If youâve ever been told youâre overqualified, this is for you.
Being rejected is never fun.
Being rejected for a job you wanted is not even close to being fun.
But being rejected for a job you wanted because they said youâre overqualified is a special kind of aggravation. You can clearly do the job, and youâre available, and willing, and yet⊠and yet⊠yet they still donât want you.
Why?
As it turns out, there are many reasons why. Annoyingly but also fortunately, they donât usually have anything to do with you.
Here are real reasons why employers are so quick to pull out the âoverqualifiedâ rejection.
Free bonus: The Midlife Job Search Report is a handy guide I compiled for older job seekers. Download it now.
âItâs not you, itâs meâ: 9 Reasons to Reject You
1. Employer concern about being able to pay you âfairlyâ
Before starting a recruitment process, employers usually know roughly how much they can afford to pay the new hire. Having more experience and skills than other candidates, employers recognize that you bring more value and are perceived as needing higher pay even if your salary requirements havenât even been discussed yet in interviews.
If that perceived higher salary is higher than their budget for the position, âyouâre overqualified.â
2. Employer concern about being able to keep you long enough
Youâll leave as soon as a better opportunity comes along, because âyou have so many optionsâ with your extra skills and experience compared to other candidates. Recruitment is expensive, so employers want the most return on their investment.
If employers think youâll get recruited elsewhere sooner than later, âyouâre overqualified.â
3. Employer concern youâll be unwilling to do tasks âbeneath youâ
âYou might be willing to do whatever the job requires, but if youâve held equivalent or higher positions in the past, maybe there are some tasks you just wonât touch because you see your time as too valuableâŠâ thinks a hiring manager who often themselves is unwilling to do tasks âbeneath them.â
If employers think thereâs any aspect of the job you might not do, âyouâre overqualified.â
4. Employer concern youâll be bored
Suppose you really are willing to do whatever the job requires. Whoâs to say that you wonât ultimately find the job too easy and unchallenging, going sour and bringing down the mood at work and your colleagues with it?
If employers think youâll get bored quickly, âyouâre overqualified.â
If employers think youâll get bored quickly, âyouâre overqualified.âClick To Tweet5. Employer concern about younger people managing older people
If your potential boss is younger, especially if theyâre much younger, they might be anxious about how youâd respond to their authority. It doesnât even matter how old you are, or if youâve even been in a similar situation before.
If employers think your relationship with their younger manager might be a problem, âyouâre overqualified.â
6. Manager views you as a potential internal competitor
Many bosses and managers are insecure in their roles, regardless of whether they merit them or not. But when along comes a candidate like you who might deserve their role even more â even if thatâs not the job youâre currently being considered for â their forward-looking inferiority complex will push them to push you far, far away.
A job seeker once related this:
âŠÂ Iâve had 2 interviews â 1 with a guy who told me I was overqualified (because he wasnât comfortable when I asked why they were doing everything manually instead of creating a database and queries to process hundreds of applications per day) and the other offered me the job before the end of the day
If a potential boss sees you as a future threat, âyouâre overqualified.â
7. Recruiter laziness
Thereâs a lot you can say in a job interview to allay frankly all of the above concerns, but only if recruiters take the time to express them to you and give you a chance to respond. The reality is that for an overwhelmed, tired or lazy recruiter, itâs just so much easier to dismiss you out of hand than to bother.
8. Recruiter excuses for other reasons they canât or wonât give you
In Why Recruiters Lie When Rejecting You, the Recruiting Animal says:
No recruiter gives substantial feedback. We canât. If youâre missing specific skills and someone else has them we can tell you that because it is a matter of fact. But we canât tell you that the hiring manager doesnât like you because you look a bit frumpy or because youâre a drip.
And there are a lot of reasons why (over)qualified candidates can be rejected or even discriminated against: poor cultural fit, bad interviews, etc., but if you qualify for one of those, itâs just easier to say youâre overqualified.
9. Recruiter manipulation
You never had a chance, even before you came through the door. The recruiter already knows who they want to hire, but an interview quota needed to be filled. Your overqualified resume made you easy to spot as a candidate who could help fill that quota and âlegitimatelyâ be rejected without raising any eyebrows from superiors.
The sad truth about being overqualified
The âoverqualifiedâ rejection is usually avoidable.
The reality is that if you get rejected this way, itâs almost always because you applied for the wrong job.
Had you done your homework, you could have applied to a company that had a history of hiring people like you, and would have been much less likely to give you that âoverqualifiedâ label.
Had you done your homework, you would have valued your qualities more accurately and instead been able to find an employer who does the same.
Getting a job doesnât mean you need to compromise dramatically.
The good news
In a response to a question about startups on Quora, entrepreneur Nicholas Chavez responded:
My first mentor who had many millions of dollars taught me three valuable lessons that are applicable here:
- In life you donât get what you deserve. You get what you negotiate.
- Hire every overqualified mother%#$&@% you can find.
- If someone asks for more than you intended to pay, simply tell them âIâd love to pay you ($200k)! Can you walk me through the model that will help me do that?
