Overqualified and out of work: Too much experience can sometimes hurt more than help
You’ve just been interviewed for a job, you’re confident that you performed extremely well and then you hear these shocking — although expected — words: “I’m sorry, but we think you’re overqualified for this position.”
Nothing is more frustrating than knowing you’re probably the best candidate to fill an open position, yet the company refuses to hire you because you have too much experience or too many skills.
When an interviewer says you’re overqualified, they are most likely concerned about one of the following factors:
• You won’t be satisfied with the salary. • You’ll be bored in this position.
• You’ll leave as soon as you find a better opportunity.
• Once you leave, they’ll have to go through the time-consuming and expensive process of hiring and training someone.
To help buck being branded overqualified, consider following these simple steps:
Don’t sell yourself short: If you get stamped with the “overqualified” label once, you may be wary of getting it again. If you’re applying for jobs at a lower skill level than your background skills, education and experience would normally exhibit, you may be tempted to “dumb down” your resume and omit things. However, lying about your background isn’t the way to go.
Face the issue head-on: “Be the first one to raise the ‘overqualified’ issue with a potential employer,” says Bonnie Lowe, author of “Job Interview Success System” (Lowe-Commotion, $39.95). “If you bring it up yourself, you can discuss it openly and convince the interviewer
that it won’t be a problem.” Highlight your skills:
While it’s important not to omit things from your resume, you can still tailor the resume to highlight skills and talents that will be essential to the position you’re seeking. If you were a vice president in your past job and are applying for a position as a manager, showcase your core competencies that fit with that position. Whether you learned those as vice president or not is irrelevant. It’s the fact that you have those skill sets which is important.”
Focus on the future: Rather than tooting your own horn about your accomplishments in previous positions, focus the interview on how your talents will benefit the hiring company, says career coach Scott Jeffrey. “Instead of just presenting what you’ve done in the past — which very well could overqualify you for the position — do some homework on the company. Figure out how you can best serve this company using your current skill set, talents, creativity and experience.
Stay positive: If you’re not enthusiastic about the job, it’ll come through in the interview. Even if you’re competing for a job that you may be overqualified for, you should still have a positive attitude about the position and be able to explain your eagerness to be hired. Explain why you are excited by this role and have a very clear view as to what you find exciting about the job. Do not drone on how great you were in the bigger role or how much smarter you are than everyone else.
Long-term plans: Don’t tell the HR representative or person hiring that this is just a stepping stone for you. They want to fill the position with someone who brings value to the company and wants to be there. Ultimately the employer wants to grow their business and make life a little easier for themselves. Demonstrate that you can help them in these endeavors.