Rest assured, during every interview process, there are always candidates who don’t perfectly fit the position’s mold.

But what if you’re too overqualified? It’s important to stress how and why your skill set would be an asset to the company, but it can be difficult to convey this without seeming too far beyond what the job requires.

Follow these Do’s and Don’ts to help you find a satisfying job that offers new challenges, regardless of how long your resume is.

1) DON’T – Undersell

Your skill-set could very well be above what the interviewer is looking for, but that doesn’t mean you need to leave anything out. Don’t be afraid to list things outside of job experience.

A truly qualified candidate won’t just have expertise in the field, but a great personality and activities that could impress a hiring manager. Hiding any of your many assets could put him or her off and convince them you’re not really a good fit, and this only moves your career backwards.

Point out earlier experiences in which you grew and changed with a company, citing promotions or awards.

This can prove your motivation to work hard in a lower-level position, without implying that you would be unhappy to start small.

2) DO – Be Honest

It’s most likely immediately obvious that you could be too heavy on qualifications for the desired position. This is not a bad thing. While there’s no need to bluntly say you are overqualified, it doesn’t hurt to point out the list of skills you have at hand, even if it’s long.

Honesty in this regard could very well impress a hiring manager, and they’ll be excited to gain an employee who is obviously a fast, intelligent learner.

3) DON’T – Show Desperation

In this economy, it’s true that many job seekers could be searching “below” their desired positions, but it certainly won’t do you any favors to point this out.

Your interest in the position alone proves that you want the job, and it’s up to you to show competency. Your resume and cover letter can be tweaked to highlight key experiences relevant to the position, as opposed to an extensive work background that, while impressive, might not be relevant.

Be forthright in indicating how and why you will be a great hire at this particular company, without implying you’re “slumming it” by applying.

4) DO – Be Enthusiastic

A priceless commodity in an interview is enthusiasm. Interviewers immediately weed out potential employees who are less-than sparkling during an interview. Your experience may have gotten you in the door, but it’s your attitude that will truly stick in a potential employer’s mind.

Explain life experiences relevant to the job, or moments throughout your working life in which you believe you learned valuable lessons.

Animated, engaging people are a pleasure to interview, and you shouldn’t be afraid to sell YOU instead of selling your skills.

5) DON’T – Discuss Dollar Figures

This may be the sorest of subjects among overqualified candidates. Keep in mind, just because you’ve made more money than you are currently seeking doesn’t make you the perfect candidate.

Always steer the conversation towards skills and experiences rather than previous salary. If your interviewer seems concerned you’re more of a flight risk in light of lower pay, point out your history of loyalty or longevity at previous companies.

A Harvard Business Review article cites a study proving “overqualified” candidates often out-perform their counterparts, and have no greater quit rate than co-workers of more limited experience.

Deeming the desired job a satisfying challenge rather than a temporary fix can help assuage the interviewer’s fears.

6) DO – Try Your Best To Find a Fitting Position

Finding a job is hard enough, finding one that is perfect is near impossible. Do your best to seek out jobs that match up with your resume as much as possible, while also avoiding the desire to settle for something that could be unsatisfying to you.

Your experience may be at a higher level than that desired by a young startup, but your skills can help any manager. A great employer will want to surround themselves with expertise that will make their team look great.

Conversely, aiming outside of an industry relevant to your previous employment could get your resume tossed outright. Perhaps you’ll get an interview for a job with lower pay than you’re used to, but an employee who works hard to meet challenges can quickly rise through the ranks.

You did it. You interviewed like a champ, you followed up, and you got the job offer. Congratulations!

But wait. Your work isn’t done yet. Now you must negotiate your compensation, your perks and your start date.

Where do you go from here? Will you blow it, come across as greedy, if you ask for too much? Will you sell yourself short if you ask for too little? Many applicants simply accept the first offer for fear of jeopardizing it. Often, they leave money and perks on the table.

Now you finally have some real power. They want you. They selected you over all of the other candidates. You have some leverage to ask for what you want.

The first rule is that you don’t play the numbers game until the time is right. Do whatever you can to avoid being the first person to name a number.

Early in the interviewing process, both you and the employer will likely try to determine if there’s a match in terms of compensation. If you speak first with a recruiter, she may provide a salary range and will likely ask you how much you’re making and how much you want to make in your next position.

When asked to name your price early in the process, your first response should be deflection. You don’t want to price yourself too low or too high before you know the company’s position. The best answer is, “For the right opportunity, I would be open to considering any competitive offer.”

Do what you can to find out the company’s salary range for this position and the going market rate for similar positions. If the recruiter won’t give up the information, conduct some research through your network.

Sites like Payscale.com, Salary.com and Glassdoor.com also provide information on average compensation and even salaries for specific jobs at specific companies. This will help you set some parameters around what you’re worth.

For some companies, there is little or no negotiating room beyond the set salary range and benefit package.

When to Negotiate

The company that wants to hire you has also done its research and knows what their competitors are paying. You should know this, too, so that you’ll know whether their offer is competitive and fair.