Put differently- for the startup founders employers smart enough to recognize it and willing to take you seriously, âoverqualifiedâ really means âqualified plus benefits.â
You just need to do your homework and find them.
Other takes
- The Myth of the Overqualified Worker
- What Does âOverqualifiedâ Actually Mean?
- How to apply for (and get) a job that youâre overqualified for
The Midlife Job Search Report is a handy guide I compiled to help older job seekers.
This free download contains:- 5 Common Mistakes Older Job Seekers Make
- How To Defeat Any Form of Job Search Discrimination
- How Older Job Seekers Beat These Common Stereotypes
- 9 Scary Reasons Overqualified Job Seekers are Rejected
- 40 Tips for Older Job Seekers That Actually Get Results
JobMob Insiders can get this free bonus and other exclusive content in the JobMob Insider Bonuses area. Join now, it's free!
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Great post Jacob, one bit of feedback I hear from recruiters & employers is around what to do when someone is clearly overqualified. Do they believe them when they say they want the job and reassure them they will stick around.
There are lots of reasons people want âlesserâ roles, including lifestyle choices and less stress. Perhaps over-qualified should stress where the role fits with their broader lives as well, as priorities do change as you get older.
Love the idea of your online course â keep me posted and Iâll spread the word.
I second this â and will add that there is much power in a well-written cover letter. Especially if youâre applying for jobs that would seem âbelowâ your level of experience. People need to understand that recruiters and hiring managers canât read minds, and sometimes when you have to wade through hundreds of resumes with tight deadlines, having answers to your concerns right in front of you can mean the difference between being successful and unsuccessful.
Good insight, Anne-Marie. Itâs so hard for people to put themselves in other peopleâs shoes, as so many job seekers have no clue what recruiters are thinking when opening their email applications.
Anne-Marie â I would love to hear more about what tips you would offer on how to incorporate addressing these types of concerns within the actual cover letter itself. In my particular scenario I was making 50K+ per year as a mid level manager when my position was transferred overseas to another office within our firm. I was laid off, and now I canât even get people to respond when I apply for a data entry position that pays $13.00 per hour, but Iâm stuck looking for these types of positions because I have exhausted my unemployment insurance and need to find a part time job to being something in every month.
I would be really interested
Kathleen
Karalyn,
As one who has been there, you make excellent points.
Have had interviews where everyone was relaxed and I even made them laugh.
Been told that I deserved a better opportunity.
Donât want to show desperation, my bills must be paid.
Karalyn- thatâs a great tip for the right frame of mind in interviews. Iâll quote you if I do a followup.
And Iâll definitely let you know if the course moves ahead, thanks
âOverqualifiedâ is often a âdog whistleâ phrase for âtoo oldâ.
Thatâs not necessarily true. There are young candidates that have advanced career backgrounds but are still âoverqualifiedâ despite their age!
Very true. I am in my mid 30âs and have worked for four (4) globally recognized brands. When I show up for an interview, people are surprised by all of the elite companies Iâve worked for. I, too, had a major health setback about a year ago and had to take some time off. I want to return to work, but Iâm getting the overqualified excuse. In fact, I had one interviewer tell me that she felt I could take her jobâŠ.and SHE WAS NOT JOKING! Itâs been frustrating. Iâve trimmed my resume and people still feel threatened.
There arenât as many of those as you may think.
If you are 50+, thatâs exactly what overqualified means â too old.
Too often, youâre right, but not as often as you think and in some countries, things are getting better
I was present during a hiring interview via a common web conferencing tool (not Skype) in which the chair of my department was speaking with several national candidates for a post-doc in our program. One of the individuals had taken time off after earning his PhD at a very competitive program to care for a dying parent. Heâd remained active in publishing even while he cared for his mother for seven years, and had even given multiple poster presentations internationally every year over this time. So he was very qualifiedâobjectively more so than anyone else. My department chair actually uttered these words in the interview: âYouâre 37, arenât you?â The man was 36, but knew better than to correct the individual who momentarily held the keys to the applicantâs future. I was stunned that one of the worldâs premier research universities, at least a representative of it, could commit such a glaring breach of both state and federal law. And it happened right in front of me.
If the most brilliant citizens schooled in the illegality of discrimination are still prone to discriminate against applicants unfairly and illegally, then anyone can. And this problem is especially prevalent in technology industries such as mine. Making matters worse, thanks to recent US Supreme Court decisions, litigation against discrimination has become even harder to prove, allowing lawbreakers to skate away scotch free.
Our groupâs newest post-doc, as of June 2016, is a 26-year-old CS engineering graduate who, though very bright and capable, simply doesnât hold a candle to the stellar but a decade older candidate who was passed over for the crime of caring for a dying parent who had no other living relatives who could help.
Certainly sometimes, but not always. Iâm only 22, and I just graduated with a bachelorâs degree a few months ago, having had internships and other experiences in my field during my time in college. I was told I was overqualified for a position that is related to my field. I was told she was worried that Iâd âget bored quicklyâ. I can only assume that means they either werenât willing to pay what they THOUGHT I would ask for (which was never even discussed), or they didnât think they could keep me there long enough for it to be worth their while. In fact, I wouldâve stayed, even if I got bored, because there were many other incentives. Iâm tied down to where Iâm currently living, and this area does not have much to offer in the way of positions in my field, but my boyfriend, who I live with and intend to marry, has an amazing job here. So yes, I really wanted this job, wouldâve taken it in a heartbeat, and wouldnât have given up on it quickly at all. Instead, Iâm going to start as a barista next week, which wonât pay much (somehow I wasnât told I was overqualified for that?).
By the way, I never even got to the point of an interview. This was all said over email.
Thanks for sharing your story, Annie, and showing that the overqualified rejection isnât only for older job seekers.
Good luck with the barista job, but keep looking for something more career-related and freelance on the side too.
Yes, Donald, youâre right. Having been a recruiter for one of the worldâs largest tech and software firms in the US Pacific Northwest and having had many corporate peers in recruiting over the years, I can confirm your supposition. Of course, no recruiter or company will admit thisâweâre too aware of the actual law. But thanks to SCOTUS, itâs now more difficult than ever to prove age discrimination. Worse, since the government itself routinely practices age discrimination, our culture has unofficially given it a collective nod of approval. Sadly.
Donât believe those who fabricate justifications for what research study after study shows to be trueâand to begin as early as 35. Age discrimination is pervasive in US employment culture.
Agreed. The US government itself has published evidence of just this. Yet here we are still offering excuses for consistent empirical evidence of ageism in the work force. Even despite your use of âoftenâ (which is not âalwaysâ).
Another problem with being overqualified is your Ph.D. It is so clear for Ph.D. holders when switching from Academia to industry due to scarcity of academic jobs that many similar aged out there in industry have much more practical/hands-on skills than themselves. Trying to join them in industry as beginners because they still need the experience is not welcome at all as Ph.D. holders are right away marked as âoverqualifiedâ. Ph.D. holders might have a shorter learning curve, but they definitely need the job and need a chance.
Thanks for the great article, looking for more tips and hints.
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Donald- too true, sadly
Dalia- thatâs called being the victim of your own success
There is another reason. Many employers have strict policies concerning how much an employee must be paid based on both performance and qualifications. If you are âover qualifiedâ they may be saying âThis job earns âxâ dollars (over a certain range) for a person with such-and-such qualifications. Your qualifications exceed the formal job requirements meaning we will be obliged by policy to pay you more than the pay scale allows should you prove competent.â
This sort of policy is very common although it often does the potential employer and employee no good. Bureaucracy.
Garth- this comes back to the first reason I gave, and I appreciate you providing a more formal illustration.
Having clear internal procedures is important for consistency and guidance, but based on the assumption of competence, employees should be hired to be trusted to make the right decisions i.e. when to be flexible and to be rigid, with procedure.
Up with balloons, down with bureaucracy, I say đ
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Put me on your list of folks interested in job seeking by older workers. Iâm 60, hold a Ph.D, and retired early to start my own business. If it doesnât pan out, Iâll be looking for a job.
-jc
You can sign up here: https://jobmob.co.il/early-interest-signup/
Good luck with the new business
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Over qualified means you are smarter or more mature than the interviewer and he feels threatened
He has a great fear that you will show him up as an ignorant immature fool in front of his employees.
There are some managers that deliberately take advantage of and therefore only hire ignorant people in order to feed their ego.
If they feel like you are a threat to their ego they will tell you you are overqualified
Overqualified means : I am intimidated by you.
Take it as as complement and start your own business.
Never allow any employer to define your self worth.
Most people in the corporate world are just puppets anyways.
You had me until âstart your own business.â Even if I do actively encourage more people to start businesses, itâs not for everyone and itâs definitely not something to rush into or to decide solely because someone scorned you. But youâre right that it might be a hint to take
I have heard people say to leave the MBA part off my resume. I am not sure if I should do that. What do you think?
Dumbing down your resume to apply for a job often leads to jobs with unhappy employees, which is also bad for employers and colleagues. There are very few situations where itâs a good idea but it depends on whether you feel you have no choice (you usually do) or you simply want a simpler role that you would never get otherwise. For example, there are janitors, delivery people, etc., with PhDs, people who have already earned enough and just wanted a simple job with set hours that wonât stress them.
Sexism, racism and ageism are against the Law in NYC, but it is practiced. How does one deal with it?
Hiring discrimination is usually difficult to prove.
Itâs a good idea to use your smartphone to record your interviews so that you can analyze and learn from them after the fact, but youâd need to consult with a lawyer to see if that recording is admissible in court if you catch someone saying something blatantly illegal.
