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?

Have only read the OP's posts, apologies if this has been covered.

I think “I can’t get a job in a supermarket because I’m over qualified” sounds like a hangover from the past rather than someone casting aspersions on supermarket jobs. Because in the past, people were turned down for jobs that they were overqualified for, on the basis that the employer believed they would leave as soon as a job their qualifications matched turned up.

Attitudes to jobs (employer and employee attitudes) have changed massively over the last couple of decades. The idea of a work-life balance didn't really exist. Downsizing your responsibilities didn't happen, we generally expected to work our way up as far as we could (because that's where the good money was) until we retired.

In that environment, employers would be wary of someone qualified to do a higher -paid job than they were offering. They would expect them to jump ship as soon as that higher-paid job was available, so why put the effort into training them for this job when you expect to have to recruit again soon? Best to employ someone else. It's not much different to another attitude, sadly still in evidence, of why employ a woman of child-bearing age, she'll only leave. That was the working environment back then.

So IMO, when someone says “I can’t get a job in a supermarket because I’m over qualified”, I think they're expressing that they think they won't be considered by the supermarkets, rather than they think they're 'too good' for the job. They're unaware of the hiring process. They probably got their last job by sending in a CV and being interviewed by a manager, why would they know that's not what happens?

@TableFlowerss

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.

Why assume that the supermarket will only employ people who will work there for years?

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 in my job title and without the PhD there's a four year gap in my life? I've never seen a job application that doesn't ask you to list jobs with titles and dates.

I work in retail and pretty much everyone on my team has an undergraduate degree and many have postgrad qualifications. The ones who don’t are often students who are in the process of getting their degrees; many stay on after they have graduated.

If you are a graduate and don’t get interviewed, it doesn’t mean you were overqualified. It means someone else had a better application.

Many people in retail have some kind of visual art degrees because they need retail experience to move into many interior design jobs or merchandising jobs in stores. But there are many people with other degrees as well. Lots of women do it because it is part time and they have kids. Lots of young graduates do it because there aren’t enough graduate jobs available.

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.

I could do that but it's an outright lie so at that point I could just as well start making the whole thing up

I would have agreed with you until I worked in recruitment for a call centre.

The interview process worked on a point system. You added 2 points for 'an engaging personality', 5 points for 'previous call centre experience' and minus 10 points for having a degree.

I got a job there straight after graduating so they either realised that I had no hope of moving on to bigger and better things or the other candidates were absolutely awful..!

When people say they can’t get a job in a supermarket because they are not necessarily saying it is beneath them.

I have a degree, masters, a professional qualification and have held multiple very senior positions in multi nationals. I don’t want to do it anymore, I want a supermarket job. I have applied to Tesco, I have done the online scenario assessment and have passed it, I have been applying for positions for six months when apparently they were recruiting, but I cannot even get an interview. I think I can’t get an interview because I am overqualified.

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).

Arseholes or not, if I were recruiting for fruit picker work, I'm not sure I'd think 'able to run away fast from police on a frequent basis' was sufficient preparation or qualification for the hard physical nature of that particular and specific job.

I have a BA, and I've stacked shelves at Tesco.

This whole "not worth the bother of training because they'll leave" argument doesn't really make sense when you consider the number of short term fixed contract seasonal jobs in retail. Finding a permanent contract is a lot harder than finding a job.

Why assume that the supermarket will only employ people who will work there for years?

@Belladonna12

I don’t assume they only employ people who would work there for years. They couldn’t possibly know how long someone will stay, over qualified or not. Also they often require temp jobs so it’s ideal for students.

However, if they have 20 applicants for 1 full time permanent post and one was a 26 year old PHD student, it’s understandable that they will assume it’s a stepping stone and they would overlook them

A large part of retail recruitment will be down to personality and people skills but beyond that I would play up:

1. Are you physically fit or good with your hands? Retail work is physically demanding and requires practical skills. If your degree has a practical component be that creative or lab based, or required physical labour like field work, you are much more likely to get the job.

1. Are you good with numbers? Many retail jobs will expect the lowest paid employees to still be able to sales forecast, stock control, profit margins etc so ability to remember and work with lots of data, use spreadsheets etc is helpful.

1. Multitasking. You are going to be dealing with customers who think that is your only task while also completing all the other work that is part of your role, so you need to be good at managing your time while also dealing with constant interruptions.

There are many people in society who don’t have a degree or any other real job or educational experience who really aren’t capable of doing any job. The lowest paid people in society aren’t the least qualified or least experienced. The least qualified and least experienced have no job at all.

