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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Apply for positions over qualified for?
I have been applying my asss over these last 8 months. Unemployment stinks and I am trying to minimize my time living in it.
I was a manager/Communications Director at a private country club handling membership sales, written and oral communications with members, prospects, vendors, equipment contract negotiations, writer/editor of newsletter and weekly emails etc.
Lately, I've been applying for executive assistant positions, admin assist, hell I've even been applying for bank tellers, sales etc.
I had a friend help me revamp my resume and told me that I'm not getting responses from the admin jobs because I am overqualified and they wouldn't want to take the chance of me leaving when the market opened back up.
My initial thought was just to get in the door and prove that I can do so much more. She said that since I'm in my mid-40's, that old thinking doesn't apply as much. It works for someone in their 20's etc.
Am I wasting my time applying for jobs I'm overqualified for? I'm still going to because I can't find enough "qualified" jobs to fill my unemployment requirement. Just curious.
I was a manager/Communications Director at a private country club handling membership sales, written and oral communications with members, prospects, vendors, equipment contract negotiations, writer/editor of newsletter and weekly emails etc.
Lately, I've been applying for executive assistant positions, admin assist, hell I've even been applying for bank tellers, sales etc.
I had a friend help me revamp my resume and told me that I'm not getting responses from the admin jobs because I am overqualified and they wouldn't want to take the chance of me leaving when the market opened back up.
My initial thought was just to get in the door and prove that I can do so much more. She said that since I'm in my mid-40's, that old thinking doesn't apply as much. It works for someone in their 20's etc.
Am I wasting my time applying for jobs I'm overqualified for? I'm still going to because I can't find enough "qualified" jobs to fill my unemployment requirement. Just curious.
Re: Apply for positions over qualified for?
Well, would you accept a salary appropriate for someone less qualified than you? Would you expect to be paid top dollar for a low ranking position?
It's kind of case-by-case for me. When I'm looking at resumes, I often toss out over qualified people. Not because I fear they will leave when the job market opens back up, but because most of the time they expect to be paid for an EA position when they applied to a Receptionist position. Even when they have been unemployed for months (and one particular woman, over a year), they expect to make top dollar. It's just not possible, so most of the time I don't waste my time or theirs.
If the gap isn't all that large, I will give the applicant a call. I am always sure to ask within the first few minutes what their salary expectations are, to avoid wasting time if they want more than the position warrants.
tl;dr I don't think it's a waste of time as long as there's the opportunity that it will pay off. I've helped a handful of people get jobs they were over-qualified for. Some of them left, some of them are still there, and still some found opportunities for advancement within the company.. So IMO, don't stop! It's not a total waste of time.
I think the challenge isn't that you are OVER qualified for these positions, but that you simple AREN'T qualified.I would see you being over qualified for say a Marketing/Sales assistant. You're applying for jobs totally outside of your industry. So while, they may be lower level jobs, you don't really have the proven skill set for them (based on the info you provided, it's entirely possible you've served in these roles before).
If I'm hiring a for a bank teller and get a resume from someone who was in Marketing/Sales it would be pretty clear to me they are just trying to get a job, and not actually interested in banking (unless there was a clear direction in the cover letter). Therefore I anticipate they will take this job and then continue to look for something in sales/marketing. Thus, I've taken resources to train them only for them to leave, when I could just hire someone who has a career focus in banking. I would think the same for an executive admin. From what I know about exec admins my company has hired in the past, is that they are usually VERY accomplished and this is a career for them. Not a stepping stone to something else in the company. In fact we could smell those who were looking for a stepping stone a mile away and aggressively screened for that.
I'm in marketing and was unemployed as well for several months. While I of course applied to several jobs, I also spent a lot of time marketing myself. I took on some pro-bono clients so my skill set was kept up (non-profits, some small business that I did trade with (free haircuts, free meals). I also maintained a blog and established connections through LinkedIn, offered to speak for various organizations, etc. Can you spend time focusing efforts on those activities as well? It will probably get you a lot farther then applying for admin positions.
I'm in your same boat. Been unemployed 7 months now. At first, I was very selective but now I can't find enough jobs that are "the perfect" match to apply to. So I have been applying to jobs in the field that only ask for an AA or like 1-2 years of experience. Sometimes they list the salary, sometimes they don't. I'm willing to take a pay cut to just get back to the routine of going to work. This unemployment lifestyle is literally killing me. It's a heck of a roller coaster ride I don't wish upon anyone.
To be honest, it just comes down to knowing someone or getting lucky. It's a bad time to be out of work. I have friends who have good and stable jobs with decent salary with just their high school degree. I get depressed thinking that going to college and 11 years of experience in the field has gotten me to nowhere but I read the news and it seems to be a common theme.
Take a look at the salary and if it's a pay cut you can take then I'd go ahead and apply. Once you're in the job field, you might be able to have more options. At least that's what I think.