Some more observations on what means overqualified

Are you told you are overqualified?

Is your resume presenting you as overqualified?

If you are not getting interviews, your resume might be overshooting the "profile" of the job. Your resume might not be matching the duties, responsibilities and/or requirements for the job.

It is all about the match. And a mismatch can go both ways - under and overqualified.

If you get interviews, your resume obviously is working.

But overqualified means much more than just the mismatch.

Employers use interviews to get to know the candidate, the potential employee, better – who you are, what motivates you, what makes you tick. They are a chance to demonstrate that you have the right stuff. Think of them as sales calls. After all, when it comes to interviews, are we not all in sales?

"Overqualified” translates for them to mean you, based on your length of experience and past compensation, expect, and feel entitled to, a higher level of pay. And that you don’t have to justify why you deserve it since you have professional “seniority.” They are afraid that you will leave your position and the company as soon as a better offer comes along because you deserve more money, better benefits, and a better opportunity.

Be prepared with enthusiasm and even excitement to tell them why you want to work for them and how you will eliminate problems and add value. Without presenting solid and passionate evidence about how you will deliver each and every day, you are in danger of being seen as resting on your assumed laurels and coming across as arrogant.

Just because you have experience, perhaps even extensive expert experience, does not make you invulnerable to the pitfalls and problems of everyday work life. Even if you are the best of the best of the best, you still need to be doing your best always. Overqualified means you are presenting yourself as above it all and that very likely you will not try to do a better job of it because nobody does it better than you. And again you deserve top pay just because you are you.

As it’s been said in the circles of sales professionals, “you are only as good as your last sale.” You have to prove your worth. Be prepared to do so when you have that face to face meeting, that interview, that sales call.

Listen to their needs and tell them, show them, how you will deliver.


If you need to practice that interview, contact me.

Walt Tarrow
wtarrow@jvsdet.org

And check out JVS at www.jvsdet.org for job postings, seminars, events and more.

Join me and NextJobs~JVS Detroit on LinkedIn.

Interviewing Questions

So many questions, so few answers...

There are hundreds of job search books containing thousands of interview questions with suggested answers to help you prepare for your interview. Yet every interview you have seems to add at least one question you never heard before.

Here is a list of ten questions that a helpful job seeker emailed to me just today. The company provided him with these questions to help him prepare for his interview for a logistics/warehouse position.

1. How does our position fit in with your career goals and objectives?

2. What separates you from the rest of the candidates? In other words, why should we hire YOU?

3. How would your previous Supervisors and Co-workers describe your ability to be dependable?

4. Please give us examples in one of your previous positions that addresses your productivity level while still maintaining a high level of accuracy and quality?

5. Tell me about one of your previous positions that you enjoyed? Why did you enjoy working for that company? What are some things you would have liked to see change?

6. Please describe how you would handle the following situation: At 9:00 am the Warehouse Supervisor gives you several shipments that need to go out by 10:00 am. By (9:45 am you realize you will not be able to accomplish this and your Supervisor is nowhere in sight).. How do you think you might handle this?

7. There are times when we work without close supervision or support to get the job done. Tell us about a time when you found yourself in such a situation and how did things turn out.

8. When we talk about customer service, we often think about external customers or the people who are not part of our organization. Tell me about a time you were confronted by a frustrated ‘customer’? What did you do to resolve the situation?

9. Give me an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead on a project at work?

10. Listening is an important part of providing good customer service. Describe good listening skills. Please give us an example of a time when you’ve demonstrated good listening skills?

Question #2 is one of the two basic questions that are asked, in a great variety of ways, ultimately by all interviewers.

Those two essential questions are:
Why should we hire you?
Why do you want to work for us?

The number one reason that applicants lose interviews is lack of preparation.

And having, and practicing, good answers to basic interview questions is essential interview preparation.

What answers do you have?

What messages do you need to deliver at your interview to be a winner?

Be prepared to be a winner.

If you have any tough interview questions you would like to have some help with creating good answers, please contact me.

Walt Tarrow
wtarrow@jvsdet.org
www.linkedin.com/in/walttarrow
www.jvsdet.org

Follow me and JVS on Facebook and Twitter.

Ten Job Hunting Myths

THE MYTHS:

1. Without an excellent resume and cover letter, you'll never beat the competition and get the interview.
2. The best way to find a job is by using the Internet.
3. Resumes are screened to find the best qualified candidates.
4. If you are qualified and you apply, you deserve an interview. If you don't get the interview or even any response, you are not qualified for that job opening.
5. If you ask everyone you know to help you find a job, someone will find one for you.
6. It's not what you know, it's who you know.
7. If you follow up with an employer more than three times, you are being a pest. And pests don't get jobs.
8. If someone says "No" to you about a job, they mean "No."
9. To win the interview, you have to sell yourself by telling them how wonderful you are.
10. I can't find a job because of the economy. It stinks and the best jobs are going overseas.

LET'S GET REAL!

1. Most interviews come from initial contacts without a resume or cover letter.
2. The best way to find current leads is by using the Internet. The best way to find a job is by developing other leads.
3. Resumes are screened to find keywords and potential problems.
4. Being qualified is not enough. First you need to get noticed.
5. If you ask and expect everyone you know to help you find a job, you'll lose a lot of friends.
6. It's not who you know, but who knows and appreciates YOU.
7. Following up the right way is persistence. Following up the wrong way is pestering. And most leads become interviews after a minimum of 7-10 follow ups.
8. If someone says "No" to you after an interview, they very likely mean "Not now."
9. To win the interview, you have to ask questions, listen to the answers and tell them what they want to hear. Most people can't sell. They talk too much about themselves and don't listen to their customers.
10. There are always jobs for people who develop the right contacts, get involved in the business, and show employers how they can improve the bottom line.

Learn the right way and find the resources you need for your job search success at www.jvsdet.org and www.ParnossahWorksDetroit.org. Join us at NextJobs~JVS Detroit on www.LinkedIn.com.

You can reach me, Walt Tarrow, at wtarrow@jvsdet.org.

The Red Button

Help Wanted.
Red Button Pusher.
Must be ready, willing and able to push a red button.
Red button pushing experience preferred, but not required.


Hello, I am Bill. I am here to interview for the Red Button Pusher job.

Hello, Bill. I am Mary. Nice to meet you. Have you any experience pushing a red button? Red button experience is not required, but we would prefer if you had some experience with pushing a red button.

Well, Mary, I have a PhD in button design and technology. I have five years experience in the design, implementation, operation, maintenance, and quality evaluation of buttons. I have published several studies on the ergonomic application of buttons in a wide variety of industrial, military and medical applications. I have increased the effectiveness of button pushing for seven different businesses resulting in production improvements of an average of 47%. And after an analysis of your button pushing operation, I have determined that you will increase your profits by 17% if you change the color of the button from red to green.

That is very impressive, Bill. But you are way overqualified for the job. You probably want to be paid much more than we can afford and you would be bored very quickly with the red button pushing job. So thank you, Bill, but no thank you. Have a nice day.

But, Mary, wait, I really need this job! I am more than ready, willing and able to push the red button and I will work for nothing just to show you how hard working I am. Please! I just want a chance to get my foot in the door.

Sorry, Bill. Good luck.


So…was Bill being “honest” or maybe a little arrogant? If you tell them all about yourself without considering what they want or what is most important to them, then is it not all about you and not about them?

You be the judge.

No, wait, they already passed a verdict. You lost.

THE RULE
First and foremost, give them what THEY want…nothing more, nothing less.
You can always do more once you have landed the job.