Asking for a little advice.

[Madison]

It's the Peter Principle in practice.
Overqualified means you suspect that the person's excessive qualifications for the position they are applying for implies either a lack of interest in the position or that they will shortly move on to a position commensurate with their qualifications.

Why not just say it though, why use a blanket statement to "imply" it?

You're perfect since you said above you'd never hire another person with a law degree. Would you tell the applicant exactly that, or would you lay it under the blanket of "overqalified"?

Just curious.

[Mookie4ever]

It's the Peter Principle in practice.
Overqualified means you suspect that the person's excessive qualifications for the position they are applying for implies either a lack of interest in the position or that they will shortly move on to a position commensurate with their qualifications.

Why not just say it though, why use a blanket statement to "imply" it?

You're perfect since you said above you'd never hire another person with a law degree. Would you tell the applicant exactly that, or would you lay it under the blanket of "overqalified"?

Just curious.

I would tell them.
I would say: "Even though you could do the job I have no confidence that you would not seek out a higher paying, more responsible job better suited to your qualifications in the near future. So I am not offering you the position because you are overqualified."

[Madison]

I would tell them.
I would say: "Even though you could do the job I have no confidence that you would not seek out a higher paying, more responsible job better suited to your qualifications in the near future. So I am not offering you the position because you are overqualified."

Good man.

[Art Vandelay]

It's like the Cafe of old! This reminds me of the time we were discussing someone getting arrested for something or other, and a few of us were (rightly) saying that whatever it was should have been protected speech and the argument went on for pages and pages, then at the end Madison finally said that he was saying it shouldn't be protected speech because it wasn't "speech" it was writing (or something, I'm summarizing). Ever the literalist, at least there's never a question about where Madison stands.

[jfg]

So, to make matters worse, I just found out today that my job is being eliminated. I can take a different job at the company that is basically what I did four years ago when I started and work my way up the ladder again (not sure yet if the pay is the same or not), or take a payout and a month severance and do unemployment. There's a possibility I could land a better gig at the company, but it's not a slam dunk, it would depend on if a couple people in management who have placed their trust in me decide to stay... and I have to make my decision to stay or go by Monday. Good times.

[AussieDodger]

So, to make matters worse, I just found out today that my job is being eliminated. I can take a different job at the company that is basically what I did four years ago when I started and work my way up the ladder again (not sure yet if the pay is the same or not), or take a payout and a month severance and do unemployment. There's a possibility I could land a better gig at the company, but it's not a slam dunk, it would depend on if a couple people in management who have placed their trust in me decide to stay... and I have to make my decision to stay or go by Monday. Good times.

[Madison]

So, to make matters worse, I just found out today that my job is being eliminated. I can take a different job at the company that is basically what I did four years ago when I started and work my way up the ladder again (not sure yet if the pay is the same or not), or take a payout and a month severance and do unemployment. There's a possibility I could land a better gig at the company, but it's not a slam dunk, it would depend on if a couple people in management who have placed their trust in me decide to stay... and I have to make my decision to stay or go by Monday. Good times.

Man, really sorry to hear that.

Sounds like your company got bought or is merging or something? Management "deciding to stay or not" makes it sound like something is going on. My wife is going through a buyout/merger right now. HR department, gone. Lawyers, gone. Upper management, gone. Her job is safe since without her, there's no one to secure all the information. She does database backup stuff and a million other things. Anyway, I'd talk to the people in management and see which way they are leaning as far as staying/going, and I'd also do whatever I could to stay off of unemployment. There's a stigma with it and some employers won't hire someone who's unemployed. Even seen some job ads flat saying not to apply if you're unemployed because they won't even consider hiring you. Here's a couple of links about it:

http://www.mainstreet.com/article/career/employment/unemployed-these-companies-won-t-hire-you

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2073520,00.html

So I'd do whatever I could to stay in a job, while looking for a new/better one.

Again, sorry to hear about it, but I do wish you the best of luck!

[jfg]

Just getting rid of a couple depts in our area. It's actually growth for the company, I think they added a ton of low level jobs but where I end up is back to square one albeit with a job... Just a job I hated but got through it to be where I am now. Management is not as lucky as entry level, there probably will be some cut loose since there are two less depts.

[lastingsgriller]

Kind of late to the party and forgive me, but I have not read everything here.

1) sorry about your job, man. That sucks.

2) are you really required to put everything on your resume? I have a journalism degree, which I have not listed on my resume for over 5 years as its irrelevant. Interesting.

3) the whole argument of "if she didn't want the hours, why'd she get a law degree?" is a silly one. I'm sure she was ready for the hours when she got out of law school. Things changed and didn't work out as planned (shocking) and now she's dealing with a different set of circumstances.

4) this is obviously not the answer because of the hours involved, but her qualifications could make for a very interesting candidate to get into the management consulting industry. Has she ever tried to head down that path?