Over-qualified / Under-qualified

Souperfreak

I am over qualified to be a receptionist and under qualified to be an administrator or PA.

I interviewed for a company and everyone here loves me but I am too efficient I should be a PA they said. But I can't get anyone to interview me for a PA.

Is this a common problem? Any advice?

Sposs

Is there any courses you can do to bump you up to being a qualified PA?

WhiteWashMan

Souperfreak wrote:

I am over qualified to be a receptionist and under qualified to be an administrator or PA.

I interviewed for a company and everyone here loves me but I am too efficient I should be a PA they said. But I can't get anyone to interview me for a PA.

Is this a common problem? Any advice?

listen, no offense, but you seem to put up a new post every couple of days complaining about your job, and asking rather random questions.

why dont you just put up a post with what you want to do and what you have, and then find out what the difference is.

as it is, how can anyone tell you what you need to be a PA or an administrator?
we dont know what you have at the moment.
and different positions with the same name require different skills.

if you are unhappy with your job, i suggest you go and have a serious look at what it is you are doing, what it is you dont like about it, and think of what you want to do and how you can go about doing that instead.

al you are doing now is making knee-jerk recations to being ain a sht job. all you are going to do at this rate, is excahneg one job you dont like, for another one you will be bored in after 1 week. whats the point of that?

and no one here can help you with that. you will have figure that one out all on your own.

RicardoSmith

Souperfreak wrote:

I am over qualified to be a receptionist and under qualified to be an administrator or PA.

I interviewed for a company and everyone here loves me but I am too efficient I should be a PA they said. But I can't get anyone to interview me for a PA.

Is this a common problem? Any advice?

You need to change your sales pitch.

Souperfreak

Sposs wrote:

Is there any courses you can do to bump you up to being a qualified PA?

Not that I know of, most PA's start out as administrators to the best of my knowledge. But I will look into that...Thanks

Souperfreak

RicardoSmith wrote:

You need to change your sales pitch.

I did this today in an interview with a new recruitment agency and it was well received....thanks for the advice!

RicardoSmith

Glad it helped. If somethings not working. You hace to change your game plan.

You need to look at your self as a marketable product, and compare yourself to others on the market. For example if you were the boss would you hire yourself? Why? You also have to make a judgement on what the employer is looking for, and try to be that thing. Sometimes they are not looking for the model employee but a average joe that will fit well in their office. Maybe they've had high turnover of overqualified people, and think that someone less qualified would stay longer. Things like that. Sometimes they are looking for the most qualified person they can get.

Most people make the mistake of thinking about what a job offers them, instead of thinking what they can offer an employer. Its a standard question in a interview but few people really go in with that mindset.

nesf

RicardoSmith wrote:

Most people make the mistake of thinking about what a job offers them, instead of thinking what they can offer an employer. Its a standard question in a interview but few people really go in with that mindset.

That is very very true. I've always been a person who "sold themselves" in interviews throughout my working career, and to this day I have yet to fail an interview (I'm not sure how I managed this, there are dozens and dozens of CV's that never got a reply but somehow I never managed to drop the ball when I got to the interview stage of the job offers).

That said, I am a salesman, so if I couldn't pitch the product I know best (ie me) to someone I don't think I'd be in this job in the first place.

On the opposite side of the stick I've been an interviewer a few times and if someone can't sell themselves to me and can't do one fo the following,

a) Make me fear missing the opportunitity by not hiring them
b) Make me picture the job with them in it
or
c) Keep me interested for the duration of the interview

Then I would really not have alot of reason to hire them, that said I was recruiting for sales, so the ability to pitch was kinda key. But still I think it was my experience as a interviewer that helped me understand best how to do interviews. I just imagine my own highly critical self sitting in the chair listening to my spiel, and think about whether I'd hire myself.

I've found that it works quite well