EVIL said: most companies don't discriminate but skill counts higher then anything else. you cant just go for a minority purely on that base while there are better qualified people out there. its not how it works. Click to expand...

You absolutely can. A job opening is rather specifically defined. If I work at a software company and I have a position for an entry-level coder where I get two applications, one of whom has a PhD in CompSci and 8 years of experience including a few years of team management experience and the other one is fresh out of college, not by a long shot do I just automatically hire the older of those two. Entry-level positions mean that I as an employer have lined up some of the most menial and basic work and need someone to do that specific work. They need someone who can handle that workload, and once you reach that bar, the company's free to consider further skill as one thing among many other pluses and minuses. Differences in skill can absolutely be ignored in favor of other qualities that a candidate can bring so long as everyone agrees that both candidates meet the minimum standard of being capable of doing the job as defined.(Also, this is due to my hypothetical, but there is 100% such a thing as being too qualified for a job, which is what I actually posited there.)