To think people saying “I can’t get a job in a supermarket because I’m over qualified” is bollocks?

[Washyourhands48]

I have a Bsc, my husband has one too.

After years in the Civil Service and a lot of stress, we both took the decision to take voluntary redundancies and have both been very happy in supermarket jobs on a part time basis since. So it really gets my goat when I see ‘this “over qualified” nonsense being quoted on here. Supermarket interviews do not ask you what your PhD is in or anything like that, the fact is that you were hit just right for the job and probably thought it was beneath you which probably cama across at interview.

AIBU?

So those who agree with you are right, and those who don't are talking bollocks.

What a waste of a thread. Everyone, save your bloody breath.

Years ago I worked with a women who let's be honest I couldn't stand. We worked in admin jobs and the company we worked for were having to make redundancies. I said that I'd applied to Tesco for a job as we were being made redundant.

She replied that I would never get a job there as her sister was a manager there and they wouldn't take on someone who worked in an office.

Fast forward 2 months and I get a job at Tesco's and I'm doing my training but don't have my uniform yet. Who do I bump into?

"What are you doing since leaving?" she asked

"Working here", I replied.

Oh the look on her face. Twenty years later I can still picture it.

YABFU OP.

If you mean anyone with a degree can "downshift" to a supermarket (and you are basing that on a sample size of two) you are the one spouting bollocks.

In my anecdotal experience (and I posted a thread on here about it) I couldn't "pass" the online test for a job at Tesco.

I went to University and I have a lot of subsequent professional experience and qualifications, Tesco (they were the only supermarket advertising jobs locally) didn't want me.

It makes sense to adapt your CV for different jobs. If the job doesn't require a PhD and managerial experience why do people think it's a good idea to go on about it in a job application?

But this seems to assume that you have other, recent enough not to be ridiculous things to talk about? Since I was 21 I've done a PhD, worked as an academic for six years and then worked in a managerial role for two. I worked part-time in bar when I was a student, but since I last worked there in 2010 if I put that down as my only work experience on my application it's going to raise some serious questions, isn't it? I wouldn't bang on about my PhD or my academic work but unless I actually lie about it I can't see how I would 'adapt' my application so they're not the focus since they're what I've actually been doing?

The online test seems to catch a lot of applicants out.

I'm the reverse to you OP, I got my civil service job when it was a crown service job because a) I was already doing it as a temp and was the only applicant and b) my job puts me between the military and the public so my customer service exp from 4 years in retail, 3 as a manager got me hired.

My BA Hons technically makes me over qualified (but will let me progress) but when it was mentioned early on, I pointed out the prev 4 years and how happy I was to have left the industry. If they give me more flex I'll stay for ages if poss because it's nice hrs and as someone who wants to start a family, I reckon I'd be stupid to leave that set up.

No one ever asked those questions in retail because it was either a management job and done on experience or in initial interviews I made it clear that I need a job, any job, would work any overtime, hadn't enjoyed the degree/that life & Shirley Templed my arse off in the scenario bits.

Having done the hiring, too, I'd happily hire someone highly qualified as long as they weren't arrogant and recognised that they weren't the expert and couldn't just replace the boss. The best qualification is experience.

I never want to go back though. I've never been so miserable and lonely as when retail swallowed my existence.

What Hardbackwriter said. A PhD isn't just a piece of paper you can slip behind your back- it's several years of your life that are going to look seriously dodgy if unaccounted for.

I also think it's a lot easier if you're at a life stage where your narrative 'fits' - so downshifting pre-retirement, returning to work after a long time as a SAHP, etc - these are circumstances where people understand why you're taking a job that doesn't seem to match your job history and so aren't suspicious and don't assume it's a stop-gap. When I took my current job I could see in the interview that my now boss wanted to ask me more directly why I was making the move, which could be seen as a bit of a step down and away from a career that I'd be working on building and developing for a very long time, but clearly felt she couldn't. When, soon after I'd started, she realised I had a young child you could almost see her face go 'oh NOW that makes sense' because it made the narrative 'fit' for her.

