Well, you aren't excluded from applying as far as the people actually hiring for the job are concerned. But sometimes you've gotta be prepared to BS the HR cre

Well, you aren't excluded from applying as far as the people actually hiring for the job are concerned. But sometimes you've gotta be prepared to BS the HR creature in order to make it past them and actually talk to someone human - it's not too uncommon for these folks to view listed job requirements as a hard filter that all applicants need to pass in order to be considered, especially when dealing with bigger companies. And the fact that perfectly qualified applicants are often forced to embellish experience to make it past these initial screens is a very bad thing, it means that a certain level of dishonesty is almost required as part of a standard job hunt (i.e. one that doesn't lean on connections or direct relationships with people at companies, which is always a better way to go). This is part of why it ends up being so hard to distinguish legit programmers from terrible ones by their CVs: the crappy ones know they have to make up a ton of crap to get any interviews at all, whereas the legit ones know that if they can just get through the door and interview they'll get an offer, so they don't bother embellishing, and all the CVs end up looking about the same.