Discussions
Too overqualified? How do you underqualify yourself?
Posted by trailofpen • 8/27/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: jobs blobs
Have you ever been "too overqualified" for a job position? Have you ever been turned down over and over again for the same reason? WHAT IS GOING ON WORLD!?
User Comments
-
I jus talk lyke dis, and dey tink I doomer-
But you're wearing a suit. You can't fool them. OVERQUALIFIED!
-
I know
Why can't more women be managers? I would totally have a job if I was interviewed by a woman...
-
-
YES.
OVER and OVER and OVER...
I can't get hired at McD's right now. Nor at Taco Bell - or as a janitor. I even tried for daycare - but nooooo I'm too ahem (old - can we say it... anything over 20 is too old for daycare?)
I'm too qualified for everything I put in for. It's frustrating.-
over 20 too old - for daycare??? Is it true?? Sorry state of affairs
-
-
Oh yes. I have been sending out resumes like crazy and have gotten several, we love your resume, but this position is entry level and far below your qualifications.
C'mon people. So what if I am overqualified? I will take the paycut and give you my expertise for half what I am worth. I will take an entry level position in your firm if it means I don't end up working the counter at 7-11 or the drive thru at McD's.-
It's awful, isn't it? I mean dude - I wouldn't have put in for the position if I wasn't interested in it...
And not only that - I WILL work for my pay. Nothing is beneath me.
Yanno? -
HIRE US NOW!
-
-
My Masters made me over qualified for clinical analysis labs or medical representative jobs. So, I was over qualified, over worked and under paid working as head of drug stores at mal-wart and a national drug store chain.-
Pharmacist?
I'm coming to your house. LOL!
-
-
"How do you underqualify yourself?" Easy. Just refuse to work.-
Logically speaking, that makes no sense whatsoever!
-
Makes sense to me. I've done it all my life.
-
-
Claim to have serious self-esteem issues, point to your psychiatrist, and include somewhere at the bottom of your resume, "if you refuse to employ me, please, just give me a hug."-
hahahahaha! This is one of those times I like JJ.
-
It better be a woman in HR.
-
-
I proudly state here and now that no one has ever accused me of being over qualified :-) -
this make sense....-
Is that a statement, a question, or just pure sarcasm?
-
@trailofpen: Answer: absolutely correct.
-
damn you!
-
-
I've been overqualified, but never "too overqualified" -
A few weeks ago, I sent resumes for several jobs, including a few that I'm overqualified for. Haven't heard a word. It's frustrating. -
I imagine there's nothing you can do if your resume is rejected behind closed doors because of "being overqualified" .. but, I remember a prospective employer mentioned that to me in an interview and I replied something like this:
"Yes, I know I'm overqualified, but perhaps you can give me more responsibilities and double my rates - or, if you must .. you can just double my rates and I can work just half the time"
I was applying to be an assistant comptroller 'of accounts' maybe considering ending the self-employed and get a regular pay job - but, I ended up negotiating and just became their corporate accountant and still do their personal income taxes. (they didn't want me on their payroll) -
It's a catch-22...your either over-qualified or under-qualified. Where does one find the middle ground so one can get employed? -
Yes! They said they're hiring only women and i am over qualified * looks at his chest feeling dubious*-
Wait a minute... what are you trying to say? What are they trying to say? My mind is on complete meltdown.
-
-
Not sure yet but will soon find out! I have been self-employed for a few years, but am now looking for employment at a lower level than when I was previously employed (for family and health reasons).
Not sure what potential employers might make of that... -
Yup. I was "overqualified" for a writing/edition position I'd applied for. Because I'd been a marketing manager in a pretty high powered company, they felt it wasn't a good fit.
The truth was, I WANTED less responsibility. I was so burnt out at the time my toes were charred.
But, nope. No soup for me.-
It's like a moving target. Employers are in a position to be very picky, so they tend to look for exactly what they perceive they want. I was a customer support manager, they laid off me and everyone that worked for me. Bummer city. One of the reasons I write my blog is to kind of keep doing what I'm good at even if I don't get paid for doing it.
I think there are a lot of us lookers out there right now
-
-
It is HR-speak for "you're too old but we aren't going to tell you that because then you can sue us for discriminating against you."
Alternatively, it is manager-speak for "I can hire TWO underqualified bits of nubile young eye candy for the money you will obviously want with all those qualifications...and I can train them to bring me coffee and other stuff you most likely won't do..." -
Yep - what I did was learn to "read" the employer and position before submitting my resume/application - and I would simply snip out all of the extra stuff that would make me seem over qualified.
One of the reasons employers don't want to hire people who are overly educated or over qualified for a lower position is because they figure you'll either ask for a promotion/raise due to your qualifications, or you'll bounce as soon as something better comes a long - and with good qualifications there's a good chance of that happening.
besides that someone who is clearly in the know poses a threat to other employees on the same level, and creates office politics that no one wants to deal with. (It also poses a threat to management as someone in the know can better identify a bad manager, and take their job away)
So, if you really want that job stocking shelves - leave out your impressive college degrees and only list previous work experience that is relative or non threatening to the other employees.
-
I know this, but if I was running a company and someone told me I could get premium talent at an economy price, I'd jump at it all the time. These days people trade in jobs like they trade in cars. You can't expect someone to be a lifer. I believe that if you improve the quality of your workers it will improve the overall quality of your business. Do you really want some young kid who is going to be talking to their bf or gf on the their cell phone all the time, or who is too busy discussing their weekend plans to do real work? It just doesn't make any logical sense.
