Shift In Thinking

The mysteries of Human Resource offices every where never cease to amaze me. Armed with their resume scanning software, preliminary phone interviews and multiple rounds of in-person interviews they predict who the best applicant is for specific jobs. Often these are jobs they’ve never worked themselves, or in my opinion even fully understand when it comes to jobs in entertainment, but they have been given a list of desired skills needed to fulfill the position and that’s enough for them. Is it really enough?

Time after time I have been turned away, watched friends and family turned away for jobs we might be over qualified for but desperately needed when facing unemployment or dissattifaction in the job we held at the time. Despite being perfectly qualified we were each sent packing due to an HR representative believing that our over qualification should be a reason to rule us out. Asking those in HR why this is a common practice frequently earns us the same answer.

It’s thought that those who are over qualified for a job won’t be happy once they actually receive it and therefore in the end they will leave after very little time of service to the company forcing the hiring process to begin all over again. Being someone who cut her pay by two thirds and took a title demotion to take her current job, I say this isn’t always the case. I have now worked longer in my current role, despite a significantly smaller paycheck and title change, then I did in my last one that provided me with a hearty paycheck and a glorified title because I love what I’m doing more now than I did previously. I felt like I sold my soul for a paycheck in my last job and now I go to work each day loving what I do.

I know several others out there going through very similar experiences, so that raises an interesting question. When economic times changed, why didn’t hiring practices change as well? With so many talented people in the work force being laid off in the last five or so years as companies are forced to downsize, why do they they have to lie and remove things from their resume to be considered for new jobs they would normally be seen as over qualified for?

The last time I had a conversation with someone about altering resumes, a very astute gentleman pointed out to me that in the world of academia the more qualifications listed on your resume the more prestigious you are. It’s funny how academia celebrates your accomplishments and the workforce can see them as a hazard to hiring you. Seems that it’s time the workforce considers making a shift in thinking to match the ever changing economic times or continue losing applicants that are truly an asset to any company.