Should employers hire the overqualified?

NORFOLK

Wanted: Special events coordinator for Virginia Zoo. A bachelor's degree in marketing or communications and two to three years' experience in special events preferred. Some evening and weekend work required.

The zoo's job posting this year attracted 400 applicants, about 10 times more than the last time it sought to fill the position, said Annie Vogt, the zoo's director of development and communications.

No less surprising were the credentials of the candidates. "I would say at least a quarter of those applicants were overqualified," Vogt said.

In addition to recent college graduates, they included someone with 10 years in business management and another candidate who'd worked 20 years in public relations. Some used to earn four times the "low to mid-20s" salary that Vogt expected to offer.

She had to decide: Hire the best applicant just out of college or one with far more experience than needed for the job?

It's a choice many employers must confront during the economic decline.

Mid- and higher-level professionals struggling to find work after losing their jobs are increasingly seeking positions at lower levels and pay.

Applicants to Busch Gardens have included "teachers, firefighters, police officers and executives," human resources director Angie Butler said in an e-mail.

"I've had attorneys applying for paralegal positions," said Jennifer Tomlin, chief operating officer for the Don Richard Associates staffing agency in Norfolk. "I've got former office managers and executive assistants to CEOs register for temporary work and are flexible for the standard clerical assignment."

Accountants with up to 10 years' experience and supervisory backgrounds are applying for entry-level CPA jobs, said Corey Edmonds, the managing director in Richmond for the Mergis Group recruitment firm.

So does it behoove an employer to hire someone with credentials significantly beyond the scope of the job?

A slight majority of employers and staffing agencies say: Go with the less bulky resume.

The overqualified candidate is "a flight risk," said Edmonds, who oversees recruitment in Virginia and central North Carolina for Mergis. "As the market comes back, a candidate once open to a staff-level opportunity now sees a management-level opportunity in another company and may leave."

That's what happened with one of the companies that contracts with Mergis. "They hired this individual who had been at XYZ firm and had more experience than they needed," Edmonds said. "They thought they'd buy up and get more experience for a cheaper price, and, unfortunately, the person jumped ship."

At the Geico insurance agency's office in Virginia Beach, regional vice president Joe Thomas has encountered master's recipients for jobs "where a basic college degree is fine" and people who once made $150,000 seeking $30,000 positions. He's reluctant to hire them.

"Someone taking a 50 percent pay cut - there's probably a whole lifestyle that needs to be supported," Thomas said. "It would be a struggle with what our starting salaries are."

Geico, he said, "looks for the person who we think is going to be happy and successful doing our work. If this was a temporary way station until things got better - we wouldn't see the advantage of that."

In an extreme case, three people with master's degrees applied for a scooper's job at Handel's Homemade Ice Cream and Yogurt in Virginia Beach this year. "I didn't hire any of the three," co-owner Sharon Martin said. One had a "delightful personality" but later acknowledged that she would probably end up looking for another position.

The job, Martin said, requires 10 hours of training: "That's a lot of time. We get them to know what they're doing. We hope they'll stay with us and not walk out the door."

Of course, there's a flip-side argument.

"Good managers are going to hire the best people that they can get," said Rozanne "Roze" Worrell, a local workplace consultant who writes a column for The Virginian-Pilot's Career Connection section. "What's extremely important is to make sure the person will be a good fit and they understand what they're entering into."

To retain that person, Worrell said, a firm should consider requiring a minimum commitment of one year.

Tomlin from Don Richard said: "If that overqualified person is going to enhance the company, inspire the team and lead them back to greatness, the employer is going to take that chance and run with it and come out on top. This is a time to acquire talent that you would not have seen otherwise."

Overqualified candidates can win over interviewers, Edmonds said, with a candid appraisal of how they will adjust to their new positions.

"Employers are getting more granular and getting into personal situations as a means of evaluating credibility," he said. They're more willing to hire professionals taking a steep pay cut if "they've refined their living expenses, explaining their situation, how they've changed their plans and how they will be meeting their newfound career goals."

At the zoo, Vogt was torn.

"We were certainly open and excited about the prospect of getting somebody who might have a lot of experience," she said. "We also felt like we needed to do the right thing by the zoo. Our goal was to find somebody we hope can stay with us for a couple of years."

In the interviewing process, some of the higher-end candidates dropped out, Vogt said, uncomfortable either with the salary or the job duties. "The individual needs to be able to shlep chairs and tables. We ran into some folks that it was really a little bit too hands-on for them, and they indicated it."

In April, she hired a student about to graduate from Old Dominion University.

"She's working out very well - very motivated and a very hard worker," Vogt said in an e-mail last week.

Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com