Hiring "Over Qualified" ?

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hockeyoligist2

Senior Member
I have been asked to help screen resumes for an I&E position at work, one of the guy's is retiring.

Out of 1,000 + resumes.......About 80% are electronics engineers that are unemployed. No field experience.

Correct me if I am wrong, no hard feelings if you do.

I'm thinking..... They may not work out.

They are used to an office job, Probably about $25,000 cut in pay from their last job, this job only pay's about $54,000.

They have no hands on experience. It is outside work mostly, heat, cold, rain, sleet, snow, really bad odors, get sewer byproducts on you regularly.

If the economy improves, I think they will jump ship.

The only people that I see fitting in are still employed.

Give the unemployed a break? Or go with my gut feeling?
 

charlie b

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Lockport, IL
Occupation
Retired Electrical Engineer
IMHO, there is no such thing as "over qualified." A person can do the job, or a person can't do the job. Whether the person might also be able to do more than the job requires is not relevant.

The only concern in your list that is worth consideration is whether they might jump ship, if something better comes along. So the question to ask a candidate, once you establish that they have the ability to do the job, is whether they are willing to do the job.
 

Cavie

Senior Member
Location
SW Florida
I always get asked "You have a license, Whay don't you have your own company?" My answer is "Been there, done that, don't want to do it any more." Many people get tired of the office 9 to 5 and BS that goes with it and are very content work in the field. Give 'em a try.
 

kingpb

Senior Member
Location
SE USA as far as you can go
Occupation
Engineer, Registered
For what it's worth: (BTW: absolutely nothing:D)

Hire the person that you feel is most qualified. The rest is speculation, and you have no idea what the person will or won't do.

Money isn't everything, so the motives may be better retirement, good benefits, guaranteed hours, sick of office, none of which you will know, or can ask.

Possibly utilize a probation period of 30 days or something, so that way if it looks like they arn't working out, you don't have a big HR issue in letting them go.
 

johnofny

Member
You never know what the reasons are for someone wanting the job they are overqualified for, are they desperate, and going to leave the first chance they get, or are they looking for a change, less office work, responsibility, etc... I have done a lot of hiring in the past, and the best thing to do is don't sugarcoat anything. Tell them the realities of the job, and dig into why they are unemployed and why they want that job. If they can't convince you they are eager for the opportunity, then you can pass. Not sure why you have so many resumes, monster.com? If the resumes are from a big search engine, you have to do a lot more weeding out the bad ones. Some sites make it so easy to apply at the click of a button, people apply to 100 jobs, figuring they will see what happens. I usually only look at the ones with cover letters that show the applicant took time to research the position/company, and not just forwards a generic resume. Did you list what the job would entail in detail? did you give a salary expectation? Often being too vague will cause a ton of unwanted resumes.
 

zog

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
Great comments so far. Just be sure he understands what the job requires and it is something he wants to do. Ask him what he dislikes about the more traditional job he would do with his qualifications. With his education he could excel at that position, or leave, risk and reward. I hire similar positions and would give it a chance myself.
 

JJWalecka

Senior Member
Location
New England
"It is outside work mostly, heat, cold, rain, sleet, snow, really bad odors, get sewer byproducts on you regularly." Sounds like my kind of place!
 

hardworkingstiff

Senior Member
Location
Wilmington, NC
Out of 1,000 + resumes.......About 80% are electronics engineers that are unemployed. No field experience.
Is field experience a requirement to perform the work? Do they need to know how to do the "field" work to perform the job?
Correct me if I am wrong, no hard feelings if you do.

I'm thinking..... They may not work out.

They are used to an office job, Probably about $25,000 cut in pay from their last job, this job only pay's about $54,000.

They have no hands on experience. It is outside work mostly, heat, cold, rain, sleet, snow, really bad odors, get sewer byproducts on you regularly.

If the economy improves, I think they will jump ship.

The only people that I see fitting in are still employed.

Give the unemployed a break? Or go with my gut feeling?

If the only people that fit the job are employed, then it seems you don't have much of a choice.

I don't think things will get too much better too soon. An educated person with a great attitude could be an excellent addition to any operation. It is all about the attitude (assuming the work can be performed).
 

MarkyMarkNC

Senior Member
Location
Raleigh NC
You are still giving the unemployed a break when you hire someone with a job already. Someone has to fill that guys position when he comes to work with your company.
 

Cow

Senior Member
Location
Eastern Oregon
Occupation
Electrician
"It is outside work mostly, heat, cold, rain, sleet, snow, really bad odors, get sewer byproducts on you regularly." Sounds like my kind of place!

Wait, are you describing the dairies I work on?

:grin:

In all seriousness, wastewater treatment plants are far more disgusting in my opinion. I'll stick with dairies.....:cool:
 

BJ Conner

Senior Member
Location
97006
We could all be there.

We could all be there.

Those "overqualified" people sending in resumes are on a big boat. There's lotsof room on it for any one of us. Some of us have been there and others have yet to go.
 

MIEngineer

Member
Location
Michigan
If the applicants have no field experience and the job entails field work are they really "overqualified"? We get into discussions about this from time to time. Electricians tell engineers they need more field experience, engineers tell the electicians they need more theory. 'Round and 'round.

Bottom line seems to be if you need someone to hit the ground running in the field the 100% office guys may not be the best first choice. As others have said though one of they may be a great asset to a company.
 
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