For more:
https://jobmob.co.il/blog/job-search-discrimination/
This is so really for me; an African Australian immigrant who has not seen the inside of an interview room in five years, despite having 3 cum laude masters degrees (including a MBA) and 2 BSc honours degrees! My family is starving and all I have are these useless certificates.. I have even taken them off the wall and buried them. Its gotten that embarrasing for me. I have tried everything, yet nothing seems to be making a difference.. đ
This! It floors me how many career experts dance around an obvious fact: many people are closed out of employment opportunities for reasons wholly unrelated to professionalism or abilities. Theyâre disqualified for phenotypic characteristics that in no way impact efficacy. Itâs illegal. Itâs profoundly hurtful. But itâs happening everywhere. Several rigorous studies from leading business schools and university social psychology departments confirm that hiring teamsâ personal (non-work-related) biases bear alarmingly heavily and frequently on who wins a job offerâespecially as it has become commonplace for applicants to surpass educational and experience requirements for positions and present with luminous letters of recommendation or reference. Iâm sure we all remember the recent Today article entitled, âFatties Need Not Apply,â or the countless publications about persistentâand growingâageism, or the omnipresent discrimination against the unemployed⊠Since so many of us are so very qualified, employers can now choose whomever they like for positions. And the operative word in that last sentence is âlike.â Discrimination in its many guises is very much alive and well in hiring. And all this before even taking into account the outrageously increasing ratio of qualified graduates to available positions.
Iâm a white woman whose over r5 and I cannot find work for 5 years in ottawa Canada. I alwAys held amazing jobs all my life. I rarely get an I terview but Iâm weeded out at that stage. Minorities with poor English get hired before I do and Iâm certain I do a better job. I just called a local hr of a hospital and the lady told me you donât need any experience for the jobs. Funny all my life I needed a medical education and e lwrience to get hired by a hospital now they donât?
Had you done your homework, you could have applied to a company that had a history of hiring people like you, and would have been much less likely to give you that âoverqualifiedâ label.
Thatâs a ridiculous statement. How the fuck would you know the history of hiring people and what they were like. Youâd have to stand in their parking lot and follow people home and then interview them. RIDICULOUS!!!!
Stupid article.
Bob,
Thatâs a good question.
In How To Defeat Any Form of Job Search Discrimination, I said:
I have done just that and every companyâs roster looks like the film Loganâs Run (except that in Loganâs Run, the young people did not look quite so vapid and stupid â like all they âve ever done is play video games).
If the current roster doesnât conclusively answer the question, and before you go on to research a different company, do a wider LinkedIn search for former employees who might also fit the bill. If thatâs not conclusive and you still want to persist, try reaching out to some of the former employees to ask about company culture regarding midlife employees. Reach out first to ex-employees you have something in common with, if thereâs anyone like that. People part of the same âingroupâ are more likely to respond to each other.
Hello.
Interesting topic. Totally true: Iâm from South America and Im currently looking for a job (since july). I have the same problem here. I have 7 years of experience, Postgraduate degree, finishing a Master Degree. Iâve sent at least 40 cvs during the last 4 months, Iâve got 3 interviews but no job offer. I notice that when they call, the fist thing they ask is about my desired salary. One of them, told me that my cv was good, but they werenât sure about the salary: âwe offer $xxxxx amount. Are you sure it is ok for you??â. I said yes but they did not call back. I went to another company and I presented an exam, I think I did well, but I did not hear back either. Then I searched âthe bossâ cv in linkedin and I found out he had less education than me, and he was about my age. Maybe they though I was too old for the role . I donât know just guessing.
Iâm not enjoying it, it is a very sad and difficult situation, not being able to work.
Article is wrong on a few points.
Technically you are never overqualified for a job. That is bad to look at it that way.
You are either qualified or not.
So if you are fully qualified but a hiring manager does not want to hire you because you are too smart (not overqualified) for the job and they want to hire someone not as smart or dumber (this is a quantifyable metric by the way) then they are discriminating and you can sue their ass. Of course you will never get a job with them but they might settle a lawsuit for a few million
hiring is never black and white, unfortuantely. i was a victim of being overqualified myself. they told me that they just wanted someone who wants to be there and i need to go where i belong.
Thanks for sharing your frustrating story, Wendy
I have been told on multiple instances within the past six months or so that I am âoverqualifiedâ for jobs which I know require that level of expertise. Case in point, I was contacted by a recruiter about a position at a leading tech company near where I live that was looking for someone to drive global GTM efforts for a major initiative that impacted the company. The rate, while not fantastic, was definitely something I would consider and would be a huge win for me if I did it and did it well.
I submitted my resume and got it through their HR police, but then when the hiring manager saw my resume I was rejected because they wanted to hire someone that would find this position challenging. I suspect that the hiring manager for this role was very underqualified him/herself and was afraid that someone like me would make her look âbadâ by doing so well.
GIven the fact that unemployment rate is still rather low (far from full employment, but still), companies should stop using this as a crutch â especially larger, more prestigious ones which will give you a foot in the door when you might not be able to get in otherwise.
tl;dr â in many cases overqualified is simply corporate-speak for âlegalâ age discrimination. Remember for those of you readers that are in the US (canât say for Israel), people over 40 years old do qualified as a protected class and itâs only going to become more obvious as time proceeds.
Thanks for sharing your story, Tim. Hard to disagree with your take.
