Right I need a sh1t job to feel the fridge. I have seen something looking for a degree in chemistry so far I fit the bill.
Some knowledge of the English language is appreciated (I tick this box as well) and there is a few other requirement that I largely meet.
However, and that is a big issue I know for sure that if I send them my CV as it is I am never going to get the job because I am over qualified. No matter what I tell them they wont take the risk.
S now I need and inspiring idea to make my PhD my post-doc and possibly my masters disappear (that is making me cry 🙁 ).
Any clever ideas?

well you are the clever one, work it out for yourself 😉

JOKE

Self employed

You did some research work at a university.

You can’t, and being employed on the basis of a lie would be good grounds for problems and rather unfair on the person employing you?

you were doing time?

You were living the dream.

You were living the dream.

Some knowledge of the English language is appreciated (I tick this box as well)

Sure, if your name is Borat!

On a serious point, as Coffeeking said, you can’t. Maybe you can hide a year here or there, or rather you don’t differentiate between the months, just the years, but you can’t hide 6 years without it being completely duplicitous and therefore grounds for instant dismissal should/when the truth comes out.

Best advice I can give is not to send your CV in the first instance, but rather ring and speak to the person looking to make the hire. DO your research on them as an individual (LinkedIn, general Google etc) and as a company – http://www.ft.com or similar – then call them and try to build some rapport with them. Explain who you are, that you’re very inerested in the position and that you wanted the opporutnity to bring yourself to their attention and discuss the position before you sent your CV in formally.

If you do this, you will get the chance to position your 6 years of brain boxing and mitigate the idea that you might be over qualified.

Honesty is always the best policy – if the job is below your capabilities you will hate it – why put yourself and the employer through it ? Sorry.

3 options;

1) you were the French Cultural Attache for Southampton, and you got awarded an honorary degree for your services to the young ladies of that place.
2) You had a sex change; you used to be called Juanita and have spent the last 6 years having a penis reconstructed.
3) Tell the truth.

if the job is below your capabilities you will hate it

Quite possibly, however it will pay the bills and it will actually offer me better wage than McD.
I was planning on calling them (actually I did today, but the person in charge was out) and I know most of waht I need to know about them.
I was thinking in changing name of my PhD (computing science rather than chemistry) which lets face it isn’t even a lie (a bit like when someone ask you about the colour of the bike you’re selling you reply “it’s not black” for a red bike).
Other than that I had no more idea. I know lying on a CV is a big issue but france is so shit and I am desperate to get a job.

Although the above are correct, if you need this job right now then you may have to be economical with the truth. Being over qualified must be a gutting situation to be in, especially if there’s nowt available that you are suitably qualified for.

I would put it down as research assitant work, technician etc. Focus on the practical sides of your PhD. And be prepared for a whole lot of problems if/when you get caught out. Be prepared for it being short-term position.

PS if your academic work was in France, it might be harder for them to check the details? I wouldn’t advocate actual proper lying though, you’ll go to hell for that.

mowgli job is in france
PhD was in the UK

Well just make something up working for 6 years in the UK – they ain’t going to check
Tell them you WCAs personal fluffer or something

I found it hard to hide 7 years of my life.
I had to create a whole new idenity, set up fake companies with phone lines routed to phones I purchased for friends to anwswer and give references for. Websites setup and email address’s as well.

It can be done, but it takes a bit of planning.

The problem is not that you’re over qualified but rather the French employment laws that ostensibly discourage giving anyone a job ever.

Just say you were in the nick

Foreign Legion?

lose a bit off the beginning and end by fudging dates, the rest you were research assistant or some sort of minion at the uni

Right I need a sh1t job to feel the fridge

Oh the irony, you even type with a French accent.

In a coma from inhaling brain farts 😯

travelling europe and various other countries – various menial jobs inculding bar work, picking fruit,factory work to fund this lifestyle etc MTB guide somehwere for summers??????
I assume you are well enough travelled to pull of this ?????
Met a UK lass hence why so much time in UK perhaps a menial job in southampton??? Worked for Uni or a company that went bust after the recession – perhaps you worked for her dad – he wont give you a reference as you broke her heart.
just dont be ridiculous and make sure you can pull it off at interview

Hmm just had this issue myself, 2nd question in the interview, “With your research experience, if we hire you, you will just leave when you find something better, so I doubt we will go further with you” 😡 To which I replied, “why did you waste my time asking me here today then?

juan – Member
Right I need a sh1t job to feel the fridge.

Swear filter avoidance Juan. You’d best hope that no one reports you to the Mods.

Join the club, if the hiring Manager is fine, you’ll find that his boss (who is junior to you/me) isn’t – IME…

If you did your academic work at a rubbish uni, you can claim that it didn’t really count.

🙄

You could claim you wasted 6 years doing a PhD and never finished or failed. Unlikely to check that you were actually awarded a PhD.

I certainly wouldn’t want to employ such a waste of space so you may be in with a chance?

Don’t be embarrassed by your academic background, just be upfront and honest about why you want the job and can do it. A few years ago I was in a similar position – applied to the NAO who asked, with my background, what on earth was I applying for! When I convinced them I was serious and my motivation was genuine, they offered me a position… Never took it though – I carried on with another Senior Fellowship.

Is there such a thing as over qualifed in the job market these days?
Where I work in a good job market we would just have the lower end of the spectrum applying, in the last 6 months we have taken on 4 people with degrees and 1 with a masters.

Is there such a thing as over qualifed in the job market these days?

Oh yes, but its more about experience and the (perceived) threat to your boss.

Is there such a thing as over qualifed in the job market these days?

Oh yes, because as austin says recruiters will think straight away that you will leave once you’ve found something better.
But I got some quite good ideas 😀 (maybe I could put WCA as reference ;))

Juan, tell the truth. That’s the best advice I can give you.

Others have stressed talking directly to the recruiting contact. This is good. The ideal is to make a job for you, not apply to a job that is for someone else.

The ideal is to make a job for you, not apply to a job that is for someone else.

Now fred give CFH his account back… He can’t possibly write something that lefty 😉

On a more serious note CFH it’s either that, or cooking burgers at McD. The former is going to be paid has much as a post-doc, the latter barely enough to end the month above 0.

I am in a similar position. Not easy to convince somebody that after 10 years of running your own thing you want to be an employee. Overqualified, overqualified, overqualified…

Go for a job that suits you?

Six year coma? There’s no doubt a few ideas from soap operas you could use…

I bet you wish you had stuck in at school now eh?