Ask the expert: It's unwise to be a hotshot

The job credentials are quite impressive, yet no one is offering me a job. How come? DR MARIE WILSON, head of management and employment relations at the University of Auckland Business School and a veteran of 20 years in corporate management and small business, offers some helpful ideas.

Q: I've just returned from overseas, and both headhunters and company interviewers seem to be impressed by my credentials.

Maybe too impressed, because although I get interviews, I have not got any offers and the feedback is that people think I won't stick around because I'll get bored with a smaller or local company, or I am too "high-powered."

Could it be that the person interviewing me is afraid I'll take their job or show them up?

A: There are a number of possible reasons for your not landing the jobs that you are being considered for. You've already received some feedback that people think you won't stick around - what is it in your background or your interview that makes them think that?

Have you switched jobs frequently, particularly when you were in smaller companies? Have you indicated a list of things that you are looking for that your potential employer may feel they cannot offer you?

Try to think through what is important to you and spend some time researching the interviewing company so that you can explain in your interview how you think the company will be a good match for you and how your longer-term needs could be satisfied there.

The feedback on being "high-powered" could be many things: if possible, get greater clarification from either the agency or the interviewer.

It may be that you come on a little too strong in your interview; the style of self-promotion picked up in your overseas career may not sit as well in the local culture.

It may be, as you suggest that your experience and background may make your potential boss uncomfortable.

Q: A friend feels that he has reached a point where he should move on from his job and wonders whether he should see a careers counsellor. He doesn't know much about them and neither does anyone in our social circle, but I'm also interested in the idea and wondered if you could offer some tips on how to weed out the bad ones and find the right sort of counsellor for professional occupations.


A: Careers counsellors can be a valuable resource if you are at a point of taking stock or considering a change.

Many of us move through a series of positions in different industries and different career tracks, and may need help to identify opportunities beyond what you are already doing.

Counsellors may also help you to set longer-term goals and make choices that are consistent with those goals.

Select a careers counsellor the way you would any professional: ask for their qualifications and experience, and request references from other similar professionals they have worked with in the past.

Q: I would love to go and live and work overseas for a year or so, and have a good enough reputation in my field (media) to get a position.

It would mean resigning from a high-profile job without guarantee of being taken back, and with the possibility that I will lose all the momentum I have been building up.

I'm just starting to get wider recognition, but I am itchy for change. Is it foolish to take off and start all over again for what might be only a two-year stint?

A: Well, what are you risking? Certainly your current job, although you can request leave without pay and hope that your value is such that you would be welcomed back, particularly if by building skills and contacts that would be useful to your employer.

You could lose income initially while you search for a job, but that should be compensated for by increased income in an overseas job.

Research suggests that the "OE" is a good development experience for most people's careers.

Pick your time carefully, so you are likely to find work quickly and easily in your new locale.

Provide your existing employer with plenty of notice. You might also want to consider trying to arrange a job swap that could keep everyone happy.

* E-mail your questions for Dr Marie Wilson to answer.