My experience has been that some of the most valuable work experiences have been those that have been the most divergent from my plan.

Deep truth from Don’s comment…

Mis dos centavos,

The words “dumb down” are such a turn off, and you’d be right to want to wave a finger at the idea of taking away from what you’ve accomplished – especially if you’re crazy enough to do a PhD.

Then again, you don’t want to land in the “overqualified” side of things – that is, those who look like are going to leave the job after a few months because they’re not challenged enough.

The article is right in that you have to tailor your pitch – you might not want to mention, say for example, that you were published in National Geographic right off the bat, then it makes more sense.

Then you have the relentless… I once read, “The enemy of the best is the good.” Great words to live by, but not for the faint of spirit.

Good luck to us!

It can be difficult even with the economic downtown, but the needs and interests of the employers are changing rapidly and it is difficult to keep up. Even if things are turning around in the next year or so, the question will be how relevent our current credentials are. I’ve come to realize that for better or for worse I’m going to have to get another diploma or degree to stay employable, oh well .

Thanks for the mention Raul.

I enjoyed your post. You express a lot of pride and confidence in your knowledge and abilities. As you should, your credentials are superb. You’ve excelled in your pursuits, and you don’t feel you should have to lower yourself when moving forward.

I think that’s fantastic to be able to have that strength and determination. What stuck out to me was this:

“If you’re chasing opportunities below your potential, you have to go into it with the right mindset. It’s your decision to take a position below your abilities. You can’t be resentful that they don’t see all [your] potential. You have to be careful of your expectations.”

That’s a predicament I feel like many are in; they’re chasing opportunities, most likely due to difficulties in the economy, or moving from a dying industry. Many don’t have any backup plan, or are dwindling away savings, or digging further into debt. For some, finding any source of income is incredibly difficult but also extremely critical. As the article said, currently management, and higher level positions are scarcely hired in downtimes. As a result, many highly qualified people are being shut out of jobs that are worthy of their abilities, leaving much more people fighting for lesser work.

I’m going through something similar at the moment. While I cannot boast to conquering academia (I left a programming program in ’01), I can confidently say that my business experience, and my hunger for knowledge and personal growth at just 28 make me a very capable candidate, with loads of potential, for many positions. Trouble is, the market is so thin for good positions, I’m getting to a point where I’ve got to start earning an income. This, despite the fact that I’m eagerly seeking an opportunity where I can be a solid contributor, to be a part of something.

I have applied for lesser jobs, in the hopes that I would actively work on any personal projects on the side to get back into being my own boss. I realize that this makes great sense for me as I need to earn a decent income, but at the same time my personal goals would be satisfied. Yet, after a couple of interviews at the last company, I was told I was “overqualified”. I could actually sense it after our first interview, the Sales & Marketing manager probably felt I could just as easily do her job. It made me reflect, and it’s part of the reason why I spent much of the past month on Twitter, and all over the net, strategizing what course I’m going to take on my career journey.

I’m just going to make sure to do as the quote said, to have the right mindset, no matter what it is I do.

Now the only question is, Raul, what do I have to do to get you to follow me back? lol

I guess it depends on how desperate you are for an income. I’ve expanded my job search beyond finding the “right fit” for now and will take the first offer that comes my way. Even if that’s making coffee at Starbucks, or serving/bartending at a restaurant. But I continue applying for the good jobs as well as the ones I don’t want too badly.

When you get to the point where paying the bills becomes more important than finding the right fit in your job, then you have to put your pride on the back burner a bit. It doesn’t mean you’re not proud of your accomplishments… it doesn’t even necessarily mean you quit looking for that perfect position. But it does mean that you tailor your application to the position you’re applying for. Sometimes that involves dumbing down your resume.

I’d get passed over in a second for a serving or bartending job if I mentioned on my resume that I have a business degree and 5 years of marketing and business consulting experience. They’d know that I would drop the job like a hot potato the second something better came along (and they’d be correct.) So I wouldn’t mention that experience. Sometimes emphasizing and talking up my experience is the best tactic, sometimes dumbing it down is smarter. That’s just marketing; I don’t think it reflects poorly on my worth as a person or employee.

Don’t dumb down your resume, smarten it up.

ind out what employers are looking for and tailor your resume for that, highlighting the specific skills they want. Don’t emphasize what you want, emphasize what they want, and be able to back it up ie no bsing.

So do different resumes for different skill sets required for different jobs, maybe have a master resume listing all your skills/experience education by category and use that to build sector specific resumes.

I don’t know about the resume, but I think I’ve dumbed down considerably since grad school.

(For instance, I’d like to insert a shrug smiley here, but can’t think of what keys to type to accomplish that.)

I like the way Pete has phrased this – “smarten it up” by focusing it on the job you are applying for.

As you know, I was faced with a similar situation – recent PhD and thus either way over- or way underqualified for everything. But I didn’t really have the option of removing my education from my resume, as every job I’d had since entering my undergrad degree 11 years prior was at a university and it would be hard to explain how I was a teaching assistant and a research assistant without listing my education! Would be hard to explain what I’d been doing for 11 years!