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Hello everyone. Welcome to the 5 Minutes podcast. Recently I was reading an article at BBC talking about the challenge of overqualified people to get jobs that are less qualified and that are more junior than their own qualifications. And why I want to talk about that because first, it seems counterintuitive because let's suppose I have a job and I need qualifications A, B and C, and suddenly you have not only A, B and C, but you have other 300 qualifications that I was not expecting initially. It seems like, you know, I want in the lottery because you are much more than what I need. However, most of the time companies do not hire you and then you suddenly think why? And the problem of over qualification is that most of the companies, they think that you will lose motivation quickly and that you are using this job just as a trampling to get to something better. And probably your biggest motivation is financial motivation. And please, I'm not saying financial motivation is not relevant. Please. However, this is not exactly what companies are looking for. And this is, I would say, a challenge that all of us and I include myself on that it's like this pyramid. Imagine a job, a pyramid on the roles in your company or in in the marketplace. As much as you go higher, there are fewer jobs, fewer opportunities with far bigger rewards. For example, your company, your company probably have one president or one CEO, but it has maybe a 1000 programmers or a 1000 engineers or a 1000 accountants.
Right. So it's much easier for you to see a job posting of this company hiring an accountant or maybe an engineer than a CEO. And this is for obvious reasons. So when you become, for example, a very senior program director, opportunities for you will be smaller with an absolutely high added value. This is sometimes a challenge for us to be overqualified. So what would be my advice to you? The first one you must look for fit first. Even if it takes a little bit longer, try to apply to the jobs. You really match the qualifications and that you are not overqualified. If you really decide to apply to a job that is maybe two or three levels below your current level, then comes to my second team. You need to have a sharp, clear rationale to justify that because I am 100% sure they will ask you. For example, let's suppose you have a C-level role and you are making X amount of money and then you are applying for a manager role making half of that. You need to have a clear rationale why you decided to do that. It must be clear. Maybe it's because you want to live in a different city and this new job will allow you for personal reasons to do that. Or maybe you want to change the field, or maybe you want to test a different idea. I always remember. Let me give you an example. When I received the invitation for the United Nations in 2012, that job, I would say in financial terms and personal terms where I would say, please, I don't want you to perceive this wrongly, but was I would say something lower than what I had.
And this was ask it to me and say, why would you decide to do this job? And then I had to have a very strong rationale and I told them, Look, first I want to live abroad and move from Brazil to Europe. Second, I want to educate my children in a different country. And third one, I want to apply my knowledge doing something that is not for profit related. And this was a strong rationale for them to agree. And I stayed there for five years. This is the rationale. And everybody knew that this was not a career change. It was like a project for me, but for them. And I hope so. It was worth. But imagine if I did all this effort to stay six months or to stay eight months. It will be a loss for the UN and probably a loss for me. So these is why you need to have a very clear rationale on that. And last but not least, my third advice to you, it's never and let me repeat, never. Never remove things from your CV to make your CV more fitted to that position. For example, the CV ask five years of experience, but in reality you have 25. And then what happens? You remove some parts of your experience.
Don't do that first. People will discover this in the interview. Second, if you do that, you need to do this in your LinkedIn profile in everything else, because when people check, they will see that you are hiding some relevant experience. So don't do that just to be perceived as someone that is fitted for that opportunity. This is not a smart strategy and can destroy your reputation, so always try to look for the best fit. I know many times and you know when people are in job transitions, people tend to become more concerned about their finances and this and I understand that, but try as much as you can to look for a job that fit in your qualification. If this is not the case, be prepared with such a strong rationale for the change because they will ask. And finance is not necessarily the best rationale. And third one Never lie in your CV or never remove things from your CV to make your CV less shiny so you can get the job. This is all my advice for you, mostly for those in senior roles trying to look for a new job. And I want to finish this podcast suggesting you take a look on this BBC article. It's a very well written and very comprehensive to discuss this, not only in the project management area, but also in other areas. I hope you enjoy this podcast and see you next week with another 5 minutes podcast.