Itâs just BS. I would love to be one of those people with options. I have NONE ZERO OPTIONS BECAUSE APPARENTLY EVERY JOB TODAY REQUIRES THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO DESIGN AND BUILD ROCKET SHIPS. The only thing I think is rocket science IS IN FACT Rocket Science. And I tell them that in no uncertain terms. Itâs like, No I have not used Salesforce, but I have used 100 different databases like it. Piece O Cake!!!! âOh but, you didnât grow up with the internet.â
On the other hand, when employers sit there and complain that people do not have skills (like the ability to do basic math) and then turn around and tell me I am over qualified, it burns me up and down. They never specifically say what these skills are. I mean, I am sure I can even understand data analalysis with one hourâs instruction because I was really good at Social Statistics and stuff when I was in college. But because you havenât used the latest program dujours, you are considered an idiot. I could learn that program in ten minutes. But I canât learn all 500 of them in hopes that there is one job that uses one of them (that will not dismiss me out of hand because of my age).
I know there is no point in applying for any of these jobs because I wonât get it. I could spend the next 10,000 hours learning all of the latest things and I wouldnât get the job. I would be chasing something that is obsolete in a vicious game of whack a mole. I would rather spend ten minutes learning after I am hired. That is a more efficient way. But you canât convince all these stupid HR people of that.
I do hope that the terrible practices of business do finally cause it to implode on itself. Maybe try providing a decent service instead of making profits by buying a successful product, then gutting it and providing no customer service. It makes people disgruntled and angry.
I donât much care anymore because with any luck I will be dead within the year, but I sure hope the future is one big miserable $#!T $#0W and you suffer 1000X for it.
That is my hope for the future.
I feel you.
Donât give up.
At the very least, look for companies that are still using the older databases you do know and propose to consult or train employees for them. Medium to large companies in particular are slow in upgrading legacy services and thatâs your opportunity. In parallel, search for opensource projects that are aiming to help companies ween themselves off the legacy services, and contribute to those projects. Itâs win-win and a great way to attract employer attention.
Having made nearly 41,000 job applications (UK) I feel its time to quit and become a bum. So what keeps me keep going â because Einstein said if you do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result your off your trolley. May be someone out there can help. No not to become a bum but to find out whatâs going on?!!!
Frank, whether itâs 41,000 or just 41, thatâs a lot!
In the comments above, Iâve given a few tips on using LinkedIn to find people who should be sympathetic to your job search. Give those tips a try, regarding job leads or simply to get some resume feedback from people familiar with your skills.
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Regarding those who are afraid you will leave. I have been bashing my brains out for more than a decade trying to find a full-time job. Itâs not like I have choices. I donât care if I hated it and want to commit suicide every single day I will stick with the rotten job for as long as they pay me. I hate job hunting and would rather crawl over broken glass and barbed wire eight hours a day than do it.
I have not seen one company that is willing to hire anyone my age. I canât see who the competition is so I donât know if they have more skills than I do (judging by my skills relative to that of my former coworkers I would say that is not the problem). But recently I was interviewed by an extremely perky 25 year old girl who asked all sorts of canned questions culminating in the dreaded âWhat animal would you be.â I tried to laugh it off and answered it but I really wanted to punch her in the face.
Really, I am beginning to understand why the enemies of the United States feel the way they do. The country is run by a bunch of vapid, no class bimbos who never read a single book in their life who really believe that my answer to the animal question is going to determine my culture fit. The whole idea of culture fit is complete BS anyway. I hope to god all these Silicon Valley idiots do what they say they want to do build their own man made island and go live on it. Then hopefully some enterprising dictator (Putin) will drop an atom bomb on it.
Pigbitinmad: WINNER
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Average article, nothing insightful or even helpful. What I really found to be pathetic, however, is how you blamed the individual for the employer labeling them as over-qualified.
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I take great offense at your characterizations of recruiters as lazy and manipulative as a whole. Many candidates think it is recruiter that make hiring decisions; it isnât. It is the hiring manager that has the full and final say in whom s/he hires, so donât pin the blame on recruiters for âknowing who they want to hireâ. Our job is to evaluate, qualify and present qualified candidates to the hiring manager, then to act as the âagent of saleâ when it comes time to make the offer. And the hiring manager is the one that decides on the final salary, not the recruiter. You should get your facts right before you go lambasting tens of thousands of professionals.
Iâm so beyond frustrated. The recession changed everything and companies have very fixed policies which donât make sense as it doesnât always align to reality. What about special circumstances? Why is it not about being ready and able to work along with being qualified and end it there. But no, if you have all these skills we have to pay you more but what about folks that really need to work or young people who need time to build their careers. I can personally attest to this. I left a job due to a serious stress related illness (shingles) and developed severe anxiety and depression also. I found that working for a large firm on a higher level with more demands became problematic quickly. I resolved to look at smaller companies in lesser roles but each time was looked at as if I was crazy and not once got hired. The jobs werenâ there so people had to interview for others. People became disgruntled when they lost everything and were rejected so many times. Some people were happy to work in lesser roles. Companies even told me âThey knew I could walk in right then and do that job really well but I didnât belong there.â She told me her daughter worked for another organization and I should do that too just because I looked young and pretty. This is a hinderence too because they assume you are too soft or dumb or something. I was young at the time but Iâm not your daughter. Then I was told by The CEO that she didnât want a worm working their way into her company. I was just there to answer phones. They thought oh sheâs very talented sheâll have no trouble finding work..but if everyone thinks that way I wonât get hired. I keep getting passed over oh sheâll find something. I needed to work and could work well in smaller roles for smaller firms. They say there is no bias but there is, so I interview with hr but at the end of the day I;m not going to be working with that hr person each day so why does it matter. It matters to the team iâm working with so wtf HR. Iâve given up after at least 6 years. Itâs screwed up. I tried for years but finally gave up and now my career is lost. Iâve had so many temp to perm roles but companies were going under so I had to keep looking and they assumed Iâm a job hopper. Sometimes Iâd work two jobs at once and now my resume just looks scattered. Itâs just a piece of paper⊠Many hr professionals I interviewed with who judged me are no longer in those roles. Just saying.
