Have you met or used the excuse of "overqualification" in your career? What's your opinion with that in a recruiting process?

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FallMonkey

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After receiving another "overqualification' and "your resume is intimidating" (Solomonb, you're prophet :p ) as the reason for rejecting, which might be my 8th or 9th in the past few months since my graduation, I really started wondering about this issue.

As a new grad without hands-on experience, in no world I would expect myself to be overqualified for any entry-level positions, either in construction or engineering. And that must be the truth since I already struggled so many months for my first job; otherwise I'd worked a dozen of weeks. Yet a lot of them (mostly construction firms) would tell me that, after I did a not so bad interview and told them what I was capable of in terms of engineering and construction field. "You know this software, you know that AIA contract, you've designed this, you've done that.....kid, you're too good to work here".

Also I do understand that this might be only a mercy from them without saying that “other people are better”, since my lack of experience is very pale compared to those experienced candidate. But I still wish to know from you professionals, what is your thought when you tell someone, or hear from someone about being overqualified for a job? Do I really have to cut my qualification off my resume for getting a job nowadays?

Any response is highly welcome and below is a general version of my resume (not tailored for any specific position, which I always do). Thanks.

Resume-Tianlong Li-Civil.pdf

 

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When I was trying to move from Georgia to Colorado ( recently) I hit that a lot... It was probably a little different but a lot of people looked at my résumé and said, you'll come out here, work for a few moths and then find something better.. Which was probably a little true....

But I did end up dumbing down my résumé just a tad so that I would look more like the position I was applying for...\

Yours looks like a typical new grad. these are my personal thoughts so dont take them personally though.

I would drop the GPA part for a regular job no one cares, if your applying for somethign in academia then list it.

You coursework starts out listing construction law? what was your focus? transportaton, strucutural ,etc? put those first

also if you dont have real world work (job experience for $$) list your softwares that you know at the top, under your education, and stick to the ones that have to do with enginering (A-cad, Microstation, Strudul, inroads, etc strucutral design software)

Your school project expereince doesnt list a specific "product" or delivereable, even if it was a fake project put the name and type of bridge, 2 lane, 4 lane, lenghth, what software did you use to design it? Was it LRFD or ASD? etc? try to make it like a specific product you would design for a clients.

for example you listed"

Discussed and established the essential safety standards and contract provisions by reviewing the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project and conducting analysis of its RFP documents as well as design-build contract.

This sounds like you sat around in a room drinking a coffee and talked about the bridge issues, but it doesnt say what you actually did, submitted, etc?? What was the name of the report you submitted for your grade?

& unless you are applying at a place with a need for those other languages I would simply state that your are fluent in english.

If you are taking the EIT soon, I would list that in there somewhere...

Good Luck

 
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Road Guy said:
When I was trying to move from Georgia to Colorado ( recently) I hit that a lot... It was probably a little different but a lot of people looked at my résumé and said, you'll come out here, work for a few moths and then find something better.. Which was probably a little true....

But I did end up dumbing down my résumé just a tad so that I would look more like the position I was applying for...\

Yours looks like a typical new grad. these are my personal thoughts so dont take them personally though.

I would drop the GPA part for a regular job no one cares, if your applying for somethign in academia then list it.

You coursework starts out listing construction law? what was your focus? transportaton, strucutural ,etc? put those first

also if you dont have real world work (job experience for $$) list your softwares that you know at the top, under your education, and stick to the ones that have to do with enginering (A-cad, Microstation, Strudul, inroads, etc strucutral design software)

Your school project expereince doesnt list a specific "product" or delivereable, even if it was a fake project put the name and type of bridge, 2 lane, 4 lane, lenghth, what software did you use to design it? Was it LRFD or ASD? etc? try to make it like a specific product you would design for a clients.

for example you listed"

Discussed and established the essential safety standards and contract provisions by reviewing the Tappan Zee Bridge replacement project and conducting analysis of its RFP documents as well as design-build contract.

