overqualified & underemployed

Jackie was formerly a highly paid project manager when job loss and desperate circumstances forced her to take on a lowly customer service position. She continued looking for the type of job she was qualified for, but after a year she gave up hope.

"I initially planned on continuing to look for the type of job I wanted while employed in my present job," explains Jackie, "but after a year I gave up hope. Had I been ten years younger I would have persevered, but when you're a woman pushing 50 you're a fool if you think you can compete with a twenty-something fresh from university."

What she hates most about the job is the attitude of her co-workers. She never told them what type of work she did before, but somehow they found out and they actually sneer at her.

"I have no opportunities for advancement in the menial job I’m doing now," explains Jackie. "I can work my butt off, and I do, but nobody in management is going to recommend me for promotion. They are probably terrified that if they promote me I will outshine them and put their jobs at risk."

"What's worse," says Jackie, "the managers and other staff at the company who are similar to me in age, education and experience actually avoid me because of my lowly position. They are probably terrified that something like this could happen to them, too -- and they're right about that!"

Read more of Jackie’s story:

project manager to clerk

single moms and desperation jobs

job hunt desperation points

managerial slippery slopes

job hunt desperation points

After six months of desperately looking for work, Jackie – a former project manager - applied for a position as a clerk -- a Customer Service Representative -- earning basic wages, and was successful. The only reason she applied for the job was due to the sheer desperation of her circumstances.

"Desperation is never a good reason to apply for a job, let alone accept it," sighs Jackie, "but I had no choice in the matter whatsoever. It was either take what I could get, or lose everything I had worked so hard to attain."

“I reached my desperation point after six months of job hunting when I applied for a lowly clerical position,” says Jackie. “I am still in that job, and grateful for it, because it’s pretty obvious that during economic downturns people like me – single moms over 40 with a mortgage – are more likely to reach a job hunt desperation point much earlier than the young, childless, married or wealthy.”

“Under these circumstances education, skills and experience are virtually worthless,” says Jackie. “When you have children to feed, school fees and a mortgage to pay, and the power company is about to cut off your electricity you soon realize, as I did, that waiting to be offered a job commensurate with your education, skills and experience is not a smart thing to do.”

Read more of Jackie’s story:

project manager to clerk

single moms and desperation jobs

forced into career suicide

overqualified and underemployed

managerial slippery slopes

job hunting at work

Courtney is looking for a better job than the one she has now and like a lot of people she uses the Internet at work for this purpose. She is worried about being tracked and possibly losing her job because of it.

"I'm not so worried about my boss catching me as getting trapped at some of those nasty sites that necessitate a reboot to escape from," says Courtney. "It's not called the 'web' for nothing and what's far more annoying - and possibly more dangerous - than the occasional hacker, cracker or spider getting into my work's system is the constant tracking we're subjected to when we check out job sites."

She concedes that in real life cameras are similarly tracking us wherever we go, but she maintains that real life tracking is okay because it protects us and the owners of the establishments we enter.

"Internet tracking is dangerous because it is garnering information about us -- what site we visited previously, what ad we clicked on, what we bought and how long we stayed at a site for marketing purposes," explains Courtney, "and I'm not on a home computer, I'm using the one at work!"

"I'm terrified my boss is going to get spammed from my job surfing on his system!"

"Luckily, I'm not a shopaholic -- I never buy anything I see on the Net when I'm job surfing at work," says Courtney, "but I'd imagine a lot of women might be tempted. If I see something that interests me, I am more likely to seek a retail outlet to purchase the item than do the transaction electronically.

"I'm a touchy-feely shopper and I'm also a touchy-feely job hunter in that I use the Net to find the jobs I like but I'd never leave my personal details on the sites. I use the telephone to ask for more information."

"I'm glad I don't have the Internet at home," laughs Courtney, "because it's such a huge catalog of jobs, things to buy and a wonderful things to read that I'd never have a life!

