Can you still be "overqualified" these days?

wylo

Hi, ive applied for a few jobs where I genuinely thought Id be in a chance of getting at least an interview. Ive a degree , and another qualification in a technical area(completely unrelated to the degree).
Ive applied for a few jobs like call centres /basic tech support etc and havent heard a thing.
Is the competition just too much? Was I being naive to think id get in there no problem.
If this was 5 years ago, I would have said im overqualified, I do know of companies that did ignore certain applicants in the past because of being overqualified but i thought that'd have been done with at this stage.

pow wow

Answer - yes.

My own experience isn't IT related but I went for a job there a few weeks ago - I have a degree and a masters - and I need a job. I have relevant experience (worked in admin and the like for years and went back to college as a mature student) and the woman interviewing me stopped short of laughing in my face but asked me if I "went to college for 4 years so I could answer phones and type other peoples' letters" :rolleyes: No matter how much I deflected she could not be moved on the fact that she thought the job was beneath me. Plenty of people have degrees these days, I don't think it should ever be counted against you if you do - but it often is. I certainly have no airs and graces about it but this woman's attitude was appalling.

So, I leave the masters off my CV now and make my degree sound like something I did for fun. I never did my leaving cert so I have to leave the degree on.

peasant

Employers want to find the best candidate for the job.
That is not someone who, after learning the ropes for a week or two, is bored to tears, has one eye constantly on the jobs market and will possibly be gone after a short while, leaving them to start again with searching and training.

So, yes, you can definitily be over-qualified.

ABajaninCork

pow wow wrote: »

Answer - yes.

My own experience isn't IT related but I went for a job there a few weeks ago - I have a degree and a masters - and I need a job. I have relevant experience (worked in admin and the like for years and went back to college as a mature student) and the woman interviewing me stopped short of laughing in my face but asked me if I "went to college for 4 years so I could answer phones and type other peoples' letters" :rolleyes: No matter how much I deflected she could not be moved on the fact that she thought the job was beneath me. Plenty of people have degrees these days, I don't think it should ever be counted against you if you do - but it often is. I certainly have no airs and graces about it but this woman's attitude was appalling.

So, I leave the masters off my CV now and make my degree sound like something I did for fun. I never did my leaving cert so I have to leave the degree on.

I hear you. I'm in the same boat! Applied for EVERYTHING even approaching my qualifications, experience and skill sets. If I had a pound (Euro) for every 'recruiter' who said I'm too experienced/senior/overqualified (delete as appropriate!:P) I'd be a VERY rich gal!!

R.D. aka MR.D

What I generally do is include in my cover letter that I am longing for something long-term.

Then at interviews I always make it clear that although I did college and everything I am no longer interested in beginning a career in retail/secretarial etc etc.

I've been offered a total of 4 different jobs in the the past 4 months. And I got the one I am in at the minute by using the above approach, by talking about how much I was interested in retraining in this area because it was such an interesting and ever present area.

I ALWAYS address the fact that i've been to college etc before they bring it up, just to make sure to put it in there and show my enthusiasm for the job.

caseyann

I reckon best way is to play down your intelligence and job skills,but if you can show years of been in one job.
Definitely depends on what you are going for.I have seen people turned away from shop work because they think you are going to leave as soon as you get the job you already had.

wylo

Cheers for the replies, kind sickening, you work hard , you try to get good experience in different areas, you do your college thing and then it backfires.
Guess ill have to dumb down my CV and applications, I also like the advice of reminding them that im no longer interested in that career.
I really thought by now that employers would look passed that now given the fact that so many people are happy to work in any kind of job.

AndrewS

Yes, you can most definitely be over qualified. I changed my tack recently as I now only want a temp job since I will be emigrating next year. So I applied for something relatively junior since I would very easily have been able to do it, and it was a contract position. The employer phoned me the next day and asked me why I had applied for that job when there was another one better suited to my skills and experience. I genuinely hadnt seen the other job as it didnt come in on the job alerts. I got an interview but still didnt get the job. I mean, what do you have to do??

JoePie

I finished my Masters there, and I'm having a tough time getting a job as well. Aside from the grad programs and the usual things I get rejected from, I also never hear back from shops or anything as well. I would happily sell clothes for a year or so. I wouldn't have applied if I didn't want a job, like. But these companies don't see it like that. LAME.

eire2009

Saying you repeated a year or two changed courses and eventually dropped out and decided it wasn't for you is a definite if your going for a unskilled position.

I have about 10 cv`s the only one I got interviews with is the one where I was working in a bar in spain for 3 years and basically made any p/t positions I had full time to fill up my cv.

I have a trade and a degree. I eventually found a job that suits but its thousands of miles away from home..

You should look into teaching in S.Korea money is good you can do nixers aswell where go out with a S.Korean for dinner they pay and through you $50 for conversing with them in english its a win win

Mrs OBumble

wylo wrote: »

Guess ill have to dumb down my CV and applications, I also like the advice of reminding them that im no longer interested in that career.

I have three CVs:

The professional one - has the works, but skims the basic/student jobs.

The temping/admin one - doesn't mention the degree, uses very short words (eg "made changes on the computer" vs "elicited and documented requirements for functional changes to a case-management system, and managed the acceptance-testing cycle")

The admin-professional one is a blend of the two. It mentions the degree, but makes my roles sound more admin-ish and less IT-ish. Job titles are shortened by dropping scary words like "senior" and "manager".

No lies are told. But there are always ways to present the truth so that it will match what a potential employer needs to hear.

