You find a job that looks good. You read the posting. Then you stop. The list of requirements feels like a wall. Five years of this. A degree in that. Tools you have never touched. So you close the tab and move on.

I did this for months after the Navy. Every posting felt like it was written to keep me out. It was not. I just did not know how to read one.

A job posting is not a checklist you pass or fail. It is a wish list. Most of it is flexible. Some of it is not. The trick is knowing which is which. Once you can read a posting the right way, you stop screening yourself out of jobs you could land. This guide shows you how to decode any civilian posting and decide if you should apply.

Why Do Job Postings Feel So Hard to Read?

Civilian postings are written by a few different people. A hiring manager writes part. A recruiter cleans it up. Sometimes legal or HR adds boilerplate. The result is a mash of must-haves, nice-to-haves, and filler.

Nobody marks which is which. You are left to guess. That is the real problem. The posting hides what actually matters under a pile of stuff that does not.

When I moved from federal work into private-sector tech sales, I read postings all day. Then I started writing them. I saw how the sausage gets made. Half the bullet points were copied from an old posting. A few were what the boss truly cared about. The job is to find those few.

What Is the Difference Between Required and Preferred?

Most postings split into two buckets. Learn to spot them fast. They are usually under headers like "Requirements" and "Preferred" or "Nice to Have." But the words matter more than the headers.

Required language sounds firm. Watch for these words:

• "Must have"
• "Required"
• "Minimum qualifications"
• "You will not be considered without"

Preferred language sounds soft. Watch for these:

• "Preferred"
• "Nice to have"
• "Bonus"
• "A plus"
• "Ideal candidate"

Preferred items are wishes. The company would love them. They will still hire someone strong without them. I have seen good people skip a job over one "preferred" line. Do not be that person.

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What Is the 60 Percent Rule?

Here is a simple test. If you hit about 60 percent of a posting, apply. You do not need 100 percent. Few people do. The person who gets hired often hit 70 percent and just applied anyway.

This is not a made-up number you should treat as law. It is a rule of thumb. The point is to lower your bar. Most veterans set it way too high. You read ten bullets, you miss three, and you quit. Stop doing that.

Think about it from the other side. When I reviewed candidates from the certified list for openings I oversaw, nobody matched every line. I picked the person who matched the core of the job and could grow into the rest. That is how most hiring works.

One warning. The 60 percent rule covers skills and experience. It does not cover hard gates. If a job needs a clearance you cannot get, 60 percent will not save you. Sort the gates first. Then apply the rule to the rest.

How Do You Read Between the Lines?

The best clues are not in the requirements. They are in the job duties. That section tells you what you will actually do all day. Read it twice. It is more honest than the wish list.

Look for words the posting repeats. If "customer" shows up six times, the job is about customers. If "deadline" or "fast-paced" keeps coming up, they are stressed about time. Repeated words show what keeps the boss up at night.

Also read the company line at the top. A startup wants people who do many jobs. A big company wants people who do one job well. The same title means different work at each. Match your story to the place.

Spotting the Real Must-Haves

Sometimes a "required" item is fake. A posting may say "Bachelor's degree required" and then describe work that no degree teaches. That gap tells you the degree line is soft. Many companies have dropped degree screens for roles where skills matter more.

The real must-haves usually tie to the duties. If the job is to run a warehouse, the must-have is warehouse experience. The cert they list is often a nice-to-have dressed up as a need. Read the duties to find the truth.

How Do You Translate Your Experience to Their Words?

This is where veterans lose jobs they could win. The posting wants "project management." You ran a supply operation for 40 people. That is project management. You just call it something else.

The work is the same. The words are not. Your job is to use their words. Read the posting and pull out the key terms. Then look at your own history and find where you already did that work. The match is almost always there.

Say a posting wants someone who can "manage vendor relationships." Maybe you coordinated with contractors on base. Same skill. Write it in their language. Do not make them do the translation. They will not. They move on to the next resume.

This is the same skill set the posting asked for. If you want to see more of these swaps, read our guide on hidden military skills that make you more qualified. You likely have more matches than you think.

What About ATS and Keywords?

Most companies use software to sort resumes. People call it an ATS. It does not reject you. It ranks you. If your resume matches the posting well, you rank near the top. If it does not, you sink to the bottom of the pile.

So the keywords in the posting matter. Not because a robot tosses you out. Because the better your match, the higher you sit when a human opens the list. And a human still reads the resumes at the top.

The fix is simple. Mirror the posting. Use the exact terms it uses for skills and tools. If it says "Salesforce," write "Salesforce," not "CRM software." Small change. Big lift in your rank. Learn the full play in our ATS resume guide for veterans.

How Do You Check a Posting Step by Step?

Here is the order I use on every posting. It takes about five minutes. Run it before you decide to apply or pass.

Not sure what a civilian role really involves? Check the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook. It lists duties, pay, and the real education and experience most jobs need. You can also explore skills and certs on CareerOneStop, a tool sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor. Both give you a clear read on what a title means in the civilian world.

What If the Job Title Does Not Match Yours?

Titles trip people up. You held one title in the service. The civilian world uses other words for the same work. A "Logistics Specialist" job may be your old role under a new name.

Do not screen yourself out over a title. Read the duties, not the label. If the daily work matches what you have done, the title is just packaging. Many strong matches hide behind a title you have never heard.

The same goes for years. A posting may say "5 years required" when you have 3. Years are often soft. They list a target, not a wall. If your 3 years are dense and on point, you can beat someone with 5 weak years. Show the depth of your work, and let them weigh it.

One more tip. Look at the seniority words. "Senior" and "Lead" mean more scope and more people. "Associate" or "Junior" mean an entry door. Pick the level that fits your real experience, then aim one step up if you led people in uniform.

When Should You Pass on a Job?

Reading well also means knowing when to walk. Not every job is worth your time. Pass when you hit a real gate you cannot clear. A clearance you will not get. A license you do not have and cannot earn soon.

Also pass when the duties do not match your goals. A posting can look great and still be the wrong work. If the daily job bores you on paper, it will bore you in real life. Read the duties and be honest with yourself.

But do not pass just because the list is long. Long lists are normal. They are wish lists. If you clear the gates and match the core duties, the long list is not your enemy. It is just noise.

How Do You Turn a Posting Into an Application?

Once you decide to apply, the posting becomes your guide. Do not send the same resume to every job. Tailor it to the posting in front of you. Use the role's key terms. Lead with the work that matches its core duties.

This is slow by hand. You read the posting, pull the terms, rewrite your bullets, and check your match. For one job, fine. For 30 jobs, it wears you down. That is the part most people quit on.

This is why I built BMR. You paste the job posting in. The Resume Builder reads it, pulls the key terms, and tailors your resume to mirror that exact role. It handles the military-to-civilian translation too. The free plan gives you two tailored resumes, one federal and one private sector, plus two cover letters to start. It does the slow part so you can apply to more jobs without burning out.

For more on matching your resume to what a recruiter scans first, read how to pass the 6-second recruiter test. And if you are eyeing federal jobs, the rules shift a bit. See our guide on proving specialized experience on USAJOBS.

Reading a posting well is a skill. Like any skill, it gets faster with reps. Decode the wish list. Clear the gates. Hit the core. Then apply. You will spend less time stuck and more time getting calls back.