Overqualified applicants!
 

Hi all,

At the moment going through the process of shortlisting candidates for a role where I work. It's a support position that requires some specific skills/experience but is basically a job most degree educated scientists could do - mostly science content. It's not badly paid (range $48K - $58K depending on experience etc.) but it will never go past that level. Compared to the other staff in the small unit it's definitely a junior position.

We were expecting newly graduated scientists to apply - hopefully with some related experience - but this is summary of some of the 22 applicants we got;

4 individuals with Physics PhDs
3 Civil Engineers (either masters level or 10+ years experience)
1 individual with a Mathematics PhD
3 individuals with Mathematics Masters degrees

The remainder were (as we were expecting) science grads with limited experience (although we had a guy with a Cert II in tourism...).

ALL the 'over qualified' applicants are migrants - overseas qualifications with PR status!

So my dilemma is - do I employ someone totally over-qualified for the job who is likely taking the position to get some Australia experience and will probably/possibly move on once they've been here a while? I know myself the frustration of being refused a job due to being 'over-qualified' so I don't want to dismiss them completely without interviewing and explaining the role (and how bored they will probably be).

However, we want this role to be long-term (as it requires a fair bit of specialised - but not complicated - training that I don't want to be repeating every bloody year/6 months!)

I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I will interview 2 of the Physics PhD applicants (most closely related experience), 1 of the engineers and 1 of the Masters Maths applicants as they are all somewhat closely related in their experience - but I'll also look at two of the science grad applicants.

I expect I'll have to make very clear the limitations of the role and how dealy dull it would be for an experienced researcher/engineer! If they take the role once offered i guess that's their perogative!

So really, the point of this long post, is that I can't get over how many well qualified migrants there are unemployed and applying for basic work. Is there a lack of work in engineering/research/whatever it is physicists do? Or is it the 'Australian Experience' factor?

What's it like where you work?

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

Not possibly, definitely.

Here's something to consider. How much money does it cost to hire one person, taking into account cost of advertising, man-hours worked, time etc?

Do you want to be repeating the process and incur the costs again in 6 months time?

With a lot of migrant applicants, there is usually a reason why they are out of work. The most common being their English language skills.

As a side note, how many are from India? If I were to guess I would say that 90% of the migrant applicants are Indian.

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

Or they are just shit at their job.

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

I've experienced a similar thing recruiting for admin/project officer roles. It's hard when senior project managers apply, but part-time roles in particular attract some incredibly impressive resumes. Not just a PR thing - .

I also have personal experience of applying for jobs and been told I'm overqualified - even when I've made it clear I'm happy to take a drop in salary etc due to the fact that it would be a job I love. Young graduates may well be on their way soon enough after getting experience. In a past job, it needed 90% of expensively trained ICT banking trainees to leave within 2 years for more interesting opportunities to convince mgt to consider all ages for our training scheme

There are so many reasons why people apply for a job, not just as a stepping stone. Personally if I was going to discriminate, and cared about tenure I'd go for someone who really wants the job, is clearly competent but wants to step back a bit from the rat race....

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

Yeah, I don't want to go through the process again anytime soon - I'd love to fill the role, train them up and let them get on with it! It's an expensive process and very time-consuming. However, I think I'll give a few of the over-qualified applicants an opportunity in the interview and just see what I think.

Actually, only 2 applicants were Indian - others were Iranian, Chinese, Pakistani, Saudi, Polish and German! A few of the graduates were also International students (some looking for sponsorship - which we won't be doing).

I don't usually deal with recruitment - it's only a small unit - so I was very surprised by the number and education/experience level of the applicants for a 'junior' role!

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

They have to get a job before they can be shit at it. :p

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

This is the way I'm starting to think - we do have one applicant who's been a stay at home Dad for a year and wants to re-enter the workforce. The position is quite flexible so might suit him and he has relevent experience etc.

I will also take a lot of consideration from how they all are in the interview process - personality is a major consideration in a small unit!

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

It could also be the case of how the role was advertised and it wasn't clear as to the seniority of the position.

Who wrote the ad, HR?

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

No, we did - it's pretty clear! We also had a specific position description and there couldn't be any confusion. That being said we got an applicant applying who did an apprenticeship in Baking and has worked at Brumby's for 3 years who thinks he would be perfect for the job....

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

True.

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

We recently advertised for 2 medical secretary positions. One of the applicants was a physiotherapist and another was an overseas trained doctor.

However, don't discount the overseas trained graduate degree option. I know a woman who was a dentist in Philippines for 10+ years before emigrating to Australia. She coudn't be bothered to retrain and sit the exams again so decided to be a secretary instead. By all accounts from her coworkers and boss she's very good at what she does.

Oh, and any medical secretaries in Perth looking for work?

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

My main criteria is that I want part-time work. Real part-time work, not 30 hours instead of 37.5/40. If the job match my qualifications that would be perfect, but I can't do full-time. It's also very difficult breaking back into the workforce after having kids and studying.

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

I am a qualified junior school (y3-6)teacher and special needs pre-school co-ordinator with 8 years experience of the latter, but I needed part time work, and my English qualifications would need ratification- a long course, and being inspected, and forking out a small fortune only to find that I could not be employed close to where I live, so now I'm a childcare worker, earning peanuts. I'm also 50, so didn't want the hassle of doing a course to qualify me AGAIN.

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

I don't believe that at all.

I have applied for jobs that I am over qualified for before, because I liked the sound of the job! At some times in our lives it is nice to take a step back and have some routine, especially if you have just moved half way across the world and just want to feel settled without the stress of a more complicated job!

Re: Overqualified applicants!
 

I have toyed with the idea of doing a job that I am over qualified for, but it is really difficult to find such a position. At one point I even changed my past title from CFO to Finance Manager :lol: still they can see through it, seems like trying t take a step down is just not allowed. :(

People in my team have been recruiting recently and I have attended some interviews, I am absolutely appalled by the standard of some candidates. I quite literally have had people that cannot string a sentence together in English. I don't care how any qualifications they have, if I cannot hold a conversation it isn't going to work.