I just want to add my two cents worth here because this morning I woke up to receive yet another email out of countless rejection emails mentioning the company has decided to spend its time on candidates that better fit its needs. Iâm interested in non-profit community service work, especially working with the homeless, those (ironically) plagued by under- and unemployment, and affordable housing. I have many yearsâ experience in each field and multiple degrees, with publications and national talks, in each. I used to do, as this article suggests, my homework on companiesârigorously researching fidelity to the companyâs mission statement, administration, culture⊠I networked on LinkedIn, paid handsomely to have my rĂ©sumĂ© professionally polished, learned about keywords and how to give my cover letter personal sparkle⊠But after a certain age, I simply stopped getting any bites. Even in non-profit community service, despite my history working with state and federal agencies and publishing in the field. Imagine my shock that organizations serving the highest needs communitiesâcommunities that desperately need qualified people working for themâshould cavalierly reject qualified applicants for reasons that have nothing to do with being able to get the job done efficiently.
Then, needing a job, I began applying for lower and lower wage positions. I removed first one then another degree from my rĂ©sumĂ©. I applied for positions working with homeless youths, rehabilitative care, HIV education advocacyâall well within my experience. I went back to school, spending thousands on multiple certificates to update my skillsâincluding unpaid internships. Invariably, either Iâd hear nothing back from the organizations I applied to or Iâd get the generic rejection above. Mind you, Iâve sought feedback politely from hiring managers (I never get any) and paid professional career counselors to review my documents. Iâve even paid two stylists and a social media company to manage my wardrobe, professional online photos, and my online presence. Nada. Zip. Zilch.
And yes, Iâve addressed succinctly and authentically with even near-minimum-wage positions Iâve applied for the apparent discrepancy between my professional history and the nature of the low-wage jobs Iâm applying for. Iâve let agencies know just why Iâm passionate about their organization (which I demonstrate deep familiarity with) and their target communities. Doesnât help.
Iâve concluded that there is a single underlying problem contributing to the inability of people like me to get jobs. There are simply far too many qualified applicants for every position. This means that employers can hire people they LIKE rather than the most qualified. Thatâs the soft-variable often categorized as âcultural fitâ and it comes dangerously close, too often, to discrimination. And all the online tips about how to get noticed or allay the fears of employers or⊠cannot address the fundamental supply-demand dynamic. Employers hold all the cards so feel empowered to do whatever they want. Neither degrees nor experience nor personal passion will win you a job if you just happen to be someone who, through no fault of your own, employers donât like. Just ask the over-40 crowd.
Abe â You said it in a nutshell â Too many qualified people applying for two few decent positions! This we have a phony low unemployment number with extremely high underemployment. Fortunately I guess ageism worked in my favor as my wife and I now collecting social security!
Larry, have you been looking at the hidden job market?
https://jobmob.co.il/blog/hidden-job-market/
I look forward to the day when job advice sites stop blaming job hunters for an employers poor judgement.
If an employer shows poor judgement in not hiring you, thank them for not getting hired by an employer with poor judgement.
The reality is that on the one hand, most job hunters never learned how to job hunt. On the other hand, many employers *also* never learned how to hire. Consequence: there will be a lot of poor judgement by employers â to their loss and job huntersâ â but itâs not a job hunterâs job to teach an employer how to hire. It IS a job hunterâs job to teach an employer to hire *them* however, so yes, the onus is first on the job hunter.
The reason I donât apply to the companies with a history of hiring people like me is that they donât exist. Itâs no longer enough to avoid youth oriented industries. Now boring jobs like banks, scholarly publishing and libraries are now only open to YOUTH.
I pretty much gave up on everything because I absolutely refuse to be a greeter at Walmart.
Spot On. Finding a gig that fits you like a glove is like winning the lottery. Best you can do is stay active in the field so you can pay your bills and not get left behind as your skills become dated. If you can do your bosses job he or she will not hire you. Times have changed. Jobs look for the people they need. Not the other way around. If you have a PhD in something you better write a book or two.
As long as a person is aware of the job they are applying for, there is no such thing as âover qualifiedâ. If I decide to be a door greeter at Wal-Mart next week (despite my degree in Engineering), thatâs my prerogative. Just because you have expertise doesnât mean you should be required to pursue jobs that match it.