"But I can appreciate that I am taking a big risk doing my job hunting at work," says Courtney. "I'd prefer that my Internet use is private -- as it would be in a real life situation -- but as it can't be like that at work I have to be careful about trackers and leaving too much clues about where I've been online just in case my boss checks up on me.

"I'm really annoyed by pop-up ads on some of the job sites demanding my personal details," says Courtney. "I only give my personal details to recruiters or employers directly and face to face when they have a job that interests me. Not before!"

"Can you imagine reading a book and the author jumping out and demanding to know everything about you, or bombarding you with advertisements? Or being in a library and having a librarian tracking every book or magazine you glance at? Or being in a department store and having a sales clerk wanting to know your name, address and telephone number when you enter the store? It's as crazy at that."

"The UK is one country that is planning to stop this tracking nonsense before it gets really out of hand," says Courtney, "and I do hope that the rest of the world follows suit soon. It’s not much good to ban the Internet trackers in one part of the world, and let them roam free elsewhere. The Internet is global! "

"In attempting to break the boundary between real life and cyberspace, I feel that all the Internet nasties -- the hackers, crackers and trackers -- are upsetting something really special about the Internet," says Courtney. "And when cyberspace loses its fantasy aspect, its facility for us to move around unnoticed and unchallenged, I feel that more and more Net users will decide to unplug and return to more traditional sources of information."

"There are not very many job ads in the newspapers any more," sighs Courtney, "so I have to use Internet to do my job hunting. Sure, I could use a library rather than my boss's internet connection to find a new job but, come on -- everyone does it."

don't post resumes online!

Madison is single, 27, and having finally found a job -- through a friend - she she is frantically trying to delete all of her personal job hunting records from the Net.

"I was really desperate when I was unemployed," sighs Madison. "I posted hundreds of resumes online and I never bothered to keep a record of where I had posted them."

"I also joined lots of groups and left my personal details all over the place hoping that someone, somewhere would take pity on me!"

"Now that I've found a new job and my self-esteem has returned I'm feeling so ashamed of what I did -- I was, in effect, prostituting myself by throwing around my personal details on the web."

"And yet I'm not the only person in the world who is forced to do this," sighs Madison. "Lots of unemployed people do it and lots of professional recruiters tell us to do it, too. 'If you're serious about finding a job you'll do it' they told me."

"I've found a lot of my old online resumes through the search engines," says Madison, "and some of them were full of silly typing errors because I did it all so fast."

"In the unlikely event that any employer actually read my online resume it would have given a very bad impression of my skills," laughs Madison, "but no genuine employer ever reads the online resumes -- the only people who read them are the perverts and now I'm scared someone is going to stalk me!"

"Not many of the online resume posting sites have an easy delete option," says Madison, "so I've had to email the webmasters to do it for me."

"So far I've received only one response from the webmasters I emailed requesting deletion of my personal records," says Madison. "I fear that some of the sites I posted my resume to are dead -- and will just stay online for the perverts to look at until the web server company removes them."

"On one website I was able to delete my resume very easily," says Madison, "but when I searched the site for anything with other file extensions -- such as cvs.doc or resumes.doc -- I was able to get a list of non-html documents in which I was still listed."

"Granted, this sort of document doesn't get published as it isn't html," says Madison, "but it does mean that the guys running the website keep a permanent record of my details and I don't like that."

An even worse scenario for Madison is that some of her online resumes might be in some search engine cache that takes months to refresh - or is even permanently listed in some obscure search engine that never updates.

"Even though my online resume might have been removed from the site," explains Madison, "my name and personal details might still be listed with various search engines for everyone to see."

"There is also the 'Wayback Machine' search engine at archive.org that caches everything that was published on the web in recent years."

"This particular search engine really annoys me," says Madison, "because everyone has posted something to a newsgroup or website that they later regret - either for personal or security reasons - and it's not nice that we are denied the right to delete things that were never intended to be permanent records."

"There could be a permanent online record of all my personal details - my name, address and telephone number - as well as all the typos, grammatical mistakes and inappropriate information I posted on the Net when I was out of work and desperate," groans Madison.

