Dealing with being overqualified

Bufger

tailor your CV towards the job in question. If parts of your degree arent relevant then omit them. If its an admin job you will want to put your GCSE's in english lit and lang down and also put something about your excellent interpersonal skills, your typing and general computers skills and your ability to time and task manage effectively.

If you're focusing everything on your degree thats irrelevant for the job you're applying for then they're likely to reject you on the basis that you're obviously not that bothered about their fantastic job oppertunity thats just arrived!

SandC

I agree with tailoring your CV and specifically covering letter - tell them why you would be ideal for the job, see what they've written in the ads and mould yourself into it - without directly lying!

I can't imagine why anyone is asking for only 2 GCSEs - some companies really don't know what they are on about when they ask for quals. It says to me that the quals are not important but experience probably is - so detail what you've done whilst living and studying at uni that would help in that type of role.

As an example of a previous employer of mine - they wanted multi lingual staff and they originally asked for GCSE in X foreign language. When they realised the actual standard of GCSE languages they realised that no way could that make them be a proficient multi lingual customer service advisor! In the end, many of the multi linguals had to be recruited from overseas and they had to specify language degree or fluency instead. I can't believe they even ever thought a GCSE would be enough to deal with customer service queries in another language!

El_Rey

Mysolicitorisbetter wrote: »

I think your problem is more that you think your too good for the job rather than they do.

1) A lot of degrees mean nothing these days and are widely ignored by employers as they know it was basically a waste of 4 years for that person.

2) That is the minimum qualifications. Having highers is not overqualified.

Employers will be unlikely to want big headed staff though who think their better than a job and I suspect thats your problem.

Amend your CV and sell yourself to the admin roles rather than applying with them as a back up with your CV which makes you out to be better than those jobs.

What do you do for a living?

venus_in_furs

I have a degree and i don't consider myself over qualified for anything!

I always thought experience is the best skill. Which is hard when straight out of uni i guess, some of my friends have been lucky and gone into graduate roles (probably the best way) the others are still in jobs they were in before uni!!

I think for jobs in admin and stuff they always prefer people with good experience and maybe some collage courses specialising in the computer software packages they use and typing etc, so they know you will take to the job easily and quicker.

That is how it always came across to me, as i mainly applied for admin roles and they always told me that my experience etc is the problem...not my education.

ploder

Bull

The employer has set the minimum level.

In modern times having a degree and highers doesnt make you particularly well qualified and there are many graduates doing admin jobs. Not because they are slumming it but because they wasted 3/4 years of their life learning nothing that is relevant.

Ah, I see the problem here. You're talking about qualifications in terms of 'ability to do the job'. Nothing wrong with that, but in this context the OP isn't bigging themselves up as being above the job. Context is everything Being 'overqualified' isn't necessarily a statement of ability. Hence my response that it is being used entirely factually in this situation.

Furthermore, I've also heard over qualification being used as a euphemism for 'won't be with us for long'. I have direct experience of this, being in a similar situation myself. If I manage to crack it I will be able to give a decent answer. The usual thing is to research the line of work, be really enthusiastic, make it clear you are in it for the long term to get the foot in the door, tailor the CV, try and make contacts with people within that industry or offer to work for free or intern.

McGuiver

Mysolicitorisbetter wrote: »

I think your problem is more that you think your too good for the job rather than they do.

1) A lot of degrees mean nothing these days and are widely ignored by employers as they know it was basically a waste of 4 years for that person.

2) That is the minimum qualifications. Having highers is not overqualified.

Employers will be unlikely to want big headed staff though who think their better than a job and I suspect thats your problem.

Amend your CV and sell yourself to the admin roles rather than applying with them as a back up with your CV which makes you out to be better than those jobs.

Hmmm, I'm sure the OP relishes your advice. What crawled up your bum and died, or are you a bit pre-menstrual? The OP has aspirations, did a degree because he/she wants to do well and is willing to lower their expectations just to get a job. I'm sure that being a grafter, a doer, a right hard worker (which is the impression I get), you should be happy that they are after any job.
I don't know if you've ever had experience of higher education and the sacrifices you have to make (you wouldn't be saying what you have if you'd been), but a lot of sacrifices have to be made, much hard work is involved. You don't go just to get a job - you have aspirations, a particular vocation or career in mind. It's not snobby to want more after uni - you've fxckin well paid for it.
Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with stuffing meat pies or cleaning dried poo off toilets (if that's what you do), but please, don't make assumptions and assume that the OP is a snob or has ideas above their station. What if the degree is pure mathematics or an applied science - do you think that's worthless? The paracetamol you popped this morning from drinking too much Blue Nun in your council house, because you hate your mundane job, by yourself (see I'm making assumptions now - not nice, is it?) was prepared by someone who'd been to uni. Did their employer think the degree on their CV was no good? You strike me as someone with an axe to grind.
All the OP said was that they are overqualified for their job because they have a degree - they are. Plain and simple.

McGuiver

Mysolicitorisbetter wrote: »

Bull

The employer has set the minimum level.

In modern times having a degree and highers doesnt make you particularly well qualified and there are many graduates doing admin jobs. Not because they are slumming it but because they wasted 3/4 years of their life learning nothing that is relevant.

Probably just as well you're solicitor is better, because a lot of crap comes out of your gob. In modern times? We live in a knowledge economy - the only way of managing in modern times is through higher education. If a degree or higher does not make you qualified, what the hell does. Granted, experience if good all your are doing is filling doughnuts, wiping bums, whatever it is you do (sorry, if I'm making assumptions like you did), but lets be serious about education when it comes to a profession, no?
Why do you think many graduates are doing admin jobs? Could it not be because of the surfeit of graduates, economic conditions, faltering government policy. You're not trying to suggest it's because graduates have wasted their lives doing something they wanted to are you? John McEnroe said it best: "You cannot be serious!"

TEDDYRUKSPIN

McGuiver wrote: »

Probably just as well you're solicitor is better, because a lot of crap comes out of your gob. In modern times? We live in a knowledge economy - the only way of managing in modern times is through higher education. If a degree or higher does not make you qualified, what the hell does. Granted, experience if good all your are doing is filling doughnuts, wiping bums, whatever it is you do (sorry, if I'm making assumptions like you did), but lets be serious about education when it comes to a profession, no?
Why do you think many graduates are doing admin jobs? Could it not be because of the surfeit of graduates, economic conditions, faltering government policy. You're not trying to suggest it's because graduates have wasted their lives doing something they wanted to are you? John McEnroe said it best: "You cannot be serious!"

Nice.... both of you are actually correct. Yes both correct.

Nowadays, the amount of people with degrees applying for one specific degree has doubled. This has made degrees kind of downgraded - not worthless.

What I believe the above is trying to state is that nowadays, companies are looking for work related experience. This can come from education or from work itself.

So for example, if a job asks for a secretary working in a legal firm, minimum requirements 2 GCSE's C and above. The company is actually looking for a secretary who has worked in a similar setting with 2 GCSE's. Simple as that.

If you have a degree with no experience as a secretary, you will be put in the backlog.

Comprende?

System

my degree really isn't worth the paper its printed on serves me right for doing a micky mouse course though i guess.

El_Rey

xXMessedUpXx wrote: »

my degree really isn't worth the paper its printed on serves me right for doing a micky mouse course though i guess.

What did you study?