Having gotten discouraged by serial rejections or too many second place finishes, you’ve decided to pack it in and take a lower-level job. Even though two HR folk have told you that you’re an overqualified candidate, you profess to love the idea of a lesser job than your last. This is a strategy that will not work unless you find a predator whose goal is to exploit ego-damaged job hunters. There is no happy ever-aftering with such people.
When anyone says you are over qualified for a job take it seriously. What the person means is that they’ve hired others into lower level jobs and the new hire stayed only as long as it took him/her to recover emotionally from that long stretch of rejection. Refreshed, the new hire pushed on to a suitable job.
This is a painful way to learn an important lesson. The sensible strategy is to raise your sights, repackage your results, and start networking with a new group. Revise your LinkedIn profile and start connecting at the right level. If your crisis of confidence is extreme get therapy. If you have other doubts, such as whether you even want the kind of jobs you’ve been applying for, that address that issue pronto.
In my experience the best sign from your gut that you need to rethink your job objective is telling yourself that, “I just want a job, any job. I don’t care what I do as long as I’m paid to do it.” I have never met anyone who truly believed it once he got a job. It’s the voice of discouragement and doubt. If that’s you, stop what you’re doing this minute and rethink your goals. Desperation, about anything, is a bad smell and taste instantly visible to interviewers. If you can’t convince yourself you want the job how can you convince anyone else?
If you’re ready to settle it’s time to change direction, strategy or get some assistance. The worst strategy is to keep doing what you’re doing.
This
The point: