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Your #Career : #CareerAdvice – Help! I’m #Overqualified — What Do I Do? ….In these Situations, your Context will Influence your Course of Action. Let’s Examine What you Can Do When you’re Considered to be Overqualified.

March 14, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Demonstrate how a role will help you develop, and show how you can be an asset, then don’t let a recruiter persuade you that you’re overqualified! Remember, you need to maintain your confidence throughout the process and let your resiliency guide you as you continue your search!

When it comes to job searching, we often hear how difficult it can be for recent graduates, who are somehow expected to have years of experience straight out of school, to even be considered for an entry-level position. What happens when the situation is reversed, and your years of experience begin to work against you? How can job seekers set themselves up for success when recruiters keep telling them they are overqualified for positions they’re interested in?

Hiring managers might challenge you by saying you’ll be bored and leave for a better-suited position, or your compensation expectations won’t be met.

In these situations, your context will influence your course of action. Let’s examine what you can do when you’re considered to be overqualified.

Situation #1: You’ve relocated or have been laid off

How to Respond: Highlight the win-win situation

Here, you must explain your motivation for applying to a position that you might seem “overqualified” for on paper. Highlight “how the organization can benefit from your experience, and how taking this position can advance your own skill set,” says Alan Zelnicker, executive recruiter. If the job scope is more narrow and the compensation is less than your old position, you must emphasize what you can contribute in terms of added value and what you can get from the role.

How to Respond: Make an important mind shift

Going into any interview, you should always project confidence and take on the mindset that recruiters are getting a great deal from you, rather than going in feeling like you’re overqualified for the job. You have to drive the power seat and never feel like you’re getting the short end of the stick. Instead, adopt the mindset that any company would be lucky to have you! Without seeming arrogant, remind recruiters that the learning curve involved with your onboarding will be cut in half, leaving you more time to learn the organization, and giving you a competitive edge!

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What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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How to Respond: Re-evaluate compensation

Managing expectations around compensation is a separate conversation. You need to be realistic and accept that sometimes you’ll need to take a step back. Whenever possible, make a direct touch point with the hiring manager over the phone to talk about compensation. This way, you can form a personal connection, and you can articulate all that you have to offer. As mentioned before, what is the win-win negotiation for you that makes taking a pay cut worthwhile?

Situation #2: You’re switching careers/industries

How to Respond: Highlight your new career path

It is not uncommon for people to switch industries or careers. In fact, millennials report switching jobs 4 times in their first 10 years out of school. When working with recruiters, highlight any new credentials you’ve earned to demonstrate your commitment towards this new path you’re taking. Emphasize your desire to learn and retrain to create a new path forward for yourself.

How to Respond: Emphasize the rudimentary

Though you may have 20 years of experience in one field, you must demonstrate to recruiters that you’re ready to check your ego at the door and learn about a whole new world. That being said, relevant and rudimentary skills can always be transferable and should be considered as your added value.

How to Respond: Know your worth

When discussing salary, make sure to mention that you’ve done your research, you’re aware of the industry standards, and are comfortable with what these types of roles typically offer.

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.” –Japanese proverb

What not to do: The worst thing you could do is tell a recruiter you’ll take anything just to get a job. Though this often may be the truth, people want to see that you possess the right enthusiasm and fit for the role. You must always sell your skills and highlight how you are the perfect candidate for the job.

Your resume: If you’re having trouble getting through the door and you think your resume might be the culprit, there are some workarounds to try:

If your resume demonstrates work dating back more than 10 years, consider consolidating your experience and only keeping what is still relevant today
If you have multiple designations and education, consider only keeping what is relevant to the job you’re applying for and removing anything that is redundant
Consider reformatting your resume in a way that tells a new story

If you can demonstrate how a role will help you develop, and show how you can be an asset, then don’t let a recruiter persuade you that you’re overqualified! Remember, you need to maintain your confidence throughout the process and let your resiliency guide you as you continue your search!

Stacy Pollack is a Learning Specialist with an MA in educational technology. She loves to share her perspective on job hunting, career building, and networking for success. Connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Glassdoor.com | March 13, 2018 | Posted by Stacy Pollack

Your #Career : Five Things To Do When You’ve Exhausted All The #JobBoards …If your #JobHunt has Stalled, Try One of These Tactics to Get Out of your Rut.

February 22, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

You’re scanning the job boards daily, but there just aren’t any new listings that catch your eye or fit your experience level. But you don’t have to let your job search grind to a halt just because the pickings seem slim.

There are a few other things you can do to keep things moving, even when there’s not much out there.

1. SET UP AN INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW

Informational interviews are underrated. The goal is to get a hold of someone who works at a company you’re interested in and just learn the inside scoop. They aren’t the one who’s making any hiring decisions, and maybe there isn’t even an open position there that you’re currently gunning for. It’s purely for research and networking.

After you’ve spent some time trawling job boards like Glassdoor, Indeed, and Monster, you’ve probably assembled a shortlist of employers that appeal to you, even if they aren’t hiring right now. And as career coach Sarah Vermunt put it recently, “If there’s an organization you know you’d like to work for, you’d be crazy not to try for an informational interview with someone who works there.” So, she suggests, “reach out to someone who is doing work that is similar to the work you want to do. That’ll give you a true picture of the work–the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

As you plan your next move, these informal conversations can arm you with crucial intel about where the market needs really lie, which organizations are thriving and which ones might actually be pretty toxic, and a few smart ways to position yourself for openings when they finally do crop up.

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Question: Want the ‘the best/current articles/blogs on the web’ on Job Search, Resume, Advancing/Changing your Career, or simply Managing People?

Answer: Simply go to our FSC Career Blog below & type(#career, #leadership, #life) in Blog Search: https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/

What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

Continue of article:

2. UP YOUR LINKEDIN GAME

This one is a no-brainer. When you send out a job application, you’re knocking on employers’ doors; when you optimize your LinkedIn presence, you’re inviting employers to knock on yours. Scan your LinkedIn profile for any incomplete fields, discrepancies, overwritten chunks of text, extremely basic skills, and meaningless industry jargon–all of those things are turn-offs to recruiters and need to go.

Take a little time to personalize your profile so it highlights what’s genuinely unique about your experience. For instance, if you’re a software engineer, your headline should specify what kind, and your skills field should list all the languages and coding tools you know. At the same time, balance out any the human side, too, so you don’t come across as a soulless robot with only great technical chops. Explain what you’re passionate about and what types of problems you’ve solved (and why those wound up helping your team, your organization, or your customers).

Specificity matters, but so do soft skills like emotional intelligence–no matter what your role or industry.

3. GO TO A NETWORKING EVENT

I know–everyone hates hearing advice like this. But when you’re coming up dry in your search for openings, it doesn’t hurt to hit up a networking mixer–even one that you know will be short on leads. The reason? When you’re looking for a job, you need to actively seek out opportunities to practice discussing your experience, professional goals, and passions.

So even if it’s pretty much guaranteed that you aren’t going to meet your next boss at that networking event, the exercise in introducing yourself to strangers and talking articulately about your career is a valuable one. Feeling iffy about it anyway? Grab a friend or coworker and make networking a team sport.

4. CHECK YOUR SOFT SKILLS

Recruiters are interested in your people skills, not just your technical know-how. As Susan Vitale, chief marketing officer for iCIMS, recently told Fast Company, “Hard skills are what you do, and soft skills are how you do it.” And some of the top capabilities in that category, according to Vitale and other talent professionals in the space, include adaptability, problem solving, and verbal communication.

Some job seekers who repeatedly get called in for job interviews but miss out on offers may find that they’re falling short on some of those key soft skills. It’s sometimes easier to nail down a candidates’ technical capabilities before meeting them; soft skills are harder to suss out. So giving recruiters and hiring managers reason to feel confident that you’re emotionally intelligent in addition to being a world-class marketer is one way to get a leg up when new openings finally do get posted. In the meantime, take a few minutes to dial up those soft skills on your resume–here’s a handy formula for figuring out how.

5. CHANGE YOUR THINKING ON JOB-SEARCH DEADLINES

One of the reasons a long, mostly fruitless job search can feel so frustrating is because the outcome you’re looking for–a really great job offer–isn’t something you can bring about all on your own. No matter how badly you might want a new job by next month, there’s nothing you can do single-handedly to guarantee you’ll get one by then. As The Muse’s Alison Cardy explains, “When you tie a deadline to something that’s not within your power, you set yourself up to feel defeated if it falls through.”

Looking out for your mental health is crucial at times like these, when positivity can be in short supply. One trick Cardy suggests is rethinking the way you’re setting goals and deadlines as a job seeker. So commit to sending out 10 job applications over the next two weeks, for example, or to grab coffee with three contacts by the end of the month. “By connecting the deadline to your personal efforts,” Cardy says, “you give yourself the opportunity to feel successful just by meeting it–and that confidence boost can mean a lot during a tough search.”

FastCompany.com | February 22, 2018 | Rich Bellis