Are you overqualified? Why You may not be hired
with
Moruf Kolawole Nasir
(Experienced HR professional)
nmkolawole@gmail.com; jarushub@gmail.com
One, ordinarily, will think that recruiting overqualified candidates is to the advantage of the employers, that in fact, recruiters will be very glad to have an applicant who is more than qualify for the job, which means a capable hand to handle the job. The story is however always different from the recruiters’ point of view. If a position for instance requires a School Certificate or an Ordinary National Diploma holder, a BSc applicant will naturally feel he/she should have upper hand in getting the job, at least being a graduate should be a plus to him/her.
Unfortunately, the recruiters for some reasons decide otherwise. In this piece, we will attempt to identify 8 of the reasons why recruiters don’t hire over qualified applicants. In doing this, we will, in this week edition, present two real life scenarios for your comments and contributions before we address the 8 reasons one after the other in our next edition.
First scenario: At a developmental training programme organized by the Nigerian Institute of Management in 2012 (the participants included an array of Human Resources Practitioners and Business Managers from many top companies in the country), one of the participants (from NNPC) presented a case his department was handling as at that time. They had openings for four OND graduates with engineering background.
When application started trooping in, they got more Bsc applicants than OND or even HND holders. The team went ahead with the recruitment process and during the selection stage, they identified some BSc holders who appeared to be perfect matches for the job. Because the jobs required OND holders they were constrained. They were to either hire the Bsc guys (who appeared best for the job) or select best candidates among the OND applicants. Knowing what employment situation in the country is, they contacted the BSc guys and told them the requirement of the job and why OND graduates were preferred for the jobs.
The condition is that the incumbents of those positions can only rise in their career to a certain level, irrespective of how long they stay in service, and that in future some junior BSc staff will meet them and even become their superiors because they cannot rise beyond a particular level. All of them accepted the conditions without any hesitation (After all being a gateman in NNPC is far better than working as a management staff in many companies in Nigeria today, and many graduates will gladly jump at gateman’s job in NNPC, let alone working as an engineering staff).
On hearing the case, most of us, at first, said they should consider the Bsc guys; giving that NNPC is a dream place to work in, irrespective of the conditions attached to the jobs, coupled with the unemployment rate in Nigeria. But after a proper analysis of the pros and cons of hiring them, we all agreed otherwise. You think we are wicked chei? Keep a date with JarusHub to know the reasons why we decided otherwise, and why recruiters generally avoid hiring overqualified candidates. Meanwhile, keep your comments coming.
Second scenario: I got this from interesting scenario from DISCOVERY – “Sam Fischer, a 55-year old senior human resource professional for a mid-sized financial services organization, was laid off from his job in early 2009. He was unemployed for 18 months and then reluctantly accepted a mid-level human resource position for a biotechnology company. In his new job he had far less responsibility and was earning about 25 percent less than in his previous job.
He reported to the Vice President of Human Resources, the position he used to hold. Sam was hesitant to accept the position but was anxious to be employed again and desperately needed the steady paycheck and benefits. His new employer knew that Sam was overqualified, but liked Sam and believed he would succeed and eventually be happy. Less than a year later, Sam submitted his resignation. He had had enough. He confided, “I am doing things now, like disciplining employees, that I haven’t done in 20 years when I was new to the field.” He left, even though he had not found a new full time position. He was going to do some consulting work while he re-launched his job search”. – Source: www.DiscoverySurveys.com/articles Always remember “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn”.
Always remember “In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn”.
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