Radiotower

It is annoying, I got interviewed for a job at the start of the year and was told afterwards from the recruitment agency guy that basically I didnt get the job cos I was a few years older than the manager - it was only a short contract job for 3 months - think I could have sucked it up for 3 months...

Got a job in the mean time - a better one but its week by week at this stage with no new work coming up, so keep looking is all I can say

ABajaninCork

Radiotower wrote: »

It is annoying, I got interviewed for a job at the start of the year and was told afterwards from the recruitment agency guy that basically I didnt get the job cos I was a few years older than the manager - it was only a short contract job for 3 months - think I could have sucked it up for 3 months...

Got a job in the mean time - a better one but its week by week at this stage with no new work coming up, so keep looking is all I can say

Oh - I've had something similar too. Applied for a job which I knew I could do in my sleep. Was told I could not be put forward for interview as the hiring manager had only been in the job a few months, and the recruiter thought "I might soon be telling the manager how to do his job!!!":P

*Sigh*. All I want is a freaking JOB!! I don't care about the politics. Never been interested TBH.

wylo

Radiotower wrote: »

It is annoying, I got interviewed for a job at the start of the year and was told afterwards from the recruitment agency guy that basically I didnt get the job cos I was a few years older than the manager

recruitment guy really shouldnt have said that to you tbh.

Anyway thanks for the advice, I guess i can see why im not getting called. If I was running a call centre Id hire the person with no qualification but thats doing it 5 years over the person that has the degree, other qualifications, various work experience.

Looks like lying on your cv has taken on a new meaning.

tenchi-fan

Many callcentres don't employ "overqualified" people because they are afraid the job applicant will get fed up and leave in a few months.

You really need to be smart and dumb down your cv.

Begin your CV with a skills profile. e.g.
Communication

• Excellent verbal communication skills, both over the phone and face-to-face
• etc

Teamwork

• Ability to work on my own and as part of a team

Computer Skills
etc etc

Then include your education, ensuring you only include one degree and NO postgraduate courses
BBS in Marketing and Economics

• Subjects included communication and computers
• Teamwork and presentation skills were important in this course

Irish Leaving Cert

• If you got very high points, leave it out and just say "B in English, C in Maths"

Work Experience
Again, bulletpoints that are geared to a callcentre job.

Once you get called to an interview make sure they know you tried several courses or jobs, didn't like them, and that you feel more suited to a callcentre environment because you enjoy working with people, as part of a team, etc.

tenchi-fan

wylo wrote: »

Looks like lying on your cv has taken on a new meaning.

You don't have to lie on your cv. Just omit things that aren't attractive to the employer. It's common sense really.

For a previous job, I wrote 1999-2003. College Name. Gained a 2.1 degree in accounting.

What I didn't mention was i got the degree in 2002 and went on to do a masters in 2003. Mainly because I knew the employer, in the past, told applicants with masters or doctorates that they were overqualified.

Handsome Bob

peasant wrote: »

Employers want to find the best candidate for the job.
That is not someone who, after learning the ropes for a week or two, is bored to tears, has one eye constantly on the jobs market and will possibly be gone after a short while, leaving them to start again with searching and training.

So, yes, you can definitily be over-qualified.

That's a bit of an unfair generalisation. If I have a job then I'm going to give it 100% regardless of whether or not I have my eye out for something closer to my degree/masters or whether I'm bored by the work.

I'll be fcuked if I'm going to take my masters off of my CV just because of someone else's appalling attitude. If this is why I'm not even getting interviews for positions that I'm perfectly experienced in then I'm really bemused.

Mrs OBumble

LZ5by5 wrote: »

That's a bit of an unfair generalisation. If I have a job then I'm going to give it 100% regardless of whether or not I have my eye out for something closer to my degree/masters or whether I'm bored by the work.

That's no consolation to an employer who spends three months having you minimally productive while you get trained in the finer details of their widgetting (or whatever) system - only to have you leave half-way thru month four 'cos a better job came up.

LZ5by5 wrote: »

I'll be fcuked if I'm going to take my masters off of my CV just because of someone else's appalling attitude. If this is why I'm not even getting interviews for positions that I'm perfectly experienced in then I'm really bemused.

Bemused, but still unemployed.

I'm an IT professional. In the last two years, most of the work I've had has been clerical/admin, which I'm 99% certain I wouldn't have got if they'd seen my professional CV.

You are (rightly) proud of having achieved the Masters. But as with all things in life, you need to choose which aspects of it to communicate to other people. There are some things that certain employers just don't need to know.

Handsome Bob

Here's a question for you, should I omit my masters from CV, how do I account for the year I spent doing it?

tenchi-fan

LZ5by5 wrote: »

Here's a question for you, should I omit my masters from CV, how do I account for the year I spent doing it?

My reply:

tenchi-fan wrote: »

For a previous job, I wrote 1999-2003. Gained a 2.1 degree in accounting.

What I didn't mention was i got the degree in 2002 and went on to do a masters in 2003. Mainly because I knew the employer, in the past, told applicants with masters or doctorates that they were overqualified.

wylo

tenchi-fan wrote: »

My reply:

but what if your degree was 4 years, thats 4 + 1 for your masters, there's not many degrees that are 5 years, I guess you could always say you repeated.

Id say maybe what I would do is be honest in the interview if its mentioned, say something like "I did a course/whatever but didnt feel it was appropriate to mention it in the CV because I have little interest in that area and it has nothing to do with the type of work id like to do"(namely the job your being interviewed for).