Rant: Why is being 'overqualified' such a problem?

Reverbe

Chattie how odd that you only seem to emerge to criticise my posts. I never mentioned anything about my own situation here of which you know nothing so have absolutely no understanding of where you get your accusations from and assumptions. I have no time for people who tend to stalk ppls post history and post merely critical comments about people they dont know.In future you will be put on block along with all the other numpties who only post to criticise me and my posts or others on here. Go join them and eat sweets in my ignore bin..

You also seem from a brief post search to have quite a history on mse forums for criticising other people, their lifestyle and their actions.I also have no time for people who seem to make it their business to criticise the way other people choose to live their lives. IMO there is room for everyone on MSE (including those like you) but that doesnt mean I want to read that kind of angry judgemental and negative behaviour sorry.

Reverbe

laura_random wrote: »

I've been in the position of hiring a temp myself and I'm afraid I was put off by people who were over-qualified. The job we were hiring for was for someone to do basic admin, photocopying etc and I did feel that some of the applicants felt that it was below them, and I felt they'd quickly get bored. The thing is that some tasks like admin can be fiddly and boring to some people, but it has to be done properly or it causes major problems, and somone who is bored is more likely to make mistakes.

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Laura but not all people who have qualifications above the basic level will get bored. it is wrong here as indeed in all walks of life to make assumptions and generalisations.To me what is boring is not having anything constructive to do. I am totally career/work focused to the point wherer i hate weekends because there is no work to do.Every job has an element of the mundane or repetitive if you really think about it. I agree admin has to be done properly and really is the backbone of most offices who stand or fall on the efforts of/how strong, dedicated and hardworking their admin team is.

Having worked in recuitment and HR myself in my time, the onus here is to properly employ and train staff so that they can find the best candidate from the job and sort out the wheat from the chaff finding those who wont get bored and have a strong work ethic that often get penalised by people who merely look at their qualifications and assume.(in my case wildly assume wrongly)

laura_random

Yes Reverbe I do see your point. However I'd say it's near impossible, to look through 60 or so CVs and narrow them down to 6 or so you have time to interview without making assumptions. You only have a certain amount of information to go on and you do have to read between the lines. If someone is 'over-qualified,' but they are still careful to make clear that they are a careful worker with a strong work ethic, they enjoy playing close attention to detail etc then that could be enough to allay someones fears that boredom might be a problem.

Of course there are people who have plenty of academic qualifications and also have a strong ethic and are capable of doing a, perhaps monotonous, job carefully and well. However part of the onus is surely on the person applying to make sure that they make this clear in their CV and covering letter?

Reverbe

Laura I see your point but if you are in an agency as you said you or someone else in your agency should have met the candidates and had a long chat with them when registering. Tho in my experience agencies have a high turnover of staff and dont bother to build up relationships with their clients. You covering letter should be strong but you cannot really say things to the effect of I am prepared to take any job etc as this does not come across to employersin the right way. This is something you can press your point with with agency staff as I always endeavour to do.

laura_random

No it wasn't an agency, I worked for a company and we were just looking to hire a temp. I don't mean saying 'I'm prepared to take any job' what I mean is having a look at the job description of the job you're applying for, and tailoring your cover letter to meet the requirements of that job. For some jobs, such as this one, a covering letter which only talked about somone's academic qualifications really wasn't appropriate, but I recieved plenty of them. I think part of the problem is that people rely entirely on formal qualifications and think that automatically makes them the best candidate for any job, and it doesn't alway.

Reverbe

Good advice Laura. I already do that tho the job specs are pretty vague sometimes as ads seem to consist of a title and where to apply to. Good advice there tho as I said - some here may find this useful.

missymugwump

Organising a fax sheet by the phone makes you more qualified than your old boss

You crack me up I too emerege on your posts now & then mainly because you chat *hit

missymugwump

I have also been told by my last company who were making me redundant that I would get bored( ermm NO) and that is why they wouldnt have a hardworking reliable local person doing their data entry and took on a school leaver

Think about it............

dampdaveski

squack wrote: »

a lot of ordinary people feel threatened by intellectual genii

i should know, i am one

modest too

fleagle21

dampdaveski wrote: »

modest too

Maybe s/he was referring to being the ordinary person rather than the intellectual genii...