You are in the process of looking for a job. During the search you find a recruiter who is interested in helping you land a job. The recruiter provides you with several potential jobs.
You are now focusing on tailoring your resume to each job. Upon completion the recruiter sends the resume to the hiring managers, hoping one of the hiring manager’s will select you for a prescreening interview.
Your recruiter contacts you letting you know one of the companies is not going to move forward with your resume. The reason they provided “you are over qualified “.
You start to ask yourself the following questions:
What do you mean I am over qualified? How can someone be overqualified if they can perform the job requirements? Why someone would not be able to have an opportunity to go through the next level of interview, if they meet the criteria for that position and more?
You would like to understand why a manager would pass on someone that can perform with minimum supervision.
Would it be in the best interest of the company to look for under qualified individuals knowing the manager is going to spend most of their time training them? Watching to make sure they are doing the job properly daily. Taking time away for them to do their job? At the end of the day, there is a high possibility that an individual will leave within 90 days after being hired, because they were expecting something different when they applied for the job.
What could be the real reasons behind it?
Is your resume so overwhelming to the hiring manager, that sometimes it is better to tone your resume down?
Is the hiring manager reluctant to hire someone with a strong background, that could overshadow them?
Is the hiring manager looking to hire someone with less qualifications to pay a lower salary to save money? Remember you get what you pay for.
Is the person screening the resume the hiring manager? Most of the time you have someone in HR that will prescreen the resume. Unfortunately, some of those individuals do not know in depth the job requirements or what the hiring manager is looking for. Opportunities can be easily missed.
What can you do?
Provide your recruiter with information that will help him/her to go back to the company and argue your case on your behalf. If the arguments are compelling the hiring manager/HR person will push your resume to the next round of hiring process.
A word to the wise before you decide to label someone as overqualified for a job.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Can this person perform the job with minimum supervision?
Am I feeling intimidated by the candidate’s background?
What am I really looking for?
You could be pleasantly surprised if you give a chance to interview someone that has a strong background. That person could be the right fit for what you are looking for.
During this process leave your ego out of the equation go with your guts