ve seen from my time as a hiring manager for different tech companies.

1. Someone else was more qualified for the role (which means the decision is not a verdict on your competence)
2. There was a personality mismatch between you and the hiring team (which means the decision is not a verdict on you as a person)
3. You were too qualified for the role because the hiring profile and budget may be looking for less experience (which means the decision was driven purely by a specific business need).

Rejection is rarely black and white. We rarely see the full picture but when we think we do, we start making assumptions.

So at this stage you’re probably wondering...

What can be done about job search related procrastination?

It’s very common, in these days of hyper-independence, to want to solve all our problems ourselves. The pursuit of solving a problem can become the problem itself because it’s the perfect way to avoid what needs to be done, whilst feeling like progress is being made. I’ve taken this bait many times in the past and still do sometimes. For this reason I will not be pointing out helpful resources but instead focusing on what you can do straight away.

1. Get to the bottom of what your fear of rejection is protecting:
   Get a piece of paper, grab a pen and start writing about fear of rejection. Don’t overthink it. There’s no right or wrong way to do this. Simply write and notice what’s coming out of the tip of your pen. The more you can switch off your brain while you do this the better. You can still overanalyse it when the writing is done (or perhaps simply just analyse!). The reason this helps is because we are transporting deeper thoughts onto a medium outside of us. It’s a form of processing. Whatever ends up on the page is helpful to make sense of your pattern. It may be cryptic. It may be clear. Either way, it’s deeply personal and most likely sets you up with ideas on what you can do about your fear of rejection. If writing is not your thing, pick up your phone, hit voice record (WhatsApp message to yourself or the voice record app) and simply start rambling about this topic. You’ll be surprised what comes out once you really commit to this. Don’t give up too quickly.

2. Get the tribe involved:
   As you’ve already learned, humans work best in tribes. That fact hasn’t changed, though obviously how it’s done has. Today this is our friend group, our family, our family of origin, our chess club, our music band or the book club. It doesn’t matter which one as long as it’s a group of people you like and trust. Talk to them about your job search. With their permission, do some oversharing (this has gathered a lot of shame recently, which is not good). Mention the uncomfortable parts. Ask if someone will hold you accountable. Then make a commitment. If you want to raise the stakes, give your accountability buddy a sum of money that would sting if you lost it. Agree to a timeframe, a task and the conditions for getting the money back. It could look like this: I will get my €250 back if I send out 10 applications to different companies in the next 7 days. If you don’t do it, your friend keeps the money. Trust me, it’s easy to find volunteers to help with this.

3. Apply anyway:
   This advice feels as old as time. We’ve all heard it. “Just do it anyway”. It’s good advice but it’s incomplete because it’s a logical solution to an emotional challenge. The emotion usually needs addressing first. If it’s not, then you feel blocked. You overthink. You procrastinate. You beat yourself up. “Why can’t I just do it. It’s so simple!!”. I’ve already given you the answer to that question. Sequence is key here: emotion (if a block exists on this level) then logic. But let’s assume for a moment that there’s no emotional block. You’re in good form, feeling positive. Fully motivated. So you apply. And apply again. Suddenly it’s several hours later and you’ve already earned your €250 back. That’s because taking action is the best method for moving past the overthinking spiral. You’re also building reps with the ‘apply’ button. You’re building proof that you can feel safe straight after. The more evidence, the less your body will warn you of threat. Sometimes the possibility of change is the threat so acting on it, teaches your body that this flavour of change is safe.

As mentioned, all of the above can be done straight away and can be quite straight forward. If that’s not your experience, then getting help is the most effective way to not waste your own time. I help my clients understand their fear of rejection to the point that it no longer gets in the way. I help my clients make their job search a success by breaking down the process in smaller, achievable steps and holding them accountable. And lastly, the core of my work is that I help my clients to resolve the emotional patterns (Imposter Syndrome, overthinking, overworking etc.) that are holding them back and making the logical advice hard to put into practice. I encourage you to give the self-help options an honest go but if you notice that you’ve been procrastinating for too long with real consequences starting to loom over you, let’s talk.

If you find yourself never having time to commit to the job search because you take on too much work, then that points towards a different emotional pattern. I offer a free diagnostic that takes less than 10 minutes to help you with this. It’s called Say Yes and Mean it.

If you want to learn more, here’s some further reading: why Imposter Syndrome is not a confidence issue.

About the author - Chris Baeuchle

• MSc Personal & Management Coaching, UCC

• 7+ years tech leadership (Apple, Indeed, komoot)

• International Association of Mind Coaches

Sources:

(1) Baumeister RF, Leary MR (1995) The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin 117(3): 497–529. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.117.3.497

(2) Lacy S, Ocobock C (2024) Woman the hunter: The archaeological evidence. American Anthropologist 126(1): 19–31. https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13914

(3) Anderson A, Chilczuk S, Nelson K, Ruther R, Wall-Scheffler C (2023) The myth of man the hunter: Women's contribution to the hunt across ethnographic contexts. PLoS ONE 18(6): e0287101. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287101

(4) Rohrmann S, Bechtoldt MN, Leonhardt M (2016) Validation of the impostor phenomenon among managers. Frontiers in Psychology 7: 821. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00821