You may find yourself applying for positions in which you have much more experience than required. It could be because you’re not finding jobs that you are qualified for, or that you want to take your career in another direction. Either way, employers may look at you or your application with skepticism and think you will be bored or leave as soon as a better opportunity comes along.
In order to get them away from that line of thinking, try the following:
Do:
- Only list responsibilities on your resume that are relevant to that position.
- Reconfigure your resume to highlight skills and not experience.
- Be honest about your qualifications, but make sure not to seem frustrated by the position.
- Write a flawless cover letter explaining your situation and why you would make a perfect fit in that company. This may be your best defense and a way to get your foot in the door.
Don’t:
- Leave things off your resume completely. Instead, tone down and limit responsibilities.
- Say, “Well I really couldn’t find anything else, so that’s why I’m here.” Let the company know that you do want to work for them and you think you can bring a lot to the position. Give examples of how your qualifications can improve their business.
- Let them think you will leave if something better comes around. Assure them that you are in this for the long haul.
- Go into the interview without preparing to be asked about your rich experience. Prepare to be questioned about why you want to take what may perceived as a step down in your career.
In a competitive market, being overqualified can be daunting. Stay confident and be sure to compliment the company by letting them know it would be an honor to work for them. If you do get a job that seems a little beneath your skills, don’t fret! Use this opportunity as a way to get in with a company and move your way up their corporate ladder.
About Kim Costa
I graduted from Timbo highschool in Timbo , Arkansas in 1995 . Then I had a summer job working for Ozark blueberry Inc. in Onia , Arkansas. I unload trucks and put blueberry in the cooler and went to college at an of camps class offered by Ozark technical college at Timbo highschool . I tooksummer one and two . I worked at the blueberry shed during the blueberry season . Then I wennt to college for 2 year . I have 27 hours college history and I took English comp. 1 and 2 . ThenI quit to help me dad with his bussiness he had a backhole until he died in 2001 . Then I helped take car of my Grandma until 2004 . Then I did odd jobs until 2005 when I started working at Nordix farm I worked there for 2 and a half years . I cleaned stalls and helped finish the horsebarn . Then I quit there and started working at Royal Oak enterprises I start there on March 1c , 2007 and I quit there on April 02 , 2012 . Worked in the bagging shed and serviced the loaders and service all the belts and exhuast fans .
Hi Ronnie – Thank you for sharing! It sounds like you have a good amount of experience under your belt. Do you have any questions I can help you with?
I have often seen applicants at my company not get jobs because they were overqualified. In this job market though, I feel there are many applicants who are applying for jobs they are over qualified for. An over qualified employee may be more likely to stay in a position because of the slow economy. Do you think employers realize this and are hiring more overqualified workers than in the past?
Interesting, Joko! We have seen it go both ways. While hiring someone who is overqualified may mean you see a higher quality of work, it also means that they could leave as soon as the market picks back up. This is a risk that some employers are now taking. But, we also hear from many job seekers who feel their years and years of experience are being overlooked for those who are less likely to leave once things recover.
I’m a stay-at-home Mom trying to find part-time jobs so that I’m still able to pick up my kids from school. With management experience in a big city corporation, I’m over-qualified quite often, and It’s really hard to convince employers that that is all I want! I went on an interview where I think the questions were all centered around the suspicion that I just wanted to get my foot in the door. I didn’t realize it until afterward, and suspect my answers could have been better as I didn’t get the job! Too bad because the job was close to home, the kids’ school, and the perfect hours.
That is great Gregory!!! Good luck on your interview and please keep us posted with how it goes. P.S. There may be a spokesperson career in your future
Excellent News Greg! I knew you would do well. Praying for your continued success. Signed, the Florida girl.
Copied and pasted from the “Don’t” list above. You expressed the statement below. Is this really what was meant or am I reading it incorrectly?
?Let them think you will leave if something better comes around
Thank you for clarifying.
Hi Carol – Sorry that you are confused. Because it is listed on the “Don’t” list, the statement is something you definitely don’t want an employer to think you will do. Many employers think that over qualified candidates will leave as soon as things pick up and may offer the position to someone with lower qualifications. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
The whole problem is that too many employers shouldn’t THINK so much!
Thank GOD I no longer have to deal with this crap.
So what is the deal then, when you actually want to work for the company but because you have a couple sets of letters on your resume, and the job says hs graduate? I want to work with Amtrak but after the first set of interviews – nothing! I thought when the interviewer asks ‘ you get promoted alot don’t you’, was a good thing; not to mention that the interviewer writes ALOT on your interview app – that was good right?
Hi there! When you say “you have a couple sets of letters on your resume”, what exactly do you mean? Also, be sure you are double and triple checking your resume and applications for any spelling and grammatical issues. Did you follow up with a thank you note after your interview?
Hi Kim.
I gave blood for a BS in accounting and more blood for a MBA in marketing! I say I gave blood because they were both online and I had to do it without the classroom help! I applied but got no replies – frustrating! I changed my resume arond and yes checked for grammer issues. I did send an email thank you to the hr manager that i had contact information for, and called the other to ask about the interview and how i could do better; the others I had no information to send them to
Dear Kim Kovac:
Is it possible to delete my previous posts from this site? At this time I do not wish to have these comments posted on the web. I do however appreciate your response. By the way, I did find a job four months ago! Please email me if you can help. Thank You for your time and consideration.
No problem Gregory! I have deleted your previous post. Congrats on the job!
I’m having a slightly similar problem.
I have a bachelor’s degree in Japanese language, and I’m wondering if that is holding me back on a number of these jobs. There aren’t any jobs in the area that really have any need for the language, and until I can actually make some money, I can’t afford to relocate to a place that does require the language (HI, DC, WA, et cetera). The other two languages I’ve been dabbling in – Russian and German – are also pretty much worthless in this area.
I don’t really make a big point of it when I’m filling out resumes, I simply include it where necessary, (IE, highest education area).
Do you think it would be better to not specify what language, by putting a ‘Foreign Language’ Degree instead of Japanese? I don’t really want to mislead people into thinking I speak Spanish by putting Foreign language alone, but in the same breath, twenty applications a day is starting to get tiresome.
Thought there is a bright side – I know all my information at this point well enough that the only thing that really takes more than five minutes are the devastatingly annoying questionnaires.
I think my greatest job search down fall is that I see myself as being too old to get hired. I am 56 years old. My second thing I need to know is how to state why you were let go if you were let go for dumb reasons. (I was doing stock and and the box that I was taking stuff out of was still on the floor and others came back in the stock room and said it was a safety hazzard.)