Starting a business is often a very, very bad idea due to the prejudice that employers have with regards to people whoâve ran their own business but want to work again as an employee. People should only start a business if they know itâs going to be successful and/or itâs their passion. Itâs a massive risk and in most cases, wonât pay off.
Iâm Masterâs Degree educated and have ran a successful internet anti-piracy business for nearly 9 years working for over 20 music labels and distributors on a retained and non-retained basis. One of my clients is the largest independent music distributor in the world. Iâve project managed 10,000 albums and EPs successfully (some world wide Number 1 albums), have 20 extremely glowing client recommendations/testimonials on LinkedIn and as you can imagine, Iâve many transferable project management and account management skills. My business is still profitable although Iâm admittedly a one-man band and the most Iâve earnt in a year is $80k.
However, Iâve lost all passion for the job and want my life back as I even had to take work away with me on my honeymoon. Itâs now time for me to close my business because Iâm starting to really, really hate what I do and itâs interfering with my personal life far too much.
As a result, Iâve applied for over 100 Account Management and Project Management jobs recently (not related to anti-piracy). Iâve applied directly and through recruiters and took time to tailor all my applications. Yet, Iâve not a single phone call or acknowledgement by email.
Youâd think someone whoâs intelligent, diligent, self-motivated, entrepreneurial etc would be in demand and a person recruiters and employers would want to interview. Not so.
Iâve applied for jobs that I could easily do and yetâŠnothing.
Itâs really frustrating and I feel like my career is utterly finished at 37. I feel like Iâm on the scrap heap and itâs a pretty depressing place to be.
James â 37? Try 68 which is my age!
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I am a professional that has had to change employment as a result of a road traffic accident, fought for life to get back, retrained, reskilled, gained employment is changed dyscipline only to have a contract release my employment as the project had overspent.
I have gained now a suitable duration of employment to fulfil experience amounts.
I now sit here a tradesman, professional IT engineer and a Masters in post graduate science not knowing where to turn. Job centres for local work do not hold work which I am not too qualified for!! although willing to just work, no matter what it is.
It is quite ironic that it is heard on the news that our country is crying out for people with my skills but I cannot get work. Any thoughts are most welcome.
What an inspiring story, Matthew. Any employer would love to have winners like you, we just need to find one who is a good fit.
How have you been choosing where to apply for jobs?
https://jobmob.co.il/blog/why-target-companies-early/
I applied for a position that my experience checked all the boxes and even had a letter of recommendation from a C-suite employee along with my resume. My salary range was w/in a conservative range. I was then told I was overqualified and my salary range was too high. When in fact my base salary request was $20k less than the base. What do I need to think about this! This position is still open btw! I am 56 just so you know.
You need to let it roll off your back. Theyâre either lying or not taking you seriously or not good at their job, take your pick, but theyâre doing you a favor by signalling that youâre better off not working there.
Sadly, the fact that a position is listed as open doesnât mean a heck of a lot:
https://jobmob.co.il/blog/why-job-openings-reposted/
Keep your chin up! And focus on companies that have shown they hire people like you.
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Really, âThe âoverqualifiedâ rejection is usually avoidable.â
The reality is that if you get rejected this way, itâs almost always because you applied for the wrong job.
Two things wrong with your statement. Donât know how others submit their resumes, but I customize mine to match the job description and totally on the recruiter to not interview you if you are âover qualified.â Also had I done my homework⊠how do you find which employers have ageist cultures?
Thanks for your comment and question, e.
Sadly, most job seekers do not tailor their resumes each time they apply.
Regarding how to find which employers have ageist cultures, one way that I gave in đ„ How To Defeat Job Search Discrimination Today is:
Is it incorrect to believe that you are too smart for the position you are after?,,,,168 IQ and cannot buy my way into a job at dollar treeâŠ
I have yet to see a job description with an IQ requirement although Iâm sure thereâs one out there somewhere⊠Smart employers should always aim to hire people as overqualified as possible as long as they can afford them, because they are the most cost-effective hires.
Ultimately, getting a job is simply about convincing an employer you can do the job they need done. If you canât find a job, try to understand why youâre unable to do that convincing.
Are you applying to jobs youâre clearly qualified for?
I disagree that if youâre getting passed over for jobs this most likely means youâre applying for the wrong jobs. People need an income to survive. Of course, we would prefer jobs that challenge us and positions we can grow with. However, especially since research corroborates that discriminatory practices like ageism are rampant, many of us simply get to a point where we cannot survive anymore simply targeting âthe right jobs.â Pain letters, exhausted social networks, letters targeting key company figures, hired professional resume/portfolio consultants⊠Weâve read the advice and millions of us are putting the expertsâ advice into practice. But none of this guarantees success. In the meantime, we have to live so we have to work. Which brings us right back to where we startedâapplying for jobs weâre qualified for and amenable to doing.
As a side note, people might read the copious legal and other social commentary about the ongoing Facebook âcultural fitâ hiring discrimination cases. At least wide-spread company hiring discrimination is getting more publicity. Without the courts stepping in, however, I fear little will change as itâs both costly and difficult to bring these suits, let alone to win them.
