Does my academic history put people off?

[tom00_uk]

At university I studied environmental biology and had an industrial placement year, where as a environmental assistant i worked on the implementation of the Welsh environmental management scheme “green Dragon” and help the construction teams to work in a sustainable fashion.
The year after university after working in a shop for a bit I went on to work as a laboratory technician. All the while applying for environmental work but getting the thanks but no thanks emails, letters or the plain cold shoulder and no reply.
So I studied an msc in aquatic biology and resource management at Exeter this year as the conservation msc was massively oversubscribed and I did not fancy having to have a undergrad sized class for an expensive post grad.
I’m now coming to the end of a stay overseas working on a inter-calibration between two methods currently used by differing countries to look at contamination in the aquatic environment, for the European Union as my masters project.

But even with all this I’m lucky if I even get a reply to an application, when I have been interviewed in the past, I have always landed the job, but now i don’t seem to be able to even get passed the application stage
I have asked a couple of firms why I’m not suitable and I’m either told I’m over qualified and they cannot employ a flight risk or as I’m only a graduate again I’m automatically excluded from the application pile.

So after this nice long chest clearing post, has any one got any advice they think will help me land a role?

[thunder]

Originally Posted by tom00_uk

So after this nice long chest clearing post, has any one got any advice they think will help me land a role?

Keep on trying!

No reply, or a plain no, was par for the course over thirty years ago. I guess it is still the same now!

henrya

[eeyore]

what kind of jobs are you applying for ?

in a lot of fields it will not be you academic background this is putting people off per se but a lack of real world experience.

Depending on what you want to do you may have to volunteer for sometime to get this experience before employers will take you seriously. (arguably unless you want to work in academia voluntary experience is a more worthwhile use of your time and money than a post grad qualification)

[Words]

It's obviously fairly competitive out there. Have you sought advice from the careers people at Exeter? Not so much the type of job (though they may be able to help), but about CV production, interview technique and so on.

As for being over qualified, you need to be very convincing that the particular job is the one for you. I know from experience (the other side of the fence) that interviewers want to be absolutely certain that someone who seems over qualified is seriosu about it. That's large part showing enthusiasm for the role, explaining why you want *this* job and somehow getting across that you're not just applying for everything that's out there. Not easy, but possible.

Hopefully things will ease up when you get your results. Good luck with those!

[tom00_uk]

cheers

[dampflippers]

I was going to suggest volunteer work too.
Try your wildlife trust, National Trust, BTCV, your local reptile and amphibian group, local bat or Badger group. Do as much as you can and get your name known.
Keep a record of what you do and where.

I've just heard about this job- I don't know where you are.
http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/jobs.nsf...2574570047B9FD

[coasty]

I have got agree with Eeyore on this. It seems to me that there are a number of issues..
(1) Each generation of graduates shows an over supply in certain disciplines ,for Instance two years ago in York. I advertised for people to operate a database and do data input... I had over 200 applicants 20% of whom had good degrees in computing related subjects I interviewed several of them the common thread was they realised there were to many grads for related positions. many were then giving up on computing entirely.
(2) As Eeyore rightly says I dont beleive all the qualifications that you do have are the issue. Its what you dont have thats the problem.
(3) Incidentally I share an office with our companies main Eco manager. He is a reformed bricky that has studied part time. Point is that the construction knowledge he has is just as important if not more important than the eco knowledge.
(4) I think in the real world you have to be flexible and perhaps go of at a tangent to the degree you have. Get some experience and hope to steer yourself back towards the position you want.
I do wish you well its a tough old world and it can be difficult to get a toe hold,,,,,