This sounds like you sat around in a room drinking a coffee and talked about the bridge issues, but it doesnt say what you actually did, submitted, etc?? What was the name of the report you submitted for your grade?

& unless you are applying at a place with a need for those other languages I would simply state that your are fluent in english.

If you are taking the EIT soon, I would list that in there somewhere...

Good Luck
Click to expand...
That's a lot of nice comments indeed. I'll start a major revising then. By saying dumbing down the resume, what did you do at that time to dumb a resume down, like taking away a work experience or listing less years?

 
Only include background, experience, and education that fits the job you're applying for.

An extreme example, I won't list my PE (or probably even my Bachelor's degree) if I apply for a job at Walmart.

 
To address several points you made there:

-Yeah I was thinking about dropping my GPA since really no one cares about that at all, and some people had negative feedback about that, literally.

-In my school the difference between construction management and structural engineering (the only two focuses) is minimum, with only three different courses, thus I list out the special one first followed by some general one to reflect the mixture. For specific position, I’ll list some other courses, either structural, or construction for matching the description.

-Only Autocad, SAP and Timberline fall into that category and it might look very odd for using one whole section, in my opinion.

-The senior design project was indeed sort of the administrative and contractual side of the engineering. As I listed in the resume, we read through thousands of pages of contracts and RFP documents to compare them to the standard AIA and other given form of documents to see the difference and write a report discussing how those difference could be used in our design project, which is done by the whole class and four other teams are dealing with the designing part. The structural design project could use some improvement to emphasize the product of projects.

-Usually I only include that language section when I apply for companies that perform internationally but I did use it as a filler some of the time. I will need to think about the alternative to fill in that blank.

I appreciate your suggestion and this would definitely help me become less overqualified and more qualified in my subsequent job seeking.

 
Dexman PE said:
Only include background, experience, and education that fits the job you're applying for.

An extreme example, I won't list my PE (or probably even my Bachelor's degree) if I apply for a job at Walmart.
Click to expand...


But what about the blank is too much after getting rid of those poorly relevant things. And as you can see, the issue is that even after an interview I would still be rejected because of so called overqualification. That is where I'm confusing and trying to work around now.

 
I think if your out of school with little engineering / construction experience then you cant really "dumb it down"

I wrote that before i read your resume (which overall is really nicely put together by the way)

So you need to expand anything you have done school wise , project wise to make it look more real world like.

What kind of jobs have you been applying for if they are saying your are overqualified? Are you applying for jobs that don’t require a degree? If that’s the case they may be afraid that once they hire you you will not stay that long..

Also – I typed that info pretty fast and it sounds crude but don’t take it that way, just a busy day today!

As someone who worked a lot in college I like seeing the ‘regular job” on a new grad resume. To me it makes me know the person isn’t afraid to do some real work..

 
Oh your comment is very critical and useful and I'll never take it as some crude reply. Your kind suggestion is well received, you have my word on that! Thanks for appreciation and I did once ask myself "oh really that bad resume?" and had a tad moment of discouragement, which was totally blown away after reading your recognition above.

And like you said, absolutely I'll have a hard time trying to dumb my already "dumb" resume down, instead of expanding the resume and replacing some of the filler with more solid words.

Most of the jobs that turned me away because of overqualification are just as your expected, not looking for degree and mostly looking at experience and people to stay with them. That's my current understanding of "overqualification" since I've managed to talk to several HR in detail and they told me that they want someone to be at that position, for years, and for no ambition. "If I want an estimator, I want that guy to enjoy working as an estimator for 5 or 8 years or even longer, and I'll pay him accordingly."

Regarding that “regular job”, since I’ve listed all of my work experience there and I understand that it’s not regular and very school-ish, that’s probably the best I could do. I might be able to further emphasize the communication and leadership skills I practiced in those jobs, to very limited extent. Hell I’d love to do some real work now.

 
Jobs are hard to come by. I'm surprised that you get any feedback, even "overqualified". If you can afford it, see if you can get an intern position through your school for a few months.

You can also just hit up some places you'd like to work and offer your services for a few months as an intern.

