The Brazen Careerist has an interesting perspective about work-life balance and career advancement for the 21st century. Much of what she writes might be considered appalling from a hiring manager’s perspective, but a lot of information is right on. Here’s her take on how to get a job you’re not qualified for.

This issue comes up all the time with software jobs. Almost by definition, anyone working in software development or similar technology is “unqualified” for their current job, because they would never make the cut if the current job was formally searched. Likewise, companies would like to hire people who are on the cutting edge of the latest technology; it is not uncommon to see jobs for, say AJAX or Voice over IP with five years experience…even though AJAX or VoIP have barely been mainstream for two years. What the hiring manager may not know is that a good candidate for AJAX might be someone who knows Javascript, CSS, XML and backend databases, and a good potential VoIP person would be someone who is all over local area networking, DNS, DHCP, and telephony. If they don’t know it, it incumbant on the job-seeker to convince the hiring manager.