Are you overqualified? Why you may not be hired

 
                                                                     HR Talk
         
                                                                        With
                                                          Moruf Kolawole Nasir
                                            (an experienced Human Resources Personnel)

One will think that recruiting overqualified candidates is to the advantage of the employers, that in fact, recruiters will be very glad to have an applicant who is more than qualify for the job, which means a capable hand to handle the job. The story is however always different from the recruiters’ point of view. If a position, for instance, requires a School Certificate or an Ordinary National Diploma holder, a BSc applicant will naturally feel he/she should have upper hand in getting the job, at least being a graduate should be a plus to him/her.
Unfortunately, the recruiters for some reasons decide otherwise. In this piece, we will attempt to identify 8 of the reasons why recruiters don’t hire over qualified applicants. In doing this, we will, in this week edition, present two real life scenarios for your comments and contributions before we address the 8 reasons one after the other in our next edition.


First scenario:  At a developmental training programme organized by the Nigerian Institute of Management in 2012 (the participants included an array of Human Resources Practitioners and Business Managers from many top companies in the country), one of the participants (from NNPC) presented a case his department was handling as at that time. They had openings for four OND graduates with engineering background.
When application started trooping in, they got more Bsc applicants than OND or even HND holders. The team went ahead with the recruitment process and during the selection stage, they identified some BSc holders who appeared to be perfect matches for the job. Because the jobs required OND holders they were constrained. They were to either hire the Bsc guys (who appeared best for the job) or select best candidates among the OND applicants. Knowing what employment situation in the country is, they contacted the BSc guys and told them the requirement of the job and why OND graduates were preferred for the jobs.

The condition is that the incumbents of those positions can only rise in their career to a certain level, irrespective of how long they stay in service, and that in future some junior BSc staff will meet them and even become their superiors because they cannot rise beyond a particular level. All of them accepted the conditions without any hesitation (After all being a gateman in NNPC is far better than working as a management staff in many companies in Nigeria today, and many graduates will gladly jump at gateman’s job in NNPC, let alone working as an engineering staff).
On hearing the case, most of us, at first, said they should consider the Bsc guys; giving that NNPC is a dream place to work in, irrespective of the conditions attached to the jobs, coupled with the unemployment rate in Nigeria. But after a proper analysis of the pros and cons of hiring them, we all agreed otherwise. You think we are wicked chei? Keep a date with JarusHub to know the reasons why we decided otherwise, and why recruiters generally avoid hiring overqualified candidates. Meanwhile, keep your comments coming.


Second scenario: I got this from interesting scenario from DISCOVERY -  “Sam Fischer, a 55-year old senior human resource professional for a mid-sized financial services organization, was laid off from his job in early 2009. He was unemployed for 18 months and then reluctantly accepted a mid-level human resource position for a biotechnology company. In his new job he had far less responsibility and was earning about 25 percent less than in his previous job.
He reported to the Vice President of Human Resources, the position he used to hold. Sam was hesitant to accept the position but was anxious to be employed again and desperately needed the steady paycheck and benefits. His new employer knew that Sam was overqualified, but liked Sam and believed he would succeed and eventually be happy. Less than a year later, Sam submitted his resignation. He had had enough. He confided, “I am doing things now, like disciplining employees, that I haven’t done in 20 years when I was new to the field.” He left, even though he had not found a new full time position. He was going to do some consulting work while he re-launched his job search”. – Source: www.DiscoverySurveys.com/articles

Buhari to hold town hall meetings instead of debate

The APC Campaign Organizing Committee has adopted the ancient Greek's system of interacting with the people by organizing town hall meetings in major cities so as to fill in the vacuum left as the result of the party's decision to stay out any organized Presidential debate. The APCPCO has made it known that the town hall meeting will be moved from city to city where General Muhammadu Buhari and his rnning mate Prof. Yemi Osinbajo will be able to interact with the Organized Private Sector. The Presidential candidate and his running mate will answer questions posed to them by the people and also explain what they have in stock for the country and how they will go about achieving them if they were eventually elected into office in the coming election.

In a statement signed by the party's Director of Media and Publicity, Shehu Garba said the party was compelled to resolve to this means because of the need to have a person -to- person interactive session with the people during which germane questions will be asked and answers will be provided by the candidates. " Our campaign decided to chart this path because we cannot afford to shy away from the more pressing urgency to have a one-on-one interactions with Nigerians through town hall meetings" Shehu said.  

The meeting is scheduled to hold on Tuesday, today in Kano with traders and market associations, thereafter, the meeting will hold in Benin with Labour and civil society leaders. Ibadan will be the next stop as Buhari will be engaged by Students and Youth groups. Enugu and Port Harcourt will follow suit.

Buhari pulls out of NPAN,ARISE TV Channels presidential debate

The Buhari campaign organisation has just confirmed they will not be attending the Channels Television presidential election debate scheduled for Tuesday (tomorrow), February 3, 2015.

The APC had, two days after APC pulled out of the NEDG/BON-organised presidential debate, accepted in principle to participate in a debate organised by the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), ARISE Television and Channels Television.

The debate, initiated by ARISE Television and Channels, and THISDAY and Guardian Newspapers Limited on behalf the Newspapers Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), was scheduled to hold at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

The February 3 debate is coming on the heels of an earlier attempt by the Nigeria Election Debate Group to host a presidential debate, which is currently mired in controversy following the rejection of the invite to participate by the presidential flag-bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, alleging unhidden bias and campaign of calumny by its key organisers against the party’s corporate interest.

An indication that Tuesday’s debate will not suffer the fate of the BON-organised version has been bolstered by the acceptance of the invite through a letter by Jonathan/Sambo 2015 Presidential Campaign Organisation, while General Buhari Campaign Organisation has indicated his intention to participate in principle.

In a statement on Sunday by the APC campaign spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, the APC said its candidate would not shy away from explaining his policy plank on how to rebuild Nigeria, assuring the public that Buhari will make himself available for a debate and scrutiny like he had done in previous elections.

It added that Buhari would not hesitate to explore any opportunity to explain how he plans to rescue Nigeria from the abyss of insecurity, comatose economy, decaying infrastructure, massive unemployment and the poor public health situation into which the corrupt regime of the incumbent president has thrown it.

“What is the hullabaloo about Buhari not attending a debate organised by elements that have shown an unhidden bias towards his person, family, career and political interest?” Shehu queried.

“It is on record that the man (Buhari) had participated in previous presidential debates in 2007 and 2011, which PDP candidates did not attend.

“The APC and General Buhari have received several media invitations from different organisations and the party is still vetting the ones to attend due to time constraint and the motive of the organisers,” he said.

The reason why the APC campaign team pulled out of the debate within 24 hours to the the debate is yet unknown, as they have not given the reason why they pulled out. 

Culled from Elombah