over qualified for your job?

[moiflan]

Anyone out there doing a job they are over qualified for?Or you worked hard for your qualifications but have ,out of neccesity, taken a menial task.Interested to hear how you manage,if it bothers you,and how you get on with any co workers.

[Old_Geezer]

Unsure you would call it being overqualified but I got an MBA and do not use it. I understood during year 1, it and I were no a match, but I don't like to start something and then drop out, so I finished it. Now have a much lower ranking position than I might have achieved, but I hope it is less stressful, maybe. Better match to my personality anyway. I'd like to think I get on with all here, indeed many seem to achieve stuff I'd love to be able to do. But if I am honest I'd rather be out of the rat race and companies that claim to care but can't create a decent environment, or match responsibilities to each employee properly, completely. Corporates seem to have got worse over the decades, difficult though it is to believe.

[factor-fiction]

I am over qualified for my job as I am highly qualified, was once highly sought after, but am now seeking work and failing miserably, so I'm a highly qualified housekeeper/professional at present.
I would be happy to do a menial job but although I can write a really well worded application which shows how I meet each requirement of the person specification, my age, qualifications and experience seem to be a handicap. Perhaps if I was recruiting shelf stackers I'd avoid an applicant with a degree, professional qualifications and experience of managing large departments- they probably think I'd get bored or challenge decisions or just be sick all the time.

[Halifaxmum]

I studied at Polytechnic (as it was then, is now a University) for a BTEC Higher National Diploma in Public Administration (2 yrs, full time) and afterwards worked for HMRC for 17 years. The last few years, I hated the job and was off sick a lot, my depression became unmanageable and I ended up leaving.

I now work for a supermarket as a general assistant and I love it! I work hard (physically) and enjoy the interaction with customers, my colleagues are down to earth and we have a good laugh, the atmosphere at work is hard-working but still pleasant and I am never bored!

I wouldn't go back to my old job (which paid about twice what I earn now) for anything! :)

[DTCwordfan]

I guess I am as I work three different things from writing to art and caring - Two Masters, one like OG, etc - but I see it in a different light moiflan.

Everything we do brings its own experiences, relationships and challenges - that adds colour to our lives and, as a writer, I profit from these. So the qualifications do subtly get used in terms of underpinning my ability to see things, listen, feel, taste, experience and to write, be it technical or whatever.

[cathfromsaron]

yes on paper suppose i am overqualified, BUT i find that my education, qualifications, skills and experience help me do my current job to a better standard! i also find that i easily adapt to training any new job roles!

i have a 1st degree, level 4 in education and training and PGCE in 16+, but only *really* needed a level 3 in care, which i had from my last employer!

i love my job and applied because its 4 short days, rather than the full-time teaching jobs i 'could' have applied for ...

[Prudie]

I am more qualified than the majority of my colleagues and lots of them are higher grades than me. I do have a chip on my shoulder about it if I'm honest but having said that it's my choice to work where I do and qualifications such as mine are not required anyway so it's my problem.

[paddywak]

I did a full five year apprenticeship as well a several years of further education to acquire my engineers ticket and when the pit closed I was Shift Charge Engineer. I inquired about jobs in various local factories and at one, which made cakes etc, I was told that though there were no jobs on the engineering side but they were taking temporary staff on three months contracts running up to Christmas as a general factory hands. I was still there ten years latter when the factory closed. The money wasn't great but I'd got my money from the pit so it was just holiday money, but the best thing was there was no real responsibility, no phone calls in the middle of the night or at weekends, no rushing about if anything broke down, just hanging about with the rest of the staff while somebody else took the hassle.

[kinell]

qualifications surely are not just the bit of paper you might wave around...

an important part of being qualified 'to do the job well' is experience and attitude...

i get so fed up with the 'i am overqualified to do the (rubbish) job that i do..'

perhaps they should apply themselves more and whinge less..

in my industry an MBa is known as 'means bu66er all' (no offence meant to the old geezer of course)