Over-qualified?

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

I've heard this as a definition as people won't hire you because you have too many certs, seeing you as using their job 'as a stepping stone' or just an excuse for some type of discrimination.

When I applied for Geek Squad, I was told I needed a A+ cert, and got one within a week. Then, they told me I was OQ.

Recently, my friend who has been unemployed for years, has gotten his A+, Net+, and CCNA. He worked as a repair tech for Comp USA till they went bust. In a recent interview, he was turned down for being OQed. This is a bit insane, given he would've taken any job, any rate, and have stuck there.

I may be ranting, but what is it with companies turning OQ techs down? They should be pleased that they have employees with more experience instead of monkeys with crimpers.

I'm pissed.

Comments

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

The problem is they want people who will work for monkeys with crimpers wages. Techs with enough certs usually won't work for that.

[hamsterhotep.livejournal.com]

Amen, sister!

[azleaneo.livejournal.com]

OQ people will know when a company is trying to shaft them (or customers.)

[celyste.livejournal.com]

I can tell you why our company used to do it. It was felt that the more overqualified someone was for a position, the less likely they were to stick with the job, have job satisfaction, be content to follow the prescribed rules, etc.

The odd one of us squeaked through (mostly becuase we were OQ in a different area, and they didn't realize that that meant we were likely to put in the extra effort in a new role and end up OQ again). That was what ended some of the silliness, they saw that some people just really wanted a job.

[kalium.livejournal.com]

It's a perception that over qualified people get bored.

I know I got massively bored when at a job I was massively overqualified for.

[emsporter.livejournal.com]

My better half is having this issue with, uh, practically every role he applies for at the moment.

[vortex.livejournal.com]

Yes!
I have been told the same thing.

Unfortunately, at the time, I was desperate and would have at least pretended to be satisfied with the positions.

Now, due to not being able to find an IT job/career, I have sworn off the IT industry as a whole and I am looking to get into something more fun and rewarding...

[vortex.livejournal.com]

I think it has become the De facto response (weather the person is over qualified or not) because it is the least likely reason to cause someone to get upset for being turned down...

[xanthrant.livejournal.com]

I seem to be in the same position.
I have been giving my previous career in restaurant/hospitality more of a look, but with a defined focus on brewing beer if I can get into an apprenticeship.

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

The Path of Least Liability?

[bynkii.livejournal.com]

The problem with hiring an OQ'd tech for a helldesk job, is that you pay helldesk wages. You know that within a year, the "OH THANK GOD, A JOB" will have calmed down, and they will want, legitimately, the money they should be getting.

that they aren'g going to get, not for a while.

because it's still a helldesk job, and that's what they're getting paid to fucking do.

For example, i've been interviewing people for an L1 helldesk job. every applicant had certs. don't care, certs are a waste of time. (If the person's good, certs don't matter, if they suck, certs don't matter) experience doesn't matter, logical thinking does.

Other things that ensured you never made it to the interview:

1) when we say PDF, RTF, or Plain text, that's not a secret code for Word, ODF, html files. Seriously, following instructions is important for this position. fail.

2) naming your resume "resume.filextension". Seriously, you're going to make me have to figure out a name for your resume? Fail.

3) Spelling's for suckers! Grammar? Fuck that!

4) I don't care what you do in your spare time, nor do i care about what church you go to. seriously.

5) REferences available upon request. When i open your resume, that's when i'm requesting them. making me work to find these things out does not make me want to save your resume.

the candidates...

Candidate #1 wants to be a dentist. But needs something to tide him over, until he can do what he really wants. No.

Candidate #2 fit the bill reasonably well, but could never answer the question you asked in the first 5 minutes of the reply. He got around to it, but every time? No.

Candidate #3 was monosyllabic, and I couldn't tell if he could actually talk. Talking in this gig is important, the job will become the 'face' of our IT dept. (So i can do "important" things like budgets! YAY!) No.

Candidate #4 would have been good, but came out of a $60K training gig, and really wants to do training, marketing, PR. these are all good things, but *I* need an L1 helldesk tech who is willing to learn how things work *now* and accept that the first year or so will be...well, a hell desk tech, but if they stick around, good things will happen. I don't need someone who wants to do anything but. No.

Candidate 5 actually knew something about the company, she was being, according to her, reasonably picky about who she applied to, because she didn't want just a job, but to hook up with a company that would show her loyalty too, and she wanted to do the helldesk thing, because she says she likes that kind of shit, and is nigh-eager to put the time in so that she can move into better things without having to change jobs.

dingdingdingdingdingdingding

She *wants the gig she's applying for*. that was huge, since, as an entry-level position, experience wasn't important. literally, "if you can correctly point to the computer most of the time, you have enough experience". The interviews were all about the intangibles, and she nailed every one.

sometimes, it's not the OQ that hurts you. it's everything else.

[amaena.livejournal.com]

#5 - really?

References on request always seems pretty standard to me. If you are running the hiring gamut, and putting resumes out there, why would you throw our peoples private information unless its actually leading to something? Dont you wait to contact references until after you have met the interviewee anyways?

Plus contacting the reference prior to being contacted by the employee to give them a heads up, I thought was de rigeur? Or perhaps I am out of the loop :)

"This has all happened before."

