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This is one of the issues I’m asked about the most during our weekly live webinars.

“They are not hiring me because I’m overqualified.  I have excellent experience and advanced degree, but I’m willing to take a lower-level position.”

Understand the Concerns of the Hiring Authority
Employers hesitate to hire a person who is overqualified because they believe the person could be bored or unhappy.  As a result, they feel you will quit the minute a better paying opportunity with more responsibility presents itself.

Examine why you are willing to take a step back.  The response, “I need a job!” will not endear you to an employer.  You must effectively explain why a demotion is a good option for you.

Examine why you want the position. You must use your communication skills to convince the hiring authority why a demotion is a good option. You must create a reasonable explanation.

Some effective explanations could include: 

• “My extensive travel has cost my family time for years.  It’s important to me to accept a position that involves far less travel so I can spend more time with my family.”

• “When I review my job history, I was the happiest and most fulfilled when I was hands on in operations, not when I was managing others.  This is the reason I’ve decided to focus on an operations vs. management position.”

You need to show why it makes sense for you to accept what seems to be a step back in your career.

Don’t Water Down Your Resume
If you are not honest about your abilities, you might end up accepting a new job that is not a good match for you.  Most employers will take advantage of additional skills you bring to the table, once they feel comfortable with your level of interest.  Often, you start in a job that is a step back but because of your abilities, you end up being promoted to a position with more responsibility and compensation.

Don’t Appear Desperate
If you appear desperate to take ANY job because bills are piling up, you will not get hired.  If you say, “I’ll accept any job, just to get my foot in the door” you will often be eliminated from consideration.  Hiring authorities want to hire the most competent person to perform the responsibilities of the specific job they have available.

You need to show a high level of interest and a high level of confidence in your ability to transfer skills from past jobs into the current opportunity.  It is your job to show the skills you possess that are transferrable, not wait for the hiring authority to figure it out for themselves.

Customize Your Career Summary and Cover Letter
Your resume will be screened out if you have not customized it to fit the opportunity offered.  This is different from dummying down your resume.  You don’t want your cover letter to state you are seeking a management position, when the job you have applied for is NOT in management.  This is one of the most common mistakes made by job seekers.  If an automated system is initially screening resumes and the key words are not found in your career summary – you will be screened out before an actual person even reads your resume.

Often “Overqualified” Is Another Word For “Too Expensive”
When an employer sees twenty years of experience and they only require three, they are convinced that you are out of their price range.  All employers have hiring budgets, and it is rare when they can go above the salary ranges set by management.  If you are willing to take a cut in compensation, it is up to you to explain this to the employer, before you are screened out.

It is important to have an agenda for each day of your job search so you can focus on the priorities most important to you.  You don’t want your email inbox to determine the level of results you will achieve each day.

Beware of your inbox!  It is often a simple organizing system for other people’s agendas.  It is easy to wake up and spend the first couple of hours each day answering or screening emails – but is that really allowing you to focus on priorities most important to you?

Before you even open your computer, take time to identify your priorities for the day and what you need to do to be the most productive in your job search.  I’m not advising you to avoid your email, I’m just suggesting that you identify your top priorities first and answer your incoming mail no more than two to three times each day.

Sitting behind a computer is easier than attending a job fair           - but not as effective
Sitting behind a computer is easier than networking calls               - but not as effective
Sitting behind a computer is easier than informational interviews   - but not as effective
Sitting behind a computer is easier than direct marketing yourself  - but not as effective
Sitting behind a computer is easier than following up by phone      - but not as effective

There are many incredible resources within our Career Portal that we want you to utilize, but these activities must be in line with your top priorities.  You can work very hard on your job search without results.  It’s time to get selfish with your time and only complete actions that give you the best chance of scheduling interviews that could lead to a job offer.  Don’t allow your job search agenda to be controlled by anyone else but YOU!

To your successful career search,

May 10th @ 8:00 AM PST

It’s up to you to make it EASY for an employer to find your resume, when searching through numerous resumes submitted online.  Most employers scan resumes (spending only a few seconds reading your resume) and write down the resumes that stand out.  This helps them focus only on the job seekers who have the skills and experience they need for their opportunity.  Once they have done this for a few days, they then go back to the resumes to either print them out, call the job seekers or re-read them more thoroughly to see who to schedule for a job interview.  This is why it is CRITICAL for you to list your name and position title that you are applying for when you name and save your resume as a word document for attaching. 

Here are some good examples of how job seekers have saved their resumes: 

• John Smith - Engineering Resume
• Mary Dunn – Executive Assistant Resume
• Mike Taylor – IT Specialist
• Tony Nelson - Paralegal

Saving your resume like the examples above, makes it very simple for hiring authorities to find your resume. 

Here are some bad examples of how job seekers have saved their resume: 

• Resume
• Resume Version 3
• Resume  Version 5, no pic 
• Foxy Lady Resume
• New Resume
• Resume Doc
• John’s Resume
• My Resume

In all of these bad examples, the hiring authority would have to open the resume in order to figure out whose resume was attached.  Often hiring authorities will open and take action on the resumes that are easy to find.  They also favor resumes that list the title of the job that they are offering.

May 3rd @ 8:00 AM PST

It may be time for you to focus on one company at a time in your job search.  Select a company you want to work for and do as much research on them as possible.  Customize your resume to fit their company culture and needs.  Study past and current projects the company is involved in and show how you could help with those projects.  If possible, complete some free research or work for them showing proof of your talent.  Express the reasons you want to work for their company and your high level of confidence.   This type of focused marketing of your abilities may result in scheduling more interviews that will lead to job offers.  The minute you have completed your first target, you repeat the same process for the next company you have targeted.   Hiring authorities will appreciate your extra effort.

