Applying for jobs for which you are over qualified?

[TazSyd]

Just canvassing opinion. DP is about to made redundant. We’ve spoken to some recruiters and they are saying that it’s unlikely that he will find another similar job at the moment and they aren’t expecting things to pick up until September.

What are people’s thoughts on applying for jobs he’s over qualified for? I know in my role, we tend to reject applications from people who are over qualified, as we think that they would leave as soon as a better role came along.

Anyone?

I bet there will be lots of folk in same position There will NOT be many better jobs to apply for in near future for most, so your culling criteria are faulty in next 12 months.

Well dh is a senior process (chartered) engineer in the Oil & Gas industry with 25+ years of experience. He was made redundant and started applying for jobs, he starts shelf stacking in a local supermarket next week so they clearly don’t mind that he’s ‘overqualified’.

But this is part of the issue. Every single job will have a higher than average amount of applicants from people who are suitable for the role, so why would employers hire people who are over or under qualified. Employers will basically have the pick of the bunch.

Friend of mine is an NHS admin manager. She advertised for a band 2, £18k admin job. Over 250 applicants! Many of them had undergraduate and Master’s degrees. Some had done jobs like office management, librarian, teacher, executive assistant, HR officer etc.

Applying for jobs you are overqualified for isn't an issue. People ultimately need work to pay bills and finance their lifestyle and good employers understand that. And they should during the current crisis.

In many cases it is highly beneficial to hire someone overqualified. They can hit the ground running, you have a clear expectation and they bring something new to the workplace. They may leave but sometimes the risk is worth taking.

In the public sector you won't in theory be discriminated for being overqualified. The interview process in the civil service for instance is based on success profiles, so if you can give examples of your competencies, you have a fair shot. I'm in the civil service and know someone who had a master's and joined as an AO, way below her potential grade. But she got stuck in, showed an eagerness to learn and lead on projects and duly was promoted two levels in the space of a year. It helped that her line manager was prepared to go the extra mile and made sure she had access to professional development courses.

So if your DH needs work, apply. Don't worry about over or under qualifications.

Friend of mine is an NHS admin manager. She advertised for a band 2, £18k admin job. Over 250 applicants! Many of them had undergraduate and Master’s degrees. Some had done jobs like office management, librarian, teacher, executive assistant, HR officer etc.

This is what I mean, we’ve advertised 3 jobs in the last 10 days and already have over 100 applicants for each one. We can go through and pick and choose. Selecting those that have the experience and qualifications that we need. Pre lockdown it was a bit different, we didn’t get anywhere near as many applicants for each role, so we were the ones having to be flexible about what we were looking for.

I’m over qualified and over experienced for my current role. My employer loves me as I don’t need any training and minimum management. You need to explain why he wants the job, and why that employer - make it look like you are motivated for that role. Don’t look complacent or too arrogant.

As Twickerhun says, he needs to make a really great case about why he wants that role and that employer and emphasise the benefits of hiring him, what he can bring to the table.
There’s a career coach doing webinars on LinkedIn every Thursday which is good. I listened yesterday and there some great questions and answers. Specific advice on this issue yesterday was to avoid dropping too far down the career ladder and if you need money get a different job for now, like a supermarket or delivery driver as this won’t damage his long term prospects.
If he was senior has he been given outplacement support? I’m finding it very useful especially for things like my marketing plan, networking advice, getting a list of target organisations etc. People are getting hired but a lot of it is by word of mouth so networking is essential.

Every role he applies for needs its own bespoke version of his CV, so he needs to create a cut-down version which highlights the qualities and attributes that are most likely to get him the job. If that means leaving off things like a Masters Degree or a specific technical qualification that's completely non- value add to the vacancy, so be it.

He doesn't have to appear over-qualified if he doesn't want to.

Think in the past, being over qualified meant that you would be looking around for other jobs therefore any training would be pointless.

The employment climate has completely changed though as a result of Covid 19, so there is a general understanding that people are needing to get jobs quickly.

he should list the qualifications and experience he has that are relevant to the role. He doesn't need to list them all.