The conventional wisdom is that the hirer will open with a offer fifteen or twenty percent below what is budgeted to allow room to negotiate. Always let the hirer make the initial offer and take it from there.

If you’ve done your research (see above), you’ll know if the offer is generous or stingy. If the number seems less than competitive, you should feel free to counter. Can you name a number that would satisfy? Counter with a number slightly above what would make you happy. The end game is bartering until you reach a number both sides can live with.

You must approach this negotiation with some diplomacy. After all, you want to get the best possible offer you can get without jeopardizing a “good enough” offer.

Make it clear that you remain very interested in the position throughout the negotiation. Don’t be afraid to drop hints about other offers and possibilities. Let them know that you’re an in-demand candidate and have other options. However, don’t deliver an ultimatum unless you’re fully prepared to follow through. It’s also generally best to avoid revealing which other companies you are considering since this can tip your hand.

Even for companies without the ability to meet your salary demands, there may be room to negotiate. For the right candidate, they may be able to offer perks to make up for a lower-than-desired salary. Think about vacation time, office space, telecommuting privileges, training, and other criteria that could improve your quality of work life. You might also be able to negotiate a three-month or six-month review with an associated pay increase if you have met specific goals.

Get It In Writing

Once you’ve reached an agreement and accepted the offer, make sure you receive a written offer letter that includes all of the details that were negotiated.

Until you have the offer in writing, it’s just talk. That means you should keep your other options open. Don’t cancel other interviews or announce your new job to everybody you know.

Now Get to Work

Once you have the offer in writing and your start date scheduled, it’s time to celebrate! Congratulations on your new job and your excellent interviewing performance.

You may be breathing a sigh of relief that you’re done with the job interview process (for now). You’ve conquered the dragon.

Just remember that you never know when the next opportunity will come along. Now you’ll be prepared. The communications and persuasion skills that you learned and developed during the interview process will also help you on the job.

Good luck in your new position.

Related articles

• How to Negotiate Your Next Salary (blogs.hbr.org)
• When to Talk About Salary (money.usnews.com)
• 7 Tried-and-True Steps for Negotiating a Job Offer (money.usnews.com)

A quick lesson in eye contact Dos and Don’ts.

An informational interview is usually a bit more casual than a typical job interview. However, your goal is to make a good impression and ideally establish a professional relationship with the person across the table.

That means you should follow all of our advice about eye contact, body language, and etiquette as you would in a job interview. You should also take pains to avoid common mistakes:

1) Don’t overstay your welcome.

Hold yourself to that 30-minute maximum unless the other person wants to continue.

2) Don’t get too personal.

Sure, go ahead and establish rapport and talk about your mutual contacts, industry trends, the weather, and the movie you saw last night. Just don’t use this as a venting session to talk about your idiot ex-boss, your marriage troubles, or your skin condition. This is a business meeting.

3) Don’t expect miracles.

Don’t walk in clueless and expect the person to explain all of the mysteries of her profession in 30 minutes or less. Show that you’re serious and well-informed and you’re more likely to impress.

4) Don’t act desperate.

Be confident or fake confidence. I know this can be challenging in the midst of a challenging job hunt. However, a confident attitude will help you establish credibility as a smart, qualified candidate. Don’t ask, “What do you think I’m doing wrong?” Instead, keep it proactive. Say, “It’s a tough market right now. What strategies do you think I should try?”

5) Don’t ask for too much.

It’s okay to ask if the person has suggestions about what steps to take — people to contact, events to attend, companies to research. Just don’t push. Be grateful for any leads offered.

I also recommend offering to return the favor by helping the person in any way that you can. You may be able to facilitate an introduction, provide an objective opinion, or spread the word about the company’s new product or the person’s favorite charity.

Accept the Job Offer or Walk Away?
by Amy Gallo, Harvard Business Review
The hiring manager calls with great news: the job is yours. Phew, the hard part is over, right? Maybe not. Determining whether to take a job offer can — and should — be a difficult decision.

7 Career Advice Myths
by Steve Tobak, CBS News
From your parents telling you the early bird gets the worm to that personal branding blog you read just last week, everyone and his brother has advice on how to advance your career.

It’s Not a Job Search, It’s a Permanent Campaign
by Dorie Clark, Harvard Business Review
Unfortunately, it’s not enough just to worry about it at “election time” — i.e., when you’re seeking a promotion or looking for a new job. The permanent campaign truly is ongoing, and all successful candidates (of the job or political variety) need to recognize a few new truths.

Stop Lying! And The Nine Other Mistakes You’re Making On LinkedIn
by Meghan Casserly, Forbes
You know the truth. You’re simply not yourself online. As TV journalist Lisa Ling said recently, “Facebook is the life that we want people to believe we lead.”

Top 7 Resume Grammatical Errors – And How To Avoid Them
by Allie Gray Freeland, SimplyHired
Your resume is your best foot forward within a company. It’s a hiring manager’s first exposure to who you are as an employee – and if it is laden with grammatical errors – your lack of attention to detail will translate to your prospective employer as carelessness and lack of professionalism.

