Applying for lower jobs can be a CAREER KILLER
Applying for positions lower than your skillset is often a waste of time and effort, plus it may also damage your personal brand.
Your career is a long term project, so don't undermine it and always position yourself to advance your opportunities. How will your resume read in five to ten years, or will you be able to explain adequately why you went backwards and took an inferior role.
Over the years, it has been a recurring theme that people rarely succeed in applying for positions below their level, professional expertise and background.
HR view it as a dangerous practice to put a more experienced candidate into a position (below their level) where others may perceive them as a cultural threat to their own situations. Managers may feel intimidated by their presence, plus HR may also assume that you are only using it as a "filler position" until something more suitable comes along.
There can be many reasons. However, the bottom line is that it rarely works even though in theory you would be perfect for the job.
Dumbing down of your CV exposes you to later being viewed as deceitful, and/or manipulative as the true picture will ultimately come out.
It's a dilemma that applies across all sectors and occupations.
Endeavour to match your skills, expertise and experience to the position description as much as possible...the closer the FIT the higher your chance of being considered as a real contender for the job.
Carefully research the opportunity and employer, plus always speak to any nominated person in the job advertisement and never shy away from asking probing questions to elicit core information essential to your decision-making process.
People often waste a lot of time and effort applying for lower positions that they actually have zero chance of obtaining, while unknowingly expose themselves to career ridicule years down the track.
"Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence"...Colin Powell
ACMA creates successful career paths through detailed individual assessment, research and job market analysis, combined with expert personalised coaching.
Note: A Career Development Association of Australia research paper found that when professional career guidance occurred that the participant was 2.67 times more likely to secure a job.
All program services can be delivered via our interactive online cloud-based career management "Career Talk" system and/or "one-on-one" in our Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne, Cairns or Auckland offices.
