I’m trying to launch a career as a free-lance writer and in the meantime I need something simple to pay the bills. The job market is tough here so I’ve been applying to a broad range of jobs/skillsets.
My local grocer just around the corner is hiring cashiers, a job I could do well and would particularly enjoy working night/overnight shift. Only problem is I have a Master’s degree. I’ve had plenty of cashier’s jobs working through college but we’re talking 10 years ago, I wouldn’t even remember who to list as a supervisor if I were to include these jobs on my resume. My resume as it currently stands has a heavy emphasis on grant writing.
Some people have advised me to omit the Master’s degree, others have told me that’s a terrible idea. What’s the straight dope on applying for jobs you’re overqualified for?
Should I alter my resume somehow?
What the hell do I put in my cover letter?
Etc.
If you show up looking for a cashier job with a master’s on your resume, the employer is going to assume you’re slumming it while looking for a better job, and you’ll bolt as soon as that better job comes along. So yes, I’d leave the master’s, and frankly any college related stuff, off the resume.
Cover letter for a cashier position? It is to laugh.
Is a résumé really in order here? I’d expect an application, online if the grocer is a chain.
As a person who has done hiring for positions that did not require any sort of degree, I’d have held your Master’s degree against you in the hiring process for the simple reason that it screams “this is not the job I want, but I will grudgingly and bitterly do it only until something better turns up,” so I say leave it off.
As someone who regularly hires cashiers, that wouldn’t be the first thing I thought. We hire mostly teens and 20 year olds (high school/college kids). Every once in a while we’ll get a real resume from someone WAY over qualified. Our fear is that we’ll hire this person and they’re not going to be all that thrilled getting paid $8.00/hr (say 20-30 per week) when I can see their last few jobs paid 40-70k per year. That and I worry that they’ll leave after a few months when they find out that working in my store isn’t very satisfying based on their resume.
Personally, my advice is don’t hand in a resume, just fill out an application like all the other 16 year olds do and for salary put ‘open’ or leave it blank or put a dollar or two over minimum. If you put $25/hr they’re going to stop there.
It’ll ask where you went to college, just put your undergrad. If it comes up in the interview, you can mention your masters but I would explain that you’re just planning to do free lance stuff on the side not that you’re looking for a full time job, so they don’t think you’re going to bolt in a month.
One last thing, something you do have going for you right now at small stores is that most of them just lost a significant part of their crew to school. Their high school kids don’t come in until 3:30 and their college kids are gone until June. If you can be at work at 7 and stay until 3 or 4, they’re probably be happy to have you.
Don’t emphasize it. But don’t lie about it, either. If you are asked to complete an application and it asks about your education, be truthful. Lying on your application is an enormous ‘no-no’. I know people do it, but it’s unprofessional and unwise.
If you get a chance to interview with the owner or hiring supervisor, tell them it won’t be a stopgap job for you, that you will take it seriously as your prime source of income which will allow you to also pursue your field of interest. It’s going to be obvious to whomever speaks with you that you are more than a high school graduate. If you don’t come clean, you’ll look as though you have something to hide and who would hire a cashier they can’t trust?
Yes, it’s difficult to get a job you are overqualified for, but trying to disguise who and what you are is bound to backfire.
Okay, can someone explain something? I hear this all the time, that if someone applies to a retail job for which they are overqualified, it looks like they’re just biding their time until something better comes along. I get that. But who cares? The way I see it, 1) a teenager is just as likely to leave, for numerous reasons, and 2) you get lots of applications and it’s not like the onboarding process is that onerous. It was like four hours of training in my high school retail days. You’re not setting up Salesforce accounts for them or anything.
This always got me, too. Just earlier in the thread it was mentioned retail has lost a lot of workforce due to school starting again – so it’s not like retail doesn’t have turnover and people moving in and out all the time. To vet candidates as though they should want to work there for years on end seems ridiculous. Very few people want to work retail - particularly floor retail - as their career. You’re not going to get people who stay for years because they want to. Not even 17-year-olds. We built an entire culture on the idea that nobody wants to stay and work retail. So it’s always seemed crazy that “you’re just going to want to leave” is even a reason. No, duh. Now give me a real reason not to hire me. I’d be bored? Doesn’t matter, I need money. Give me a better reason. So on and so forth.