"The Internet is not only great for research," grimaces Madison, "but it's also great for snooping on silly people like me who don't know what they're getting into when they use the Net for job hunting -- so watch out everyone!."

tailoring resumes to jobs

Stephanie, 28, believes a mistake many jobseekers make is to use the same resume for every job they apply for. She has two basic resumes -- one upmarket and one downmarket -- and alters them slightly for each position she applies for according to the particular requirements of the employer.

"I'm not only looking for the job I want but also a bill paying job to tide me over," says Stephanie. "I use the basic upmarket resume for the jobs I want, and the basic downmarket resume for the bill paying jobs. Once you've got these two basic resumes, it's really not too much of a hassle to tailor them to particular jobs."

Right now, only two of Stephanie’s roommates have a job and they are carrying her and two more unemployed girls until they get a job. Stephanie is hopeful of getting the job she wants, but if that doesn’t happen within a month then she is willing to take on an immediate bill paying job.

Her job seeking knowledge and skills are excellent and she enjoys helping the other two unemployed roommates target jobs in a more professional manner.

For the type of job Stephanie wants, her basic upmarket resume accentuates her educational qualifications, skills and experience in that order. She puts her qualifications at the top of the body of her resume and makes them bold. She makes them jump out at the person responsible for doing the culling of job applications.

For those who are not good at presentation formatting, Stephanie suggests getting a professional to type their upmarket resume.

"For the type of job you want - especially if it was advertised on the Net - there are going to be hundreds if not thousands of applicants and from all over the world, too," says Stephanie. "You need to make your resume stand out from everyone else's and while the number of degrees and diplomas you have may not necessarily get you the job, it might just give you the edge in the selection process. Take advantage of that edge."

"Unless you were required to do so," warns Stephanie, "do not spoil the impression of your upmarket resume by including your academic results. That is far too much information. If your degree or diploma was conferred recently or a long time ago, this may go against you, so I think it’s a good idea to omit the year. Use your judgment."

"The same goes for the name of the institution conferring the qualification," says Stephanie. "If it is a well-known university or college, play it up. If it isn’t, then use your judgment on whether it might be better to omit its name."

"For the basic upmarket resume," says Stephanie, "you also need to place your most upmarket skills first (eg managing, analyzing, etc) and omit your downmarket skills (eg typing, telephone skills, etc)."

"It is also a good idea," says Stephanie, "to omit any short-term downmarket jobs you have had recently, or play them up so that they do not sound as downmarket as they really were. And do not be too specific about the dates either!"

"Saving space on a resume is important," says Stephanie, "so drop what might be used against you and highlight what employers need to know."

Following is an example of what Stephanie means by strategic placing on an upmarket resume that will help you get the job you want:

Stephanie Duncan

Qualifications: BA, MA (UCLA)

Skills: Project Management

Recent Employment History: Resources Officer, Acme Products, Oct - Nov 2006

Compare the information given in the upmarket resume with that given below for Stephanie’s downmarket resume. It is the same person, but you would never guess!

For the bill paying type of job, Stephanie uses a resume that accentuates her skills. She puts her skills at the top of the body of her resume and makes them bold so that they jump out at the person reading the resumes.

"For this type of job," says Stephanie, "your resume presentation is really not going to be as important as your skills, so don’t waste money getting a professional to type it unless, of course, you have money to throw around."

"The mistake many job seekers make when applying for a bill paying job," says Stephanie, "is that they include their qualifications. You will be considered over-qualified for the job and rejected outright if you do this. I appreciate that it’s tempting to show off - after all, we all worked hard for our qualifications - but the job you need in order to pay the bills wants a hands-on worker, not an Oxford Don."

"The aim of a downmarket resume is to get an interview for a job to pay the bills. In order to do this," says Stephanie, "you need to downgrade yourself. But only on paper. Nobody wants to employ a smarty for a downmarket job, but as soon as you are in the job, anything can happen. They could love you and promote you to a managerial position if you are lucky - so it's silly to get too hung up about downgrading yourself."