[tecie.livejournal.com]

IMO, Being deferred for OQ generally reflects an inflexible management position that you wouldn't *want* to work for. They don't want to cross train, advance from within, or let you have fun side projects. If they want someone specifically at their level or below, then they are not going to be open to change. Don't dumb down your resume for them... but do tailor it for each job.
I don't necessarily agree that there's a legitimate concern that you won't hang around. These days I would think that most companies don't give a damn about FTE longevity. I have yet to find an IT department that isn't experiencing some kind of shadow layoff or rolling hiring/raise freeze. Additionally, those in lower and middle management positions probably grew up in well past the era of employer loyalty. We've all survived the mass layoffs of multiple recessions and the joys of training our own replacements. No one has delusions that you're going to spend the next thirty years of your life at the company. If you leave, they'll just get someone cheaper, or someone on a different continent.

[vortex.livejournal.com]

A path of Lest Drama more likely.

I mean, who questions when they are told they are too good for the job?...

[jokergirl.livejournal.com]

I always thought it was just a fancy word for "You have all the qualifications we're looking for but we don't like you so we will make some shit up to not have to hire you".

;)

[vortex.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I thought as well!...

[vortex.livejournal.com]

Hah!

You and I think alike!

See my "the De facto response"/"Less Drama" reply above...lol!...

[jokergirl.livejournal.com]

Hehe, yeah, that exactly :D
GMTA!

;)

[tullamoredew.livejournal.com]

+1

_never_ have I run into an interviewer who expected to have reference letters attached to the CV

A good idea is to have the phone numbers of the referencees handy - showing readiness to produce them is a good sign

[tullamoredew.livejournal.com]

that's exactly it!

[tullamoredew.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine any good reason to consider A+ to be OQ for anything. Its a _very_ basic cert, fit for 12 year old PC store summer job kids.

[bynkii.livejournal.com]

If you put someone as a reference, they've given you permission to hand out their contact info to total strangers. I give them a heads up when I start looking, but as an applicant, it's my job to make hiring me as easy as possible. Making potential employers ask me for info doesn't accomplish that.

[bynkii.livejournal.com]

Certs are designed for HR departments who wouldn't know how to discern a qualified tech with a map and a qualified map tech reading it for them.

You can usually tell if HR has grabbed all hiring power in a company by looking at the job description for IT-related gigs. If they want a gob of certs, that's usually a sign that they aren't looking for good people, just people who look good.

[tullamoredew.livejournal.com]

this is an option, but not always the case

I currently work at a VERY technical company, which not only wants certs, but also a BA/BSc degree for absolutely every position.

the first two interviews were conducted by technical people, and only afterwards I got to talk to the HR lady

[donnaidh-sidhe.livejournal.com]

I always thought "overqualified" was code for "I'm threatened by the idea that you know more than me."

[xforge.livejournal.com]

See, what you missed was, you're overqualified BECAUSE you were able to complete A+ in a week.

[xforge.livejournal.com]

This also.

[mariasama16.livejournal.com]

Plus, how many of those "how to job search" type books/websites/etc all say to put on the resume "references available on request". I've always done it, never had much of a problem with it. Besides, handing out contact information to a few companies fairly far into the job search process is significantly different than handing out contact information to every company applied to, including the "don't think I'm qualified but applying anyways" type jobs.

My contact information is restricted access, especially in this day and age of identity theft and spam (and robo-callers... ugh).

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

you're right, I should've spent 3 months studying for it.

What was I thinking?

*headdesk*

Re: "This has all happened before."

[tuba-man.livejournal.com]

Option 3: nobody new gets hired and the rest of the team picks up the slack. :/

Re: "This has all happened before."

[tuba-man.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and by "picks up the slack" I mean "gets worked to the bone".

[tuba-man.livejournal.com]

Certs go double when you're at an IT consulting firm. I was first interviewed by the ops manager to ensure I actually knew what I was talking about, then I was interviewed by HR to ensure I could deal with helldesk-style tickets when required.

[tullamoredew.livejournal.com]

exactly. demanding certs has nothing to do with who runs the company

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

I've OQed myself by getting a grad degree while working at a helpdesk.

I was told at that point that I had "educated myself out of ever getting promoted."

Five years on, that seems to have been true.

[tuba-man.livejournal.com]

Heh, I managed to come across exactly the opposite of the way I meant to! :)

I was trying to say that since client companies aren't always tech-savvy, the tech team having certs helps make the client a bit more comfortable.

As far as hiring though, yeah, the certs weren't all that important.

[mordant.livejournal.com]

"I was told at that point that I had "educated myself out of ever getting promoted.""

So, in America, you are punished for attempting to improve your position in life?

Excuse me, what?

[redqueenmeg.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not exactly an American thing, really. I know plenty of people who got graduate degrees and have been promoted several times because of it.

The problem with mine was when I got it. I *finished* it while I was still answering phones at the helpdesk. Since I was still "just" Tier I, people would see the mismatch between my education and my job, and decline to interview me for anything because if that was the best job I could get with a master's degree, there must be something wrong with me.

I no longer work at Tier I but I have a job at the same level, and I've been at the same level since December 2001.