I have gotten two retail jobs since my Master’s, I included my MA one one, but not the other…an was hired for both.
The first one was at a store in the mall, I ended up being hired as a sort of team lead and got an extra buck an hour (which turned into ANOTHER buck an hour after the year raise…that’s a funny, yet separate, story). I ended up leaving that one after my move to Florida.
Here in Florida all I can get is freelance stuff which pays well, but the work is few and far between, so in order to keep my relationship intact and not just mooch of Ms. Cups, I went back to a job I had years ago at The Bullseye.
I didn’t include the MA on this application because I didn’t see a purpose for it (it honestly isn’t going to affect whether I get hired over someone else) and I was mostly riding on previous experience.
I guess that doesn’t answer your question too terribly much, but I would say leave it off and just put your undergrad stuff because the grocery store isn’t going to give you more money, or pick you over the HS’er because of your MA
Leaving irrelevant things off of your job application is not lying. If there is a question that specifically asks if you have a Master’s degree and you do, you should admit it, but there won’t be.
Saying it won’t be a stopgap though, is a lie, so why bring that up?
They don’t need to give you a reason not to hire you–its on you to give them a reason TO hire you. It isn’t in their interest to hire someone who doesn’t want to be there, acts like they think they are too good for the job, and plans to leave at the first possible opportunity. People who like their jobs and are enthusiastic to have them are an asset, while educated people who are bored and annoyed to be there bring everyone down.
You don’t have to be an educated person to hate and be bored with a lowest-rung retail-lackey job. I worked with plenty of young, uneducated people who stole from the company, acted like they were too good for the job, and/or planned to leave at the first possible opportunity. I think there’s this inaccurate perception out there that you can make young people do menial work and they’ll love it because they will be so grateful or don’t know any better.
Obviously a smart employer will ALSO want to weed out unenthusiastic uneducated people. The ideal candidate likes the job, is good at it, and wants to stay a while. Some people actually don’t mind doing menial work, but since basically no one gets a Master’s degree with the hope that they can one day become a grocery store cashier, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the degree-holder is not that person. When no better candidate presents themselves, sure, they could still be hired, but why make yourself look less-appealing when applying for a job?
Taking a half-hour of your time to fill out the application paperwork seems to be more than adequate indication that you want the job, and the job has high turnover anyway. There’s really no reason not to hire you other than they’re jealous of you or view you as a threat in some way.
I’m overqualified for my current position. Yes, I have a master’s. No, I never indicated it anywhere when I applied X years ago, but I did indicate I have a B.A. The interviewer didn’t blink twice over that. All he and the department manager at the time cared about was whether I knew what I was doing. I was tested. I passed. I was hired.
Fast forward to the present time. A couple of my longtime coworkers know I have a master’s. It’s something I don’t normally discuss, mostly because I never want to seem like I’m bragging. My coworkers over the years have known/still know that I’d taught in the past, I read a lot, and I’m the go-to person when it comes to spelling or translating something technical.
Sometimes what you do, or need to do, doesn’t jibe with your education. As long as you enjoy it (which I do) and are good at it, that piece of paper matters less in the long run.
Most applications do specify “what is the highest level of education you completed” or terminology similar to that. If you don’t answer honestly, that’s lying. If it doesn’t ask such a question, fine, no need to volunteer it.
As to it not being a stop-gap job, if I’m understanding the OP correctly, he or she is looking for a job to see him or her through setting up as a writer. I’m presuming the plan is to become a writer with an income. This isn’t going to happen overnight. If the OP is offered and takes the cashiering job, he or she will be working that job for a while. In retail, a plan to stay upwards of six months is pretty long-term.