"One small thing," warns Stephanie. "With downmarket resumes for bill paying jobs, prospective employers like to see exact dates of previous employment so even if you were employed for two weeks somewhere, put that in and make sure you state the exact date you started and finished."

Following is an outline of the strategy Stephanie uses on her resume for the downmarket job she needs to pay the bills:

Stephanie Duncan

Skills: Typing 35 wmp, Customer Service, Team work

Recent Employment History: Mail Room Attendant, Acme Products, Oct 19 - Nov 9 2006

"Remove the name and if you can tell it's the same person then you are mighty smart," laughs Stephanie. "And if you can't then it just goes to prove that a little fudging can get you what you want. And I don't think I am being unethical with my two resumes. I am not lying, I am fudging. there's a difference."

job ad buzzwords

Priscilla is a single mom who, like a lot of women, was introduced to the Internet by her young son. She is currently looking for a job and thinks that the Internet is fantastic for refining a job search and researching buzzwords.

"My son nagged me for ages to get online at home," laughs Priscilla, "and I finally relented when I realized how useful the Internet is going to be for my job-search."

"I still read the newspaper ads, of course," says Priscilla, "but the Internet is so much faster. My main problem, though, with both newspaper and Internet job advertisements, is that I'm overwhelmed by all the jargon and buzzwords.”

She has simplified her job-search by finding out exactly what some of these buzzwords really mean.

"On the Internet I can refine my job-search by excluding certain buzzwords that I know are misleading," explains Priscilla, "and you can't do that with newspaper ads."

"A popular buzzword is team player," says Priscilla. "Unfortunately, just about every workplace these days seems to be run on team principles. If you are not willing to sacrifice your individuality for the common cause of the team - as I am - then you will not make a good team player. I don't apply for such jobs but I bet some really nasty people apply for team role jobs and actually win them."

“The trick for them is to pass the interview, get the job and then make everyone on the team miserable,” laughs Priscilla.

When Priscilla sees the team player buzzword, she reads a menial job, a job unsupportive of your well being and advancement.

"The only people who thrive in team environments are the manipulative types who get everyone else to do their work, and the sweeties who effectively have the same motive," says Priscilla. "So when a job advertisement includes the buzzword team player, I know they are looking for someone submissive and easily bossed around."

What about attention to detail? In the publishing and banking profession we are required to be hawks, but Priscilla wonders why it is required so much of other professions. And how does one gauge whether one is good at paying attention to detail?

"Everyone makes mistakes," says Priscilla. "and most workplaces have some sort of quality control in place to pick up errors before they cause major trouble. So why is it necessary to advertise for a hawk-eyed person?"

Priscilla believes that either they are discriminating against people with poor eyesight or the work is so boring that previous employees have fallen asleep on the job.

“Of course, recruiters these days cannot be blatantly discriminatory in their advertisements,” says Priscilla, “but if you look closely at advertisements you can read between the lines about the type of person they want, such as young environment or recent graduate. Nobody over 30 is going to want to answer an advertisement geared towards a younger applicant.”

Conversely, mature person turns off the under 30s although maturity, per se, has nothing to do with age.

Leadership skills is a buzzword that often describes a tough person, someone capable of firing their own mom. So, someone with the quiet leadership skills of a Nelson Mandela wouldn’t stand a chance.

“And that’s a shame,” says Priscilla, “because that’s the type of leader workers do admire.”

”I don't enjoy working late," says Priscilla, "so I avoid any job advertisement using drive, initiative and deadlines as buzzwords."

"Smoking is prohibited in all workplaces and public venues so I wonder about advertisers who feel it necessary to add non smoking workplace to their spiel," says Priscilla. "I think it could be a disincentive for social smokers to apply. The employer hates smokers!"

Priscilla admits that she spends more time surfing on the Net than using it for job-hunting, and this is probably true for anyone who uses the Net to find a job.

"I'm mixing business with pleasure," laughs Priscilla, "or should I say 'background researching' the job-market."