It has been true for at least 50 years. Employers want you to be a PE, MD, JD, CPA, PhD, with 25 years of experience and pay like an intern.

Or, they'll tell you that you are overqualified, assuming that you will work there for a few months or a year, then leave. Some places are perfectly happy to hire good talent for a short time. Universities and government will often hire with a resume like yours.

Good luck.. You can also try a head hunter/recruiter.

 
Dexman PE said:
An extreme example, I won't list my PE (or probably even my Bachelor's degree) if I apply for a job at Walmart.
Click to expand...


I made that mistake when i was out of work. Dex speaketh true...write your resume for the position.

 
VTEnviro said:
You did work on the new Tappan Zee? We all joked that's what we'd all be working on after college, and that was in 2002. How far along is it?
Click to expand...
They finally collected all people together and gonna start the real construction.

project-timeline.jpg


 
Interesting the number of people here that say don't list your GPA. I've interviewed about 50 people in the past year and it's the first thing I look for. If it's missing I automatically assume they are trying to hide a low GPA, unless they are 10+ years out of college.

 
Low GPA doesn't necessarily translate to the position.

For example, my first 2 years in school I was a chemical engineering major. Year one, it didn't matter because everyone takes essentially the same classes. Year two however, I found myself in way over my head in a discipline that I just didn't get, and consequently almost failed out of school. I changed majors halfway through my 2nd semester of my sophmore year to Civil engineering where I flourished. Some of the classes I took (and barely passed) as a chemical enginnering major was transferred to my new major. I ended up with something like a 3.0 "major" GPA, but only like a 2.2 overall GPA. In the end, I was in school for 5 years, but only 4 of those translated to my actual degree.

That is why I didn't list my GPA.

Additionally, graduation is a "minimum competency" standard just like the PE exam is. A PE is accepted whether they needed to sit 5 times or only once. Graduation should be accepted whether they needed 7 years or only 3.

 
Dexman PE said:
Low GPA doesn't necessarily translate to the position.

For example, my first 2 years in school I was a chemical engineering major. Year one, it didn't matter because everyone takes essentially the same classes. Year two however, I found myself in way over my head in a discipline that I just didn't get, and consequently almost failed out of school. I changed majors halfway through my 2nd semester of my sophmore year to Civil engineering where I flourished. Some of the classes I took (and barely passed) as a chemical enginnering major was transferred to my new major. I ended up with something like a 3.0 "major" GPA, but only like a 2.2 overall GPA. In the end, I was in school for 5 years, but only 4 of those translated to my actual degree.

That is why I didn't list my GPA.
Click to expand...
This is almost verbatim of my undergrad experience as well. Only I started out in software engineering. Until I got to object-oriented Java. :puke: My GPA tanked and it was an uphill struggle to bring it back up. My core GPA was fine, but my overall GPA suffered because of the rough start I had in a major that wasn't suitable for me.

For those that don't have actual on-the-job experience, you really only have your GPA and class projects to stand behind. For those that have good experience, that is more valuable and GPA is probably irrelevant at that point.

 
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In my experience, government jobs usually require you to list a GPA, but many private sector jobs do not. My resumes for government jobs always include it, but I leave it off resumes for any other purpose. Most employers will want to see a transcript if they are really interested, anyway, and that has all the detail necessary. And yes, I have worked for a few managers who look very carefully at transcripts, even down to the level of refusing to hire someone who did poorly on a pet subject of theirs. That experience got me into the habit of checking transcripts more carefully, myself.

 
  • I wouldn't list a GPA unless it was very good.

I wouldn't list coursework unless it's graduate -level work. Engineering curricula are identical across the country.
Being overqualified for a job is a real thing--some managers just need a junior guy to come in cheap, do the menial tasks and take direction. They don't need a senior engineer to argue with every g.d.f'ing thing they tell him to do for six months while he looks for a better job.
The only way you could be overqualified as a new grad is if you are applying to non-degree jobs, which you should be doing only as a last resort
 

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