Ari, the point was that youâre applying for the wrong jobs if youâre getting rejected as overqualified. It wasnât a blanket opinion about every job rejection. Companies arenât charities; itâs not their purpose to provide an income for people to survive (although they should care very much about their employees, I hope). Ageism is very real, I agree: https://jobmob.co.il/blog/job-search-discrimination/. And youâre right, nothing can guarantee success, you could be a perfect fit for a job and even the recruiter recognizes it but if their budget for the position gets pulled at the last minute, thereâs nothing you can do. The best you can do is to put yourself in the best position for success consistently and eventually your efforts will pay off.
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At 29 I am aware i am overqualified, despite me having qualifying factors fpr disability, for almost every job on the market. I never learned how to make a schedule. One of my applications had me take a quiz on how to fill a bossâs schedule as their personal assistant/secretary. I passed it with 100%. too easy. It has gotten to the point i have dummed down my skill list to less than 10 skills pertaining to that job, downplayed everything and put 2 jobs that lasted a short time. 62+ hours a week no meal break It hospitalizes you from burnout i would know. in my current area their hiring is mainly race based. Women of color are the most likely to get hired, followed by men of color, white men then white women. If you are a white unmarried woman with self confidence, are seen as overqualified to the point we have become the minority here. the only local job didnt pay me 96% of my pay. it is so bad that when a truck hit me while i was walking in the grass they refused to investigate because it was after 5 pm. All other places kept giving me the run around , the one place told me i was hired and told me to come in tomorrow for training and then not even 15 minutes after leaving i was told not to come in because they didnt have availability. was given the ruun around. you get fired if you are good at what you do. the employers know how good you are once you start working. I needed my lunch break for medical reasons to boot. My store manager for almost 5 years at CVS Cooperate was coming in and were praising me and yelling at him. The heads of CVS came in and said to the store and district managers in front of me Im amazing at my job and i should be making more than 5 dollars than what i was currently as of last year. i was making $11.72 an hour. I would have been making more than the narc. Shift manager store managers rating was a 1-3 on a scale of 1-10. 10 was a perfect score. ti was hitting mostly 9s and 10s. mostly 10s. i got like one 6. i got fired for this.
If this alone, the fact customers thought me as a speed way clerk was a manager or the 75+ skills and counting on my full skill list doesnt show how overqualified i am, then i dont know what does. I am one of those jack of all trades. me and my boyfriend cant keep living on his paycheck alone especially since i might be pregnant which he thinks i can keep a kid in my room till they are almost 10 because he also wants a room for himself. cps says no. we also want to escape his mentally ill mother with violent tendencies too but cant afford to with $700 every 2 weeks and 2 of up potentially a 3rd. he also wants to buy things that arent necessary. That said overqualified people need an income too. there needs to be more worker protections on this. The fact an entire County is like this is ridiculous. im not walking 3+ hours in one direction to work in th next town over. that would be out past the hospital which is about a 3 hour walk and is in the next town over. we dont have a car either so living without income due to being overqualified is excruciating for me. especially as someone who has for the most part been super independent most of their life. I even agree to work for way less than what i am worth just so i can get hired. Unless new sanctions of protections get put n place i can see this getting way worse in general. not just for me but anybody. It makes me feel so stagnant it isnt even funny. it has become a major annoyance in my life. i also have a spinal injury i got when i was 8 that nobody did anything about. i can easily pass out on the job due to other health conditions. i cant even get disability. it is rediculous i feel sorry for anyone who cant get a job because they are overqualified. we need income to live and survive. that is a fact. if we cant pay for our basic needs then we eventually die. that is basic survival. I was always taught if you have any of the skills that the job requires an employer will hire you if you have more qualifications than the next person. I got passed up by someone who never had a job in their entire life and they are 42. i got passed up for someone with zero skills were the lady said she wanted a job because she was bored and wanted something to do. I had qualifications. i got denied a printing job because i was too young. i had more qualifications than the people who owned the place. i actually had a certificate upon graduation for my training and samples of the projects i worked on. they were maybe in their early-mid 60s. aka it would be a few years but they could use a younger group to come in and take over before couldnt do it anymore. last i heard the partners all passed during covid for one reason or another and the shop has been emptied and has a different business filling the space. a bunch of the others in my class faced similar things. we were trained in graphic design and the usage of printing presses among other areas. im actually under qualified to be a store manager. the closest thing i could get interms of a perfect fit is a management in training or shift leads. that is where most of my skill levels are at. i cant get a perfect fit, cant get something im under or over qualified for either. the sad part is someone in their 20s and 30s are more likely to get booted before a 45+ year old who had a job despite not being able to do their job. the only exception to this rule is if you are a college student. a college student who never shows up for work still has a job after 6 months and gets paid while a non college student of the same age trying to pay bills would get fired for no reason. a person physicallu unable to do a job will get the job before an overqualified person. if you are underqualified or physically unable to do a job you should not be getting the job before someone who can actually do the job. it is sad what the job market has been reduced to. my condolences go out to those who face this struggle.