"Some of them would rather be on benefits for life than do fruit picking or work in a factory. I've actually heard these people go 'that's for the foreigners to do'. hmm"

Okay, they're being racist, but they might have a point on fruit picking and factory work. Fruit pickers have to be positively athletic. A lot of people wouldn't last half a day at the pace and physical discomfort they work at. Watch some videos. It's a job for someone above-average healthy and fit, with a lot of physical dexterity.

I've done factory work, and, depending on the job, it can be isolating, monotonous, and again very physically tiring. A friend found their depression got worse working long hours in an environment where he couldn't speak to anyone because of the noise of the machinery.

See you're making excuses for someone being an asshole, like others on here. It's got sod all to do with them not being fit enough or being too depressed to work in a factory. They seem fit enough when they are running from the police for instance (and no I'm not joking). And they constantly complain about not having enough money, yet refuse to go and work in the factory that actually pays very well, provides free transport if needed and has good shift hours that fit around childcare well. The machinery isn't loud either, you can easily talk to people. Yeah it's boring work, but when you've struggled to get a gcse in maths or English, do you expect to be a bloody surgeon? Unless they are willing to put some effort in, work hard, educate themselves, that's never going to happen. They would rather sit at home, doing nothing and blaming the' foreigners' for taking their jobs, the same foreigners they refuse to work alongside in a job that they could actually get.

Do not make excuses for them. They are lazy, asshole racists. That is all that defines them.

As I found in the thread, there is a lot of bollocks spouted about the online test too.
It was a mystery to me - as far as I could see I answered all the scenarios logically and with customer service in mind, but I still failed.
One poster kindly offered to fill it in for me.

I’ve been refused jobs in the past on the basis that I am overqualified. Employers have said that they assume the job is just a stopgap for me and that I will leave as soon as something better comes along. So I couldn’t find a low-stress, low-responsibility job even when I wanted one. YABU.

The fact is that you were hit just right for the job and probably thought it was beneath you which probably cama[sic] across at interview.
I couldn't even get an interview.

My 20 yr old dd has applied to every supermarket. Been to 4 interviews and out of the 2 she has heard from have said sorry. She doesnt have many qualifications and has dyslexia.

My other dd has a 1st class honours degree and can't get a job in her field. She has lost 2 of her 3 jobs over the past few months, has tried supermarkets and not heard back.

So I couldn’t find a low-stress, low-responsibility job even when I wanted one.

I think part of the problem, too, is that very few people think their own job is 'low-stress, low-responsibility', even if it might be to someone else. In my job under normal circumstances (not the last six months, which have been pretty shit) I keep very quiet about how amazing I think it is that we all leave at 5 nearly every day, don't work weekends, etc. because everyone I work with thinks we work extraordinarily hard and it's very stressful and so wouldn't much appreciate me pointing out how much less I work than I did in my old job! Someone who thinks that someone else is moving for less stress and responsibility is likely to think (perhaps quite fairly) that they're going to prove to be lazy and that they're likely to be underestimating what the job actually entails.

I agree with @OpenlyGayExOlympicFencer. It’s cherry picking one experience and is not representative of all people, companies and areas. Some people will have been told their overqualified, others may not have got the job for another reason. I know someone who was told they were overqualified and shouldn’t struggle to get a job elsewhere comparatively. However, that doesn’t mean they represent a majority either. I also know another who did get jobs, despite higher qualifications. There’s always going to be a mix.

VirginaWolverine, I'm also in a university town but I find it's quite localised. Up by the university and the city centre, same situation as you describe. Where I live (slightly run-down residential area, different demographic), people don't expect to find students and probably would be surprised.

Good for you being happy, but a supermarket job would bore the tits off me. I’m a professional and looking for professional
Work at £40 an hour so supermarket work isn’t going to cover what I’m interested in or my salary expectations.
I have done it in the past as a student. And it suited me/ my needs then.