YABU, because for every West End Star we see working in Tesco, on the news, it was a gimmick and Tesco knew they'd be out the door asap.
Covid has just lasted longer, that's all.

I know musicians who did the same thing and were refused, due to lack of experience with customers, over qualified/ wrongly qualified and employers also thought they'd be off asap.
This was delivery jobs, supermarkets, etc.
Many are desperate now, so don't give me your bullshit.

I was Once told by a former colleague at a well known company ‘ higher those with lower qualifications as they are happy to even have a job and won’t up and leave’

It’s not bollocks!
I lost my job due to Covid downsizing... no redundancy, as I’d not been there long enough.
So overnight, no income, no car, no savings, no partner and 2 kids.
I was a commercial Director in London.
I applied to everything I could find, including night time shelf stacking in all the big supermarkets.
Turned down for interview ( or ignored) by all but one.
Started in a middle Management (team leader) position last month with the one big supermarket chain who interviewed me.
Is busy and fun. I have a new respect for everyone working in the big supermarkets- it’s HARD - physically the hardest job I’ve done (I’m 53).

Non stop, on your feet for 8 hours, some very difficult and stressed out customers - and lots of lovely ones too.
I do approx 10,000 steps/8km per shift.
It’s £9 an hour.
I am now painfully aware that we can all have a tendency to be rushed, to look right through the person helping us, to fail to see they are a human being, to get impatient with queues, self scanners, other customers, whether our brand is available or not....

Its easy to see that some may feel over qualified for this work and think they are being passed over, but as always, when looking for any new job, persevere, keep applying and if you get an interview, do your usual due diligence - as you would for any other job interview, and tailor your pitch.
I’m doing 20 hours a week which isn’t even close to what we need, and using the rest of my time to set up my own business.

The post lockdown (we hope it’s post, at least!) landscape is hard and getting harder, but there are lots of jobs out there!
Nothing should be perceived as beneath anyone, as I think covid is teaching us - the jobs we might have previously dismissed are often the important ones, often lower paid - but there are plenty of vacancies!

Anyone going into the application process with the attitude that they are overqualified and other retail workers are not going to be graduates will be an absolute liability on the shop floor or in the warehouse.

You are BVVVVU and unfair to a lot of people.

I had a fistful of nursing qualifications, including a BSc, before I acquired a disability that meant I could no longer work on the wards. I didn't want to get another job that required a lot of new training so I started applying for clerical and admin posts as I had experience of both.

Even with jobs within the health and social care sector I was told I was overqualified and would be bored.

Just because your thread title fits your circumstances at the moment, get off your high horse and stop being so bloody patronising to those of us with a different experience.

You’re lucky you could both afford to leave in the civil service and work part time in a supermarket. Personally I wouldn’t want to cut my pay in half to work retail.

It’s a shame you couldn’t move Departments internally, there are so many jobs in different Departments.

I have been in this position a couple of times, I am well qualified but not a snob about work, and because of fitting in with childcare I have gone for part-time jobs in shops and other places.

Do you know what my qualifications really went against me, or perhaps my age. They all were suspicious of me wanting a job, or couldn’t understand why etc, some were saying I needed the exact experience in the exact type of shop... whilst I could clearly see young people straight out of school on the tills. It was quite frustrating!

@TableFlowerss

*Why assume that the supermarket will only employ people who will work there for years?*

@Belladonna12

I don’t assume they only employ people who would work there for years. They couldn’t possibly know how long someone will stay, over qualified or not. Also they often require temp jobs so it’s ideal for students.

However, if they have 20 applicants for 1 full time permanent post and one was a 26 year old PHD student, it’s understandable that they will assume it’s a stepping stone and they would overlook them

You can often avoid even mentioning that you are doing a PhD though. For example many people will be employed as research assistants or technicians while doing them so can just state that mention any transferable skills.

Young people straight out of school often do have relevant experience and skills.

A 17 year old we hired recently has had three previous jobs including a paper round she started at 14. She has excellent GCSE results and is going to apply to top universities. She has two years of A levels ahead and then 4 years of uni, so will probably want the job for at least six years.

I applied to Lidl when I was a student nurse and I didn't even get an interview from them

Most applicants don’t get an interview.

Just bear in mind as well that the words “you are overqualified” as “there was a better candidate for the role” often given after a failed interview don’t necessarily mean what the words say, they are just an easy way for the employer to get someone they don’t want to employ for whatever reason
This. Hiring is so subjective and employers have to make excuses for why they haven’t hired someone. My previous boss declined applicants for reasons such as “brought cake to the interview and was trying too hard”, “dress was too short” and “came across as woke and we don’t want troublemakers”. He didn’t disclose any of those reasons to the applicants.