Six ridiculous requirements for job seekers in the Philippines

From age limits and height requirements to costly clearances and unrealistically high experience demands.

Finding work in the Philippines can sometimes feel like applying for the privilege of applying.

You’re fresh out of school, but the “entry-level” position wants years of experience. The salary is barely above minimum wage, but a college degree is preferred. Before you earn your first peso, you may already have to spend money collecting clearances, certificates and medical requirements.

And somehow, after all that, the job description expects you to do the work of three people.

Here are six hiring requirements that have long frustrated Filipino job seekers.

1. You must be young

“18 to 25 years old.”

Age limits have appeared in job ads for positions ranging from sales staff to service crew—even when age has little to do with performing the work.

The absurd part? Republic Act No. 10911, or the Anti-Age Discrimination in Employment Act, generally prohibits employers from publishing job advertisements that indicate age preferences or discriminating against applicants because of age, subject to limited exceptions.

Yet applicants still encounter explicit or less obvious versions of the same barrier: apparently, experience is desirable, but getting older while acquiring it isn’t.

2. You must look the part—whatever that means

“Pleasing personality.”

For decades, those two words have haunted Philippine job advertisements, particularly for customer-facing positions.

Then come the height requirements: 5’2” for women, 5’6” for men, perhaps a particular complexion or an expectation of conventional attractiveness—even for jobs where none of these characteristics determines competence.

Apparently, operating a cash register sometimes requires runway qualifications.

3. You need experience to get experience

This may be the king of ridiculous requirements: an entry-level position asking for two or three years of experience.

Fresh graduates are trapped in a beautifully constructed corporate paradox. To get experience, they need a job. To get the job, they need experience.

After spending years earning a degree, they discover that “entry level” doesn’t necessarily mean beginners are welcome.

4. You need a degree for a job that may not need one

The Philippines has long had a culture of credential inflation.

Jobs whose actual duties can often be learned through training may still ask applicants to be college graduates—or at least college-level.

The result is doubly frustrating: qualified high school graduates can be shut out of opportunities, while degree holders may end up in jobs that neither require nor fully use the education they spent years obtaining.

A diploma becomes less proof of specialized knowledge and more an admission ticket to the employment line.

5. You need money before you can start earning money

Congratulations, you’re hired.

Now spend.

Depending on the employer and position, applicants may be asked to secure documents such as an NBI clearance, police or barangay clearance, PSA birth certificate and medical examination, alongside government numbers and other paperwork.

Individually, some requirements have legitimate purposes. Collectively, however, the cost of transportation, photocopies, photographs, processing and medical tests can become a significant burden—particularly for someone who is, by definition, still unemployed.

It’s one of employment’s crueler ironies: you may need money to prove you’re ready to start making money.

6. You must be an entire department

Perhaps nowhere is job-requirement inflation more obvious than in creative and marketing positions.

A company advertises for a “Marketing Assistant.”

Then you read the description.

Graphic design. Video editing. Photography. Copywriting. Social media management. SEO. Events. Community management. Website updates. Analytics.

Sometimes the applicant is expected to know practically everything except how to repair the office air-conditioner.

The compensation, meanwhile, remains resolutely entry-level.

There is nothing unreasonable about employers looking for capable, versatile workers. Standards matter.

But when an entry-level applicant is expected to be young, conventionally presentable, college-educated, already experienced, financially capable of completing a pile of pre-employment requirements and skilled enough to replace an entire team, perhaps the applicant isn’t the one whose qualifications need examining.

Maybe it’s the job posting.

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