As it seems I’ve been doing since I graduated from law school, I’m looking for a job. Yes, I know after my six year search I finally got one - but it has some limitations (mostly pay and secondarily advancement) that keep me looking.

It used to be when I went into a job interview and the interviewer commented on me being articulate that I knew I was dead in the water. As I evolve, so do those dedicated to human resources. Lately, I’m walking into interviews and the first thing people do is look at my resume (Seven Sisters’ school - ‘ah,’ Ivy League - ‘oh’) and say, “You’ve got great credentials here.”

Yes, I know, I’m still paying through the nose for them, I think. What I say is “yes, well I’ve worked hard to achieve them” - now please give me this low paying entry level job so I can get my career started at 35.

But those four words are sounding the death knell. What I’m hearing, and writing for you sounds very positive - but what it translates to is one of three things:

Either:

  1. You’re so articulate (see link);
  2. You’re over qualified for the job; or
  3. You’re so very qualified that we’ll offer the job to someone less qualified because you’re likely to leave or you’ll surely be hired somewhere else if we do not.

What I want to tell them is there is NO other place. This is it - the last chance of the moment. I’m at the end of the line. Take me, the qualified one, please.

But alas, I am where I am. It’s too bad those ‘great credentials’ don’t translate into gas money or food money or a mortgage payment.