by marmalade

Created on: April 23, 2008

When applying for a job, be aware that being overqualified can actually affect your job chances (for worse or for better!).

It seems that when you apply for a low-skilled job, and your potential employer is aware that you have a qualification in which you have invested a great deal of time, energy and effort into attaining (i.e. blood, sweat and tears), that many will assume you will not take the job seriously and will only view a low-skilled position as a 'stepping stone' job. Others assume that you are merely a 'pen-pusher' incapable of a 'hard day's work'. And still others will feel threatened in general by any articulate, educated and informed people they meet, and as such will not be in a hurry to include them in their work team environment. Be alert to these factors.

Employers in search of committed, long-term employees will be deterred if they think you already have access to 'easier', better paid employment and are likely to at some time pursue that line of work. After all, if you have the degree, how long will it be until you decide enough is enough and start to use it so that you can enjoy 'the better life'? So that they do not waste time and money in training new employees who don't stay long enough to make the expenditure worth while, many employers prefer to employ someone who they know does not have access to (i.e. is not adequately qualified to do) anything 'better'. Employers who feel that in light of your education/qualification you are more likely to challenge their authority or way of doing things, are even less likely to employ you.

If you do have a tertiary education/ qualification and are applying for a low-skilled job (and think your education/experience will be a potential problem to your potential employer), omit your degree or qualification from your curriculum vitae (I know of an employment agency which recommends doing this). In addition, downplay your knowledge and experience. After all, what you're employer doesn't know won't hurt them.

By the same token, I am a teacher who once I got my degree chose not to teach. Instead I chose to be a private nanny. Aside from the fact that I was the only person my boss had interviewed who could "speak properly", definitely helped me get the job. When I learned that she highly valued education but didn't want her pre-schoolers sent to child care centres, I knew that letting her in on the fact that I had an Education degree was the right move. It definitely helped me to get the job, and put me in a good bargaining position with my wages.

So sometimes you have to play down your qualifications, and sometimes you have to play them up! Sometimes people are prepared to pay more for quality - even in comparatively 'low-skilled' jobs.

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