Are you overqualified?

Many of those who have a higher degree and many years of experience found themselves in the list of overqualified and always don’t get the job.

You’ve been applying like crazy to jobs you know you’re qualified for. You’d be a perfect fit at each of these companies. You’ve stayed persistent and positive. Someone has to make a job offer soon, right?

But over and over, when you follow up, you hear devastating news: The position was offered to someone else. Or even worse, you don’t hear anything back at all. You’re crushed, confused and lost. You’ve spent hours perfecting your resume and writing cover letters, but nothing seems to give.

Don’t give up hope just yet. Here are a few reasons your application might have gotten overlooked, and what you can do to make sure your next one stands out. 

•  Your application got trashed — or overlooked completely

Employers go through stacks and stacks of resumes and cover letters at a time. This isn’t news. Yet you still write a grade-A boring cover letter. You haven’t made your resume bullets crystal clear and nothing about you other than your master’s degree or Ph.D stands out.

Or, you perceive your degree is enough for the job. That perception isn’t in line with reality (a.k.a. the job description and the skills required to complete the job). It’s time to get serious about self-evaluation.

Step it up. If you don’t have a professional portfolio, get one now. If you do have one, maybe it’s your online presence that’s putting them off. What!? They look at that? Uh… yeah! This is the age of the Internet.

Show your creativity, and share your voice. Go that extra mile and send in a pre-interview screening of yourself on video with your cover letter, resume and your online portfolio.

To stand out, show off your personality and always remember your application should be tailored towards the company you’re applying for. A less qualified candidate sometimes beats out an overqualified one because they’re more eager and have taken the time to move beyond the basic requirements in their application.

To learn from your past applications, ask the human resource manager what separated you from the applicant who got the job. You may discover that the guy or gal was less qualified on paper, but still had one up on you. See what they did better, and see how you can do the same in your next job application.

• You haven’t told the company what you can do for them

Employers are looking for the next great leader. And you aren’t it — or, you haven’t showed to them that you could be it. You haven’t proven you’re the one with that edge.

Just like individuals, companies have short-term, mid-term and long-term goals. To best understand the long-term goals of any company, start with their mission statement. Put yourself in their shoes and think about what you’ll need to do to help them reach these goals.

When you’ve created a solid outline for what you think they’ll need as employers, present yourself as the answer for both the here and now and for the future. Convey your desire to be there long-term and for a specific reason. Address this during your interview. If they don’t bring it up, make sure you do.

It’s much easier to stay confident, be genuine and smile your way through the interview when you’ve gone above and beyond to present yourself as the best long-term asset to the company. It also sets the tone that you will deliver high quality work when you land the job.

•  You’re nothing but a list of boring skills

Most employers look for something more besides the baseline skills required to do the job. You may think it’s unfair, but life isn’t fair. And there are no rules in this game other than the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) law.

To help a company succeed at great heights, you’ll need a lot more than just a highly specialized skill.

Check out the results of a recent study by Harris Interactive, which polled 2,076 hiring managers and human resource professionals from across multiple industries. They were asked if they had two equally qualified candidates, which factors would make them more likely to consider one over the other. This is who they’d be more likely to chose:

• The candidate with the better sense of humor: 25 percent, who is relaxed not tense , smile and easygoing.
• The candidate who is involved in his or her community, present lectures , good record and reference : 26 percent
• The better-dressed candidate, not overdressed : 20 percent
• The candidate they had more in common with culture, color, age, skills and attitude : 20 percent
• The more physically fit candidate: 10 percent
• The candidate who is more on top of current affairs and pop culture: 7 percent
• The candidate who is more active on social media: 6 percent
• The candidate who is knowledgeable about sports: 5 percent
• And then the technicality like are you belong to a union as they take you first if the place under union contract, are a threat to the manager or supervisor who might feel jealous to give you chance in fear of taken over their job and position , discriminations and predigest even if they don’t admit to it, and who you know : 9%

Even though these factors have nothing to do with the actual job skills, employers care about them. Some more than others, but all of them stand as the variables symbolizing the obstacles standing in your way from professional job searcher to professional .

How you present your application gets you the interview, but how you sell yourself in your interview is what lands you the job. Rounding out your character by mastering these variable elements may make or break your next interview.

Even if you’d made all of the mistakes listed above, the best lessons are learned from your failures. The successful often reach success because they were willing to strive longer and outlast the competition, while improving themselves every step of the way.

I applied for a job in a hospital close to my home , there need it 5 people and I have all what they are asking for and more . No one among the applicant has PhD and master’s degree in same field, no one can match my 35 years experience ,and skill set of general us is on top as from all 5 they hired no one do all the skills that include 1- GENERAL ABD, AND SMALL PART, 2 PEADS, 3- VASCULAR, 4- OBS AND PELVIS , 5- MSK, When I called the HR and ask why!!!they said because they are all transferred from places where controlled by Union!! and the best way for me is to apply as casual.I worked in near by clinic and i get many patients from the same hospital they come to me for MSK ultrasound because no one in that hospital is doing some of the MSK! So you have to be in the right place in the right time and try to make low profile CV also that tailored to the new place.

I found that 50% of the time the rejection come from those who are jealous and envy and afraid from your high education as it might be very attractive to the CEO and higher management to select you and that one day they will lose their jobs, Other aspects are to deal with your salary level and that you might be Mr knows all They forget that with higher qualifications come highly skillful person if he / she does have the experience behind it.It is all game of fear of losing jobs and fear of dealing with highly educated people. If i turn the table on them one day when they come to me for a job and then tell them you are under qualified ,they will say will i have many years of experience .They forget that high education can bring more knowledge and then i can get more quality work as they work smart before they work hard they will be efficient workers and have different models to resolve a problem. To sad we live in a world that most workplace do not care of higher education and see them as threat.

Writer:

Steve Ramsey, PhD- Public health,