GenY: You're Overqualified? Prove it.

How can you truly convince someone that you’re overqualified for a job? Consistently get the job done as efficiently as possible and over-deliver on whatever is asked.

If you’re asked to build 10 widgets, build the 10, go back and offer to build 20. If you’re asked to review a spreadsheet, review it and then see if you can add columns/fields that will provide even more meaningful information. If you’re asked to create a new summary report for the last quarter, finish that, create a summary for the last 6 quarters and highlight trends.

Do you see where I’m going with this? Always go the extra mile, always provide added-value in whatever you do. Believe me, it’s noticed. It doesn’t matter what the task is, or how menial it might seem. If you’re truly overqualified, your work will speak for itself.

Several graduates (GenY) seem to be under the impression that because they’ve learned something in theory (school) that they can readily apply it in practice (the real business world) and expect huge responsibilities right from the start. If that were the case, we should all be walking into management positions right out of school. Clearly this isn’t the case.

You have to walk before you can run. Although you might think you’ve already run a marathon because you got straight A’s in school, that doesn’t mean anything. This is the real world now, show them you can walk comfortably without a teacher (or supervisor) holding your hand and eventually someone will untie you so you can run!