Source
r/jobs•
Soundtallica

There are so many little things that can work against you in your job search if they apply to you

Rejections

Just venting here. I'm getting to the final round of interviews, feeling like I aced them, but not getting offers. And its all due to complete BS reasons like these:

  1. BS overqualification issues. I'm currently an engineer working on a complex medical device at my job. I've been put out of consideration for positions that work on simpler mechanisms, simply because the companies thought that I'd get bored with their devices because of what I worked on before. This is complete stupidity, the didn't consider that maybe I wanted a bigger role on a smaller device instead of being assigned to one or two lousy components on the medical device...
  2. Trying to go home. I'm located in California, and I'm applying to jobs back in my home state I found California to be nowhere near as great as advertised. My motivation for switching jobs is career based, and I figured why not go home in the process given this situation? I've gotten feedback from one company that I interviewed with that they didn't pick me because they felt I was more focused on going home than actually being enthusiastic about working at the company. I freaking emphasized to them that my motives are career based and not because I want to move back home!
  3. California stigma. It seems like the employers agree with me that in my assessment of California. One of my friends at a different company told me that his manager throws out your resume if he saw a California address on it, reasoning that they always ask for too much money thanks to the salaries they get here that are inflated because of the high cost of living here. I also hear of people in other states hating on Californians because they move out of state and drive up housing prices elsewhere. Makes me regret moving here in the first place if being labeled a Californian makes you toxic everywhere else...

Okay, rant over. How do you convince employers that none of these three will be an issue? What I've been doing for 1 and 2 clearly isn't working, and I don't see how you can get past 3 if you agree to a salary range.

TLDR: Being the slightest bit overqualified that it shouldn't matter, somehow giving off the impression that I'm finding a new job just to go home when that's NOT the case, and California stigma is holding me back in my job search. How do you get around this?

Posted May 7, 2021, 4:41 PM UTC

25
workinprogress521•

I just wanted to say I think it’s awesome that you’re getting final round interviews. I literally never made it past the 2nd round which is really the first round since the actual first round is just a screening.

2
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1
herbaceous-material•

Sounds like you are sharing way too much about your personal life in your resume/cover letters/interviews. I never include my address in resumes and only enter if forced to by the application website.

You don't need to mention you're "returning home" either. It's not relevant to the job so just don't share where you are from. If they explicitly mention on the job posting they want local people for the role, then maybe you could mention it.

Overqualification issues can be pivoted if you make a case for yourself as someone who will still be super stimulated, interested, and challenged by the specifics of the role. This involves doing some research about the product/company to get super specific info on the company/product/position that you can say interests you deeply and connects back with some other part of your resume/past experiences/future goals.

Just say something like, "I don't think I'm overqualified because I believe this position would be challenging for XYZ reason, and my experience doing ABC makes me up for the task."

1
SoundtallicaOP•

Thanks for your feedback!

Unfortunately, I've never come across a job application (at least in engineering) where I wasn't required to disclose my address. And I've also never seen a resume without an address.

I've stopped stating that I'm returning home in recent interviews. In fact, I make sure to emphasize my motives for switching jobs are purely career based. But unfortunately since most of my experience on my resume is stuff from my home state, employers seem to imply it based on just that...

I've tried stuff like that to get around overqualification issues. For my most recent interview I stated that since I've worked with complex devices and had to do many different things before I was more interested in getting to refine a simpler device, which I haven't had the opportunity to do in my career yet, since both are equally important in engineering. We will see how that goes. I'm not holding out much hope though since one of the questions I asked was literally "will you get bored working on our device compared to what you're working on now"

1
herbaceous-material•

Interesting. I stopped putting my address on resumes and it wasn't a problem for the last few jobs I've landed. Maybe just a industry/level of expertise thing.

I have had employers ask where I live in an interview though.

1