A tiny upside for us, in a hospital, in an expensive area- we couldn't get HCAs for love nor money! In an essentially 9-5 job, band 3.

10 applicants, 6 called for interview, 3 turn up, one offered, who then didn't turn up on day one.

Over and over again.

Those we recruited were a very mixed bag, from 'very good' to always off sick or reorganising their hours to the extent they were effectively barely working at all, or being 'exempted' from huge swathes of the required duties. They 'got away' with this because management were scared of losing them, altogether, to 'Sainbury's', despite the reality that I doubt Sainsbury's would put up with that degree of nonsense...

It was a nightmare.

However, now we're getting 60-odd applicants, many of whom are things like ex-aircrew.

They hit the ground running and it's made our work so much easier, having job-ready, motivated, smart individuals in post.

The downside (for us) is that yes, already they're talking about doing foundation courses to go to uni to become a HCP!

But I do feel for the 59 who don't get in, or who'd be good at it and would stick around.

An aside- I gather there's been a huge surge in interest for HCP courses, as there's little chance of redundancy, right now. Tho some might not be looking past the 'job security' in order to see the contempt with which we were held by government and by many of the 'public' before they all stood there clapping for us... 😬

Supermarkets don't care if you have a degree they care if your the right fit for the job and can be flexible etc

So basically, if you can’t get a job at a supermarket, you failed the screening questions but it seems ok to smugly pass it off as you’re “overqualified”.

I'm only seeing one smug attitude on this thread, tbh.

I've always tailored my CV /application to the job, whether it was for a very competitive professional role or a minimum wage retail job. It obviously doesn't work for every employer, but for the retail jobs, I wouldn't mention my research or drafting skills, but would draw attention to experience of dealing with difficult clients and managing their expectations, of representing a wider organisation, or supporting colleagues and of accuracy under pressure. Management experience would be reframed as being able to spot work that needs to be done and of being able to judge when to make my own decisions and when to run them past management. I do also apply for retail work which fits my interests and social skillset; I'm perfectly happy dealing with the sort of rude upper-middle class elderly woman who lots of managers find very difficult, so my retail jobs tend to be in shops popular with posh old ladies who remind me of my fierce, outspoken, well-connected and much loved grandmother.

@Hardbackwriter

It makes sense to adapt your CV for different jobs. If the job doesn't require a PhD and managerial experience why do people think it's a good idea to go on about it in a job application?

But this seems to assume that you have other, recent enough not to be ridiculous things to talk about? Since I was 21 I've done a PhD, worked as an academic for six years and then worked in a managerial role for two. I worked part-time in bar when I was a student, but since I last worked there in 2010 if I put that down as my only work experience on my application it's going to raise some serious questions, isn't it? I wouldn't bang on about my PhD or my academic work but unless I actually lie about it I can't see how I would 'adapt' my application so they're not the focus since they're what I've actually been doing?

Obviously you would need to state where you worked but no need to state that your role was managerial and no need to mention your PhD. The bar work would be the most relevant work experience as it would demonstrate that you are used to working with customers so I would focus more on that.

It’s easy for you to say if you’re of a certain age though. That was your experience and if you’re over say 50 they might assume that you struggle to get a job elsewhere so less likely to leave the supermarket.

A 25 year old graduate will likely struggle as the assumption will be that they will move on as soon as something better comes up.

I worked all sorts of jobs after graduating and while at grad school. Cinema, retail, waitressing, cleaning etc. However they were all just temp jobs for money I was never planning to do it longterm. After getting my masters I worked for myself.

@corythatwas

What Hardbackwriter said. A PhD isn't just a piece of paper you can slip behind your back- it's several years of your life that are going to look seriously dodgy if unaccounted for.

I have a PhD. On a job application for a supermarket job I would state that I was a research assistant at the time. I wouldn't bother to mention that I have a PhD.