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?

Making a move purposely into the field is very different from being made redundant and applying for anything which is the position many candidates are in these days

@MadameBlobby that's not because you're overqualified, its because you aren't committed to the job. I qualified as a solicitor and hated it and got a job in retail instead which pays a pittance but which I enjoy far more.

I have never heard of anyone not being employed due to a grand parenting interview. I have known for people to be moved into a different role or product area due to those interviews. Some areas need more intelligence, some more physical strength, some more people skills. A manager might pick out an applicant at the group stage because they want the best people for their own area, and ignore the wider needs of the store.

There was a bloke on the news at the start of lockdown who was worried about money because he'd been made redundant. But didn't want to work in a supermarket. Because he didn't want to put his (non vulnerable) family at risk. I think he thought supermarket work was beneath him.

DS got a first and wanted to do a research MA, while living at home. He got a part time job, stacking shelves at a supermarket for some spending money. He loved it and was promoted. He said half the staff were undergrads or post grads; and this wasn’t a university town!

Likewise, DD had AAB at A level and worked in a different supermarket for her gap year. She also said many of the staff were students.

Nobody ever said to DC they were overqualified!

@DarkMintChocolate

DS got a first and wanted to do a research MA, while living at home. He got a part time job, stacking shelves at a supermarket for some spending money. He loved it and was promoted. He said half the staff were undergrads or post grads; and this wasn’t a university town!

Likewise, DD had AAB at A level and worked in a different supermarket for her gap year. She also said many of the staff were students.

Nobody ever said to DC they were overqualified!

That’s because students generally aren’t

[quote VirginiaWolverine]@MadameBlobby that's not because you're overqualified, its because you aren't committed to the job. I qualified as a solicitor and hated it and got a job in retail instead which pays a pittance but which I enjoy far more.[/quote]
Yeah, and the reason I wouldn’t be committed to a job in a supermarket is because I would only be doing it until something arose I wanted to do more, and I think that would be pretty obvious to employers especially if someone was only applying because they’d been made redundant rather than it being an active career choice

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

Ok, but if somebody is actually told they were over-qualified for the role, then they surely can't be accused of being smug for saying "I didn't get the job because I'm over-qualified", whether the interviewer was telling the truth or not!

Are you even allowed to tell candidates they are overqualified? It doesn’t sound like an acceptable reason in a recruitment process, but I have never worked in HR.

I think being over qualified is definitely an issue that employers take into consideration, but it's more of a problem for younger people who've just left university, who they suspect will just be using the job to earn money while they carry on applying for jobs relating to their degree.

If you've made the decision for this career change later in life, and have experienced as much as you wish to of your old career, it is a very different situation.

Similar with older people who are unemployed with degrees - it can sometimes seem quite obvious that a supermarket job isn't their ultimate dream, nor a job they'd be all that happy with. But your situation does sound different to that - and I very much you're happy, and enjoy the change of pace!! :)

I have interviews lots of people
Who have made it very clear they would only stay until something "better" turned up. Probably not going to get a job here then, mate. As I said previously, having interviewed for supermarkets for 16 years, it is all about someone's behaviour and nothing to do with qualifications.

The reason they have interviews is to pluck out those who have turned up just to fulfil their JSA/UC requirements and aren’t actually interested in working among other things.

But shouldn't that emerge through the screening process? People who are only going through the motions tend to do their best to get screened out quickly.

‘I think being over qualified is definitely an issue that employers take into consideration, but it's more of a problem for younger people who've just left university, who they suspect will just be using the job to earn money while they carry on applying for jobs relating to their degree.‘

Many degrees don’t have any jobs that are related to them. Most graduates are not going to get a graduate position.

I spent my entire 20s, pretty much, being told I was overqualified. In a recession. For jobs in the north east of England. Where jobs have rarely been plentiful (though I understood from my Dad that in the 1950s you could finish a job on the Friday and walk into another one on the Monday. He was everything in his time from a bus conductor to a telecoms engineer).

At the time I was told I was overqualified and I wouldn't stay in a job, I had one standard Bachelor's degree in a not-very-useful subject, some customer service and hospitality experience from my time at uni, and I could type. (At least, the degree wasn't very useful until you did a Masters or a few vocational qualifications in something that could make it marketable.)

I eventually found data inputting work via a temping agency, until one of the contracts I was sent on offered me permanent work which led to me being able to get a vocational postgrad qualification. So being told you're over-qualified is definitely, and has been for a long time, a thing.

And no matter how over-qualified you are, you still have to eat.

And no matter how over-qualified you are, you still have to eat.

