Overqualified for the Job: Why am I getting rejected?

What if your experience and high qualifications put off an employer?

Tim Miller, an expert at ResumeUniverse, talked about the reasons why employers sometimes stay away from highly qualified staff and how job seekers can change the situation.

“My experience is even broader than the requirements and functionality of the vacancy, why am I getting rejected?” – this question is very common in the practice of staff consultants quite often. Everything becomes obvious when you look at the situation through the eyes of an employer.

Lack of interest

First of all, the employer thinks – will you be interested in working in a position that you have outgrown. Boredom and, as a result, leaving for a more attractive job will bring the company more expenses on finding and training a new employee. It is easier to hire a specialist with work experience that is appropriate or even slightly less.

It isn’t easy to switch from being a manager to the position when you are managed. It can be very demotivating for a new employee.

Exceeding official duties

The new specialist will have to try not to fulfil the duties of his colleagues, which he used to do himself previously. Violation of other people’s boundaries can cause tensions in the team.

Salary increase

The more a specialist can do, the more extensive his experience gets and the bigger salary he wants. Most companies are not willing to overpay. After all, other employees are already working on these things.

What to do?

So, if you’re interested in a position that involves less work experience than yours:

• Prepare to do just this part of your current functionality with full dedication for at least a year. After all, even with very successful work, you will not receive an increase immediately.
• Make your resume tailored to the job. First of all, indicate the functionality corresponding to the vacancy. Other functionality, even if it took no less part of the time, delete or reduce to 3-5 items and place at the end of the list.
• Think about the answers to the questions: why are you interested in such a transition? What are your benefits in this case? What will motivate you to work effectively?
• At the interview, do not deviate from what is written on the resume. Talk mainly about the work experience you need for the position, do not describe yourself as a universal specialist who is ready to replace the entire department, even if you can easily do it. Offer the company exactly what it needs at the moment!

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