-
I disagree.
You CAN expect someone to be a lifer. My husband has been with his employer for 14 years. He joined shortly out of college. His employer gives him good benefits (including a home mortgage, and car and cell phone allowances), regular cost of living raises in addition to his regular salary/performance reviews. But my husband does not work for an American corporation, nor do we live in America.
It is American corporations that have created the "disposable job" syndrome by putting profitability-by-any-means ahead of employees. Downsizing, reducing benefits and wages while giving obscene salary increases and bonuses to executive management have scoured away the whole concept of employee loyalty and long term employment. The companies have no one to blame but themselves. -
Ok not that I know, but from what I've gathered, your husband is pretty well off with his job, and if that's the case, who would not want to stay in that position?
-
I am an old duck. I joined the workforce as a teenager in 1963.
Back then companies routinely offered positions where you could work until retirement. That has been gone for decades...hence portable pension plans like the 401k.
I was a victim of downsizing in the 90s when my company was making money hand over fist, paying 6 figure salaries to department heads and I know...personally saw the check...of one instance when a director received a cash bonus of $120K for "reducing headcount" in his department. The department I worked for went from 6 secretaries to 1 in a two year period without a commensurate reduction in workload...the work of the laid-off secretaries all ended up dumped on that last one.
This was a VERY profitable multinational corporation with an international headcount of more than 20,000. It's stock was strong, it was turning a profit...but fewer people mean bigger profits, especially if you can scare them into working 12 hour days with the threat of downsizing held over their heads.
My husband's company placed him in a large American corporation for 1 year to manage a contract for them. If you ask him his opinion of the American workplace, he will tell you that Americans "work scared."
Sadly, my husband's employer is what large American employers were like before greed and lack of ethics took over.
-
-
I think where most job hopefuls fall down is their belief that the HR department is their friend, that it is there to help you. Once hired, people often continue in that belief until reality slaps them in the face...and even then, many will think that this company has a screwed up HR department without ever realizing that HR is NOT your friend.
In any economy, the job of HR is to get rid of as many applicants as possible. Even in a good economy, unless there are more jobs than available bodies, HR is tasked with taking dozens...maybe hundreds...possibly thousands...of applicants and cherry picking a half dozen (or fewer) of them to present to the interviewing managers.
Given the volume of responses to a help wanted ad, no HR person can possibly read, in depth, all the resumes and applications they receive. They skim the resume/application, looking for keywords. A lot of HR screeners know nothing at all about the job being recruited for, so if your CV doesn't have the right keywords, even if you are perfectly qualified, you will be overlooked. (I was a recruiter in Silicon Valley for four years. I once had an HR rep turn down a candidate because he was an "analog engineer" and she was looking for a "linear engineer." They are exactly the same thing but she didn't know that. This was not atypical, either.)
Many people think that a big resume listing everything they have done since their first job in high school, including all their extracurricular activities and awards, will impress the employer. Wrong. It makes you look tedious, prideful and/or insecure and overqualified. Your CV should be one page...two at the absolute most.
I have seen a lot of breezy, chatty, journal-style CVs: these are bad--they make you look self-centered and inappropriate. The best resumes are terse, have a lot of bullet points, and are not chronology-based but skills based (with employers, job titles, and employment dates simply provided in list form near the end).
One of the absolutely most glaring omissions people make is to leave out their objective. That HR screener has only seconds...not minutes...to determine if your resume goes into the "Yes" "No" or "maybe" pile. They do not have the time (or interest) to read down the resume and try to figure out what kind of job you are looking for. Your cover letter should specifically name the position you are applying for and your resume...which might get separated from your cover letter...should say something like "Objective: an engineering management position in research and development in a fab environment." That way, the reader has a clue what you are looking for and your CV won't be rejected because nobody knows what job you might be suited for.
If you are constantly running into "overqualified" as a reason you are not getting job interviews, go over your resume and revamp it.-
Simple really is best - although I do like chronological order for some stuff
I was overlooking a resume from a candidate the other day and I HATE having to scan through tons of bullet points that seem out of order or are badly arranged. I had to ask her several questions about what this or that was...
For her, better word arrangement, and chronology would have been a big help -
I've revamped it a billion times. Chronological, functional, mixed, sales based, writing based, management based, plain old work horse based. The next one I'm just going to list my sex, height, weight, age, blood type, and a picture of my face.
-
OK, I don't usually do this, but if you'll shout me with your email addy, I will send you a sample of an excellent resume. There is SO much more than what I have said here that needs to go into a good one, and it is easiest if you just see a sample of it. (It will be in Word.)
After being a recruiter for all that time (and managing an HR department for a year after that) I got a pretty good feel for what kinds of CVs work. My late husband was a printer and we offered DTP services in his shop (provided by guess who). One of our most popular services was doing resumes (I worked for a resume service for two summers when I was in college) and this was our most popular...and effective...resume. I charged $50 a page for this thing back in the 90s and did several a week.
If you are interested, shout me, but don't expect a response for at least 24 hours...I have a bad cold, it is bedtime, and I have a busy day tomorrow, it being Saturday and the first of the month weekend (rents due, empty flat to show, month-end bulk shopping to do, etc). -
Posted, thanks!
-
-
It is not that your overqualified it is just that you haven't conveyed that you want to work for them. The "overqualified" line is just that they are afraid you will leave.-
yes. Desperation sells at job interviews. Grovelling helps too
-
-
Become wise.
Add Your Comment
Login to leave a message.