That too. It's like there is a myth that we'll think we are too good for the job/people and won't do the job. I'm not doing the job as a jolly, I want to get paid!

@TitsOutForHarambe

I used to recruit and I was always suspicious of those who were overqualified because they usually leave when something in their field of expertise comes up.

Your situation is very different. You voluntarily stepped out of your career later on life and want a change of pace. You aren't as much of a risk.

This all comes across at interview.

This. Why do you assume that your exact circumstances and life experience must be applicable to everyone, OP? Can't you possibly envisage someone of a different age/with different qualifications and/or experience/ living elsewhere having different experiences than you?

it's quite normal for people in their fifties or so to downgrade from their 'careers' once kids are closer to independence but still want to keep their hand in at some form of work, so I can imagine that whoever hired you and your husband found it conceivable that even though you had previous had other careers you might still be good at/want to stay for a few years in the supermarket job they hired you for. Someone in their early twenties just graduating, or late thirties who was previously a company executive or managing director might be assumed not to be as likely to stay.

I agree qualifications are not an automatic barrier to getting a supermarket job but when places are getting so many applications of course it's conceivable that some places might use that as one contributing factor, it's ridiculous to say just because it didn't happen in your particular case it never ever happens!

It probably depends on the job. I was frankly told by my current employer that I hadn't originally been interviewed because she thought I was over-qualified (I am, stupidly so) and she didn't think I'd stay very long.

Then a friend recommended me and I'm still there, several years later. It ticks most of my boxes and I enjoy it.

After graduating and as a lone parent I needed work. As well as degree related jobs I applied for other things too. I was turned down for a farm shop, Greggs and a chip shop. The chip shop owner admitted that it was because of my qualifications as he didn't think I'd stay if something else came up. My friend who went a much more vocational route and me did a little experiment with an employment agency that was recommended to single mums by the job centre. We'd signed up and she'd had some offers but I hadn't. One day we both asked for an update within a short time of each other. I was told they had nothing in. She was put forward for a job. She got it and I was pleased for her but at the same time I'd have hated for anyone to think I was too stuck up to work in a shop or cleaning. No one would have me and it was my degree that influenced their decision.

It is so unfair that when you really need work and are prepared to do anything, no matter how qualified you are, employers won't take "a chance".

It is also unfair that jobs are still linked to who you know rather than what you do, as @GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman's post illustrates.

@Elsewyre

You are asking the wrong poster. I don't have a husband, another poster commented that HER DP works in a supermarket not me. I merely replied to her post.

I'm not sure about supermarkets etc. turning people down for being overqualified, but in my experience retail and hospitality jobs are almost impossible to get! I dread to think how much time I spent filling in applications for supermarkets, fast food places, cafes, etc. when I was younger. Rejected from every single one of them, though in fairness this was around 2008/9 when lots of people were probably applying for the same jobs. Office based work is much easier to come by, in my experience.

It's a stop gap for them or topping up there wages, not a long term commited employee and it's take so long and costs so much to train people. That's why most don't take them on

@nachthexe

PS there are no ‘dream jobs’ here pyong. It’s hospitality or bust. Hospitality hirers need to grasp that sometimes eminenently qualified people really do want a permanent job in their hotel. It actually says a lot about how little you believe in your own company that you think people wouldn’t stay there. Is it that shit a place to work? (Yes I’m still bitter lol 😂)

Absolutely not. But the people who are applying have just left Uni and you know that they will stay with us until their first career job happens.

If a woman of "procreating" age applies (sorry!), in quite a marked career change, I will always interview as you know that she wants something that fits in with the kids and the partner, so isnt in it just to mark time. I am in my later 40's and would actually prefer to recruit women in my age bracket (30's to 50's) as generally, they have a better work ethic. Sadly, they rarely apply!

I probably didnt make that clear in my post.

@Toblerone345

I'm not sure about supermarkets etc. turning people down for being overqualified, but in my experience retail and hospitality jobs are almost impossible to get! I dread to think how much time I spent filling in applications for supermarkets, fast food places, cafes, etc. when I was younger. Rejected from every single one of them, though in fairness this was around 2008/9 when lots of people were probably applying for the same jobs. Office based work is much easier to come by, in my experience.

Ironic that as someone looking to leave hospitality and go into (as menial as neccessary) office work, I would say the exact opposite! Although as I said in my PP, I am late 40's so probably my age is my biggest obstacle there.

Interview? What interview?

The only job I got as far as interview for was one where I suspect they invited everyone who met the Essential Criteria (25 candidates for one post).

And no, I didn't give the impression I thought I was too good for it. I suspect the fact that I said "no I actually can't give an example of where I've done that" probably had more to do with the rejection