OVER-QUALIFIED

OVER-QUALIFIED

I once knew a fellow who, upon reaching about age 40 or so, found that when he went to look for a job, he kept getting told that he was "over-qualified." He finally decided that this was just a subtle form of age discrimination, as they probably wanted some sweet young thing who would cross her legs a certain way and show the boss some nice thighs, rather than an old bald-headed man. So, in order to get a job, he began down-playing his degree, or not mentioning it at all. For one particular job, he didn't even put down that he had a high school diploma. He did the same thing with his experience, accounting for gaps in his employment by stating that he had been self-employed at the time.

One company that hired my friend invested quite a bit of time and money to train him to do the job they needed doing. When he left after a short while, they lost it, of course. Perhaps they should have done some more background checking on my friend. How would you do this? Talk to some friends in the insurance industry. When you take out a new auto or life insurance policy, don't they usually check up on you, to see how many wrecks you have had, whether or not you drink, smoke, and do drugs? If it turns out that you jump out of airplanes for fun, do dare-devil stunts, and walk tight-ropes between high-rise buildings, then you will probably be turned down or rated up for your insurance. If your lifestyle doesn't fit "the norm" (whatever that is), then your chances of buying insurance are not too good.

I once had an insurance investigator turn up in my carport one morning, and he seemed a bit stunned to see me. He must have thought he would come by and look at my car without having to be bothered with seeing me. I guess he just wanted to see if there was a car like the one I described when I took out the policy. I suppose some people would try to insure a car that didn’t exist, then claim it got “stolen” or some such, and collect on the insurance policy! Maybe he wanted to see if the car actually existed! He told me who he was and who he was with, but he didn't seem to have very many questions for me. He soon left. Another time, when I applied for a life insurance policy, my neighbors said that someone had been asking questions about me, wanting to know how many times a week I beat my wife and kids, whether or not I came home drunk late at night, whether or not I was a homosexual, and all kinds of nosey questions that they thought were pretty personal and not anybody's business. So, if insurance companies can do these kind of background checks on people, surely they can tell you whether or not an applicant's answers fit what he/she is actually living.

Perhaps I should have done more background checks on some of the people I hired in my own business over the years, as they always managed to come up "short" on their inventory when they decided to leave my employ. It was usually around $50 and it was usually in their favor. None of them actually handed me any money, and I usually did well to get most of my inventory back. I did find, however, that when I “invented a bonding company” and told applicants that they would be checked up on, that I didn't care if they had served time in prison or what, but that the bonding company was a lot more particular about who they bonded, that some applicants suddenly lost interest in the job and had another appointment to keep.

Copyright 2011 by Preston Smith, Walker Enterprises/Silver Dollar Press. All Rights Reserved.

Here’s a good website to check out: “Studio Quality Portraits For Less” - http://studio-quality-portraits-for-less.weblodge.net

Here’s another good website to check out: “Green Cleaning Products” - http://green-cleaning-products.weblodge.net

Here’s another good website to check out: “How To Adjust & Repair Your Sewing Machine” - http://www.silver-dollar.zoomshare.com

Here’s a good Forum to check out: http://dachshund-forum.forumotion.com