Help! Any HR People or Hiring Managers Out There? (letters, job interviews, application)

[Tracysherm]

No, no one ever accused me of being a troll on these sites. Just judgmental, sarcastic, and perhaps mean to dumb people


If the job requires a degree because of a state regulation (like in my field) then yes, the company will have to verify your degree. But if there is no governmental oversight, they may not bother to verify college that far back.

Colleges will have records of completed degrees indefinitely, but not people who attended but didn't graduate.

For instance, my mom, now in her early 60's went to like one semester of college when she was 18-19. She put the name of the college and the year she was there at the end of her resume for years, and no one ever checked it out (she mainly did payroll, bookkeeping, A/P) She never wrote "graduated", just the school and year.

After you go back about 20 years, you can just list the jobs, the company, and how long you were there rather than the exact dates and lengthy descriptions of the work. Some people only include the last 10 years or so on their resume, and leave all the older stuff off. I guess it depends on the field of work, or if you are returning to a field you worked in years ago, but left for a while.

I can relate to not having experience applying for jobs! I've really only applied for jobs 3 times in my life, and just stayed with the companies a long time and moved up internally. Unfortunately, I have a lot more experience with reviweing resumes, some really awful resumes, and hiring or not hiring people.

[mkfarnam]

From "89" to "07" I was self employed. I'm certified in my field but now I'm considered over qualified.

[Tracysherm]

I personally think "over qualified" is bull poo. If someone doesn't hire you and says you are over-qualified, it really means one of the following:

1. We don't think you would ever settle for what we are paying, and if you do, you will leave quickly as soon as another company decides they'll appreciate your experience and pay more than we do.

2. I can't hire you because you know more than I do, and you will realize that I don't know squat, and you'll out me to the rest of my company.

3. I can't hire you because you know more than I do, and you will likely take over my job in less than a year.


If a hiring manager really finds someone who seems over-qualified yet is still willing to take the job, they aren't gonna say anything and they'll hire you in a minute! This is called hitting the hiring manager's jackpot.

[gold dust]

Originally Posted by TracySam

I personally think "over qualified" is bull poo. If someone doesn't hire you and says you are over-qualified, it really means one of the following:

1. We don't think you would ever settle for what we are paying, and if you do, you will leave quickly as soon as another company decides they'll appreciate your experience and pay more than we do.

2. I can't hire you because you know more than I do, and you will realize that I don't know squat, and you'll out me to the rest of my company.

3. I can't hire you because you know more than I do, and you will likely take over my job in less than a year.

If a hiring manager really finds someone who seems over-qualified yet is still willing to take the job, they aren't gonna say anything and they'll hire you in a minute! This is called hitting the hiring manager's jackpot.

Amen. Where have you been all my life? lol

I too have been given the overqualified speech over and over again the past few months as I search for a job. These are great uplifting words, TracySam!

What are your thoughts on "dumbing down" your resume to make it look like you are not "all that" so you can get the job you are supposedly overqualified for? Esp. if the job pays pretty darn well?

[imright]

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

Actually, this warehouse worker that was hired, wrote Army as Amry on the application (he didn't have a resume', he just read the ad and stopped by our office/warehouse to fill out an application. Giving him the "benefit of the doubt", he didn't have "spell-check" to use.
I remember another company that I applied to (and got the job), the Shop Foreman told me that he recieved nearly a hundred resume's for the job I got and over half of the resume's had absolutely no experience in the position (and this was not an Entry-Level Trainee type job). He got resume's from Gardener's, Pool Maintenance people, a couple from former Restaurant Waitresses, etc.

YOU spelled "received" wrong. " i before e, except after c."

[BagongBuhay]

Originally Posted by LoveBoating

Yes, most people do their resume's in MS Word, which has a "spell-check" area, but do they use it????????
I remember, on my last job, the Director gave me a couple of applications to review for a warehouse job. This one guys hand writing was so terrible, I could hardly read what he had wrote on the application, PLUS, he misspelled Army. I showed/told the Director about the resume', but, since he had a "soft heart" and was tired of interviewing, he hired the guy. I spent 3 years trying figure out what this guy was writing on any of our Forms. He would put away stock in one area and write down an entirely different area, halve of the time. What a hassel to work with someone like that!!

Corrections in Red:
Yes, most people do their resume's in MS Word, which has a "spell-check" area, but do they use it????????
I remember, on my last job, the Director gave me a couple of applications to review for a warehouse job. This one guy's handwriting was so terrible, I could hardly read what he had written on the application, PLUS, he misspelled Army. I showed/told the Director about the resume, but, since he had a "soft heart" and was tired of interviewing, he hired the guy. I spent 3 years trying figure out what this guy was writing on any of our Forms. He would put away stock in one area and write down an entirely different area, half of the time. What a hassle to work with someone like that!!

[BabyBoomers2]

I knew if I spelled that word wrong, someone would say something about it to me! BUT, please don't compare me to a guy that can't spell "Army" right, writes like a 4 year old (that can hardly be read), put away incoming stock into certain locations and then wrote down completely different locations on the Form.

Originally Posted by imright

YOU spelled "received" wrong. " i before e, except after c."

[BabyBoomers2]

I CAN judge whomever I want to.......YOU didn't have to work with this guy!! He wrote words wrong on an Application, not on a Forum like this where many, many people mis-spell words. The only other problem I had with this situation is the DUMB supervisor that ended up hiring him to work with me. Real smart supervisor that hires some one like this that fills out an Application with mis-spelled words.
Geeeeeeeesh!!

Originally Posted by bibit612

Corrections in Red:
Yes, most people do their resume's in MS Word, which has a "spell-check" area, but do they use it????????
I remember, on my last job, the Director gave me a couple of applications to review for a warehouse job. This one guy's handwriting was so terrible, I could hardly read what he had written on the application, PLUS, he misspelled Army. I showed/told the Director about the resume, but, since he had a "soft heart" and was tired of interviewing, he hired the guy. I spent 3 years trying figure out what this guy was writing on any of our Forms. He would put away stock in one area and write down an entirely different area, half of the time. What a hassle to work with someone like that!!

[Tracysherm]

Gold dust, one part of me would say not to dumb-down your resume just on principle's sake. Proudly proclaim your experience and expertise. But I know you can't deposit principles in the bank. So I can see how the desire to dumb it down might be a pragmatic approach.

If you are going to scale-back your resume, just don't lie about anything, like education, credentials, years at a given job. Maybe just make the descriptions of the jobs shorter or a little more vague.



Also, be on the lookout for age discrimination. "Over-qualified" as a resaon to not hire someone could be seen as having a disparate impact on people over 40. And "over 40" is a protected class. Also, I read of a Supreme Court decision last week that set a new standard that companies have the burden to prove they did not commit age discrimination, when in the past the employee had the burden of proof. Google it to be sure, I can't do it right now.

I'm not one of those people who thinks that everything negative that happens is due to discrimination, but in some cases, it is real. And age discrimination doesn't get as much recognition as the other kinds, so it can go unnoticed.

[brokensky]

For anyone wondering about what gets checked on resumes:

There are national firms that many of us use to verify college education/degrees. Do not try to fudge on this one.

You can be fired after being hired for falsifying info on your resume. Please keep that in mind b/f you doll up your resume w/ dummy jobs.

References may or may not be important. All depends on your field and the requirements of the job. If your new job includes training, your previous references may not be so important.

Employers are increasingly using other methods to weed out applicants, including your credit score . . . and such things as whether or not the applicant has moved around a lot . . .