Jobworksaz.com - Job Seeker Tips

That Big Ugly "Overqualified" Word Again
By Joyce Lain Kennedy

Dear Joyce: I've been out of work since September, when I was in a management sales training position at a recently merged company. At age 45, my position was eliminated.

Through your column I'd like to share with recruiters and hiring managers the feelings that I and some of my associates meeting at the unemployment office and job fairs have about our encounters.

It is not fair that because we once made $50K to $70K, we can't get a job we're qualified for just because it only pays $30K or $40K. Our families depend upon our ability to work.

We have many transferable skills and talents. Because we have not been in a specific job position or held a specific job title does not mean we can't or won't be successful doing the work. Why would you keep a position open for several months when you have good applicants with good skills?

Degrees, degrees, degrees! Many who have been in the business world for years have learned by doing and achieving, or by attending unaccredited colleges with degrees that are not accepted by hiring managers. Our companies paid for the courses advertised in the magazines we read as we flew from city to city doing our jobs -- buying books, completing assignments, mailing in papers and taking tests. We earned our degrees, accredited or not. Local colleges and universities have no program to allow us to get credit for what we know and insist we start over again. CLEP (College Level Experience Program) doesn't cover the real-world knowledge in which we hold degrees. What a pickle -- no job, no money, no self-esteem and now no accredited degree. And you wonder why the suicide rate is increasing.

As our unemployment insurance benefits run out, as our homes are placed into foreclosure, as our children have to drop out of school, as our marital relationship hits bottom, as we are forced into bankruptcy, as we lose most of our prized possessions as well as our pride, our confidence and our self-respect, remember this: You could have hired us and we would have made good employees for the position you had open. And just think, one day you may be where we are now. -- N.L.

Dear N.L.: I'm not going to burden you with platitudes. Instead, I challenge you to mentally trade places with me and create a list of 10 things I should have told you to help you climb out of the hole you're in. Do a good job and I'll print them.

Dear Joyce: My comments are addressed to the recruiters you quoted who are "annoyed when they receive résumés from the people who are overqualified for an advertised position -- the managers who respond to foot-soldier positions."

I'm unemployed and about to go under. After a relocation, I landed a job in my field, warehousing, only to be laid off after three months. Since then I've worked as a casual for a major shipping company -- on call, report within two hours, no benefits. Also, a few short temp assignments.

Do those recruiters not know that times are tough out here? Are they living in a tower somewhere out of touch with reality? Here are people who can hire me with perhaps decent pay but who won't hire me because "I'll be looking for something better."

Well, who isn't? Would they rather hire someone who doesn't aspire for something better? -- M.D.

Dear M.D.: Your chances of showing you can be a good fit improve when you are able to interview directly with the person who can hire you.

Once chiefly used as a synonym for too old, "overqualified" today is also applied to new college graduates who, finding slimmer pickings, are interviewing for blue-collar jobs.

Scour the Web for a myriad of tips; use search engines such as http://www.google.com or http://www.alltheweb.com and search on "overqualified job applicants," perhaps adding "overcoming objections" and variations on that theme.

Ask a librarian for books that help you manage the overqualified issue, including my own "Job Interviews for Dummies."

Send career questions for possible use in this column to Joyce Lain Kennedy at Box 368, Cardiff, CA 92007, or e-mail her at jlk@sunfeatures.com. Sorry, the volume of mail makes personal replies impossible.