We are extremely pleased to announce the addition of Alison Rodgers to the Enginuity Advantage team! Alison comes to EA with 15 years of extensive human resources and recruiting experience. She embodies our same passion for helping people and we are confident that her energy, drive and expertise will prove to be a great asset to those that we serve.

During our weekly live Job Seeker Training Webinars, the question came up about HR or Hiring Authorities asking Candidates to Log in to their Facebook accounts during interviews, or asking for their username and password for Facebook.  The following article was published by Ladders and addresses this exact topic.   This information will help you if and when you find yourself facing this situation.

“What to Do if a Company Asks for Your Facebook Password in a Job Interview”

How to protect your privacy in a job search

March 27, 2012
By Joshua Waldman

Imagine you’ve been on the job market for about six months. You are paying your mortgage on your credit cards at this point. Your unemployment benefits are about to run out and your job prospects remain dismal, no matter what you seem to do.

Finally, you land a killer opportunity, pass the phone screen and show up to an interview with a hiring manager. Just as you think you’re about to close the deal, she spins her computer screen around and asks you to login to your Facebook account.

What do you do?

This is common enough that it now has a name:  shoulder surfing.  According to Lori Andrews, a law professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law specializing in Internet privacy, this practice is “coercion if you need a job”. Not to mention the violation in Facebook’s privacy policy, albeit unenforceable.

Facebook’s official statement is that shoulder surfing "undermines the privacy expectations and the security of both the user and the user's friends" and "potentially exposes the employer who seeks this access to unanticipated legal liability."

The ruling, made by the FTC in May, 2011, was that companies can use social media information as part of a background check but this information must be available from public databases. In other words, strictly speaking, it could be illegal for companies to use private social media information against you without your consent. (I say could be because I am not a lawyer, I just pay attention.)

However, there are some cases wherein this type of deep probing could be deemed appropriate; for example law enforcement or defense. In this case, it would be easy for the employer to defend their request to access private data as it pertains directly to the candidate's qualification to perform the job.

But when Justin Bassett, a statistician based in New York, was asked for his Facebook password he refused. And so should you. Many states are already in the process of introducing legislation against this practice, and if you live in Illinois and or Maryland, such legislation already exists.

It’s important not to focus on job titles when you are conducting your job search.  There are often many different titles for the exact same job and level of responsibility.  Also, don’t be afraid to apply for a job with a new or different title.  Some of the fastest growing fields like environmental, green, energy or IT positions have their own set of job titles.  Many of these new positions could utilize your past experience, education and talents.

Focus on the description of the job and the credentials required by each position.  If a job sounds interesting and you have the credentials listed, apply without hesitation.  Many of these growing fields offer quick advancement potential and additional responsibilities once you have proven yourself. 

Quite often, if you have the credentials needed, jobs are created around your talents and abilities.  That is why it is so important to NOT reject possible interviews because of a job title.   Nothing happens until you get yourself in front of hiring authorities.  It is not uncommon for hiring authorities to refer job seekers to other hiring authorities or departments within their own company.

Your job as a job seeker is to interview as much and as often as possible.  If you get in front of enough hiring authorities, you will eventually find a job and job offer that fits you perfectly!

Your secret weapons during a conversation or interview are the questions you ask to reveal the priorities of the person you are addressing. Many times an informal conversation is utilized to screen candidates in or out of the interview process. When you ask questions to determine what is most important to the person, they have an opportunity to focus on their needs and wants, which often makes them like you more. The end result is that you get screened in!

During our live Job Seeker Training Webinar this week, we were asked to explain how to most effectively utilize the resources within our Career Portal. There is a 16 Step Process for finding a job that has been separated into the following three phases:

Date:  Monday, February 27th Time:  12:00pm EST (9:00am PST, 10:00am MST, 11:00am CST)

Why should someone hire you over another job seeker with similar experience? What can you say that another job seeker can’t? Hiring authorities want to hire someone who is going to make them look good. They are judged on the performance of the people they hire, which is why they hire job seekers who stand out. You can’t just restate your resume during conversations or interviews. It is important to stress your accomplishments and the impact those accomplishments had on your past employers. Hiring authorities assume you will do the same for them, because they realize most people are creatures of habit. You need to write down why someone should hire you and practice stressing what you did better or faster than the person you replaced. If you ever saved your company time or money, those are the best results to share. If you don’t toot your own horn, you may get screened out. You are not bragging, you are showing your potential employer why you are the person who will make them look good.

February 23rd @ 8:00 AM PST

If you are not getting the results you want from telephone conversations, interviews or follow up calls, it may be time to record yourself. Think of the times when a family member has called you and immediately asks you “what’s wrong?”, because they picked up something in your voice. Something as simple as smiling when you talk can project a different impression on the phone. It may not be what you’re saying that is preventing you from finding a job - it could be how you’re saying it.

Please join us for this free webinar:

Take time today to review your resume and your cover letter. If you were a hiring authority, would you clearly understand the opportunities you are pursuing? Is it clear what industry or profession you are targeting? Would you be impressed by the accomplishments you have achieved and the impact they have had on past employers?

Join next week's webinar:

The Caucuses have kicked off the political process in this Election Year. Historically, elections are great for job seekers. The party who is in office will do all they can do to create jobs to be re-elected. Opponents will focus as much energy as possibly drawing attention the unemployment rate. The campaigns of both parties will pour millions of dollars into the economy and again this is good news for you!