Five Career Lessons From Han Solo
by Matthew Herper, Forbes
Climbing the corporate ladder – or figuring out when to jump off – has never been harder. Luckily you can learn everything you need to know from the ultimate business renegade: a the spice smuggler from Corellia who became a general, and saved a galaxy.

Once you’ve analyzed the job description and understand the key competencies for the job, you can anticipate a majority of the questions you will face in the interview.

To do so, however, you must learn to think from the perspective of the interviewer. It is her job to help find a suitable candidate for this position. Hiring the right person will make her job (and thus life) easier and make her look good to her bosses. So what does she need to learn to conclude you’re the best candidate on which to take a chance?

1) Are you qualified to do the job well?

At minimum, you must have the experience and training to handle the day-to-day duties of the position. It’s not enough to have an impressive résumé — many résumés are exaggerated or even falsified. Your interviewer will want to probe to verify your background, learn more about the details, and identify any potential gaps.

Remember that you are likely being evaluated in relation to a number of other strong candidates. Beyond the minimum qualifications, your interviewer will be looking for what makes you different and how you can contribute in this specific role at this specific organization.

Sample Questions About Qualifications

•Tell me about yourself. Here’s your chance to kick off the interview with a concise sales pitch that highlights what makes you the best choice.

•What are your strengths and weaknesses? Your interviewer will be looking for strengths that will help you shine in the job and weaknesses that won’t be handicaps.

•Walk me through your resume. Be prepared to describe each position concisely, with emphasis on the experience and responsibilities most relevant to the opportunity at hand.

•Tell me about a time when you… Behavioral questions are designed to draw out the details of how you’ve handled specific scenarios and projects in previous positions. Past behavior will give your interviewer a good idea of future performance. These questions will focus on competencies such as teamwork, problem solving, communication, and time management.

•What experience do you have with X? Often, interviewers will ask specifically about your experience with a particular type of project, process, or technology.

2) Are you a good fit?

Your interviewer also wants to get a sense of your work style and personality and understand your compatibility with the company culture, the work environment and the other personalities in the department.

If you get this position, your interviewer will likely be working closely with you. Part of her decision will be asking herself, “Can I see myself working late nights under pressure with this person?”

In some cases, your interviewer will also be selfishly wondering, “Can I see this person outshining me or taking over my job?” She may hesitate to hire someone who could be competition for promotions, raises, and glory. You must demonstrate that you’re a team player and not in too much of a rush to get promoted — or angling for your boss’s job.

Sample Questions About Fit

•Why are you interested in this position? Your answer will reveal a lot about your work preferences and interests. Have you done your homework about the organization? Are you sincerely interested in the opportunity as a long-term fit?

•Why are you looking for a new opportunity now? Your interviewer will want to understand why you’ve decided to leave your current situation (or why you have recently left). The answer could reveal potential performance or attitude problems or a mismatch between what you want and what the company offers.

•What is your ideal work environment? The hiring manager wants to know if you can fit in and thrive within the company’s culture.

•Tell me about a time when you… Behavioral questions can help an interviewer understand your personality, how you think, and how you have approach conflict or difficulty in the past.

•What did you like/dislike about a previous position? This question is will help the interviewer clarify your work preferences and areas of interest.

3) Are you a risky hire?

Your interviewer knows that a bad hire will reflect badly on her skills as a manager. If she hires you and you don’t perform, she will have to pick up the slack or deal with the consequences. She wants to avoid this at all costs (especially if the person in the role previously was not a good fit).

At the same time, your interviewer wants to make sure that you are truly interested in this job and likely to stick around if the company invests time and money in hiring and training you. If you give the impression that you consider yourself overqualified, or that you don’t see a long-term career path at the company, you raise the red flag that you will quit as soon as a better opportunity comes along.

Your interviewer also wants to know that you have integrity and a strong work ethic. Will you be a dependable employee? Have you ever been fired? Have you caused conflict in previous positions?

Sample Questions About Risk

•Why did you leave each of your previous positions? The interviewer will be looking for danger signs here. Have you ever been fired? Do you have a history of short tenures or conflicts with managers?

•Explain any short job tenures or long gaps in employment. If you were in any previous positions for less than year, you must explain why. The interviewer wants to make sure you’re not a flake or a job hopper. If you have been out of work for an extended period of time, you will be asked about it. In a difficult job market, gaps are common and easily explained. However, even if the gap is understandable, employers want to hear that you have been proactively seeking opportunities and improving your skills.

•How have you handled conflict in the past? This may be asked as a behavioral question such as: “Tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult manager/customer/coworker.” The hiring manager wants to know that you can professionally handle disagreements and/or personality differences on the job.

•Where do you see yourself in five years? This question is designed to draw out your long-term career goals. Many candidates find it difficult to predict the future and stumble over this question. Generally, interviewers just want to find out if you are likely to stay and grow with the company if they invest in you.

In addition, there are some common themes that come up again and again in interviews for specific job types. We have spent years working with clients interviewing for jobs in various industries and with recruiters and human resources managers from companies of all types. As a result, we have developed a database of hundreds of common questions. We have designed Big Interview to make it easy for you to predict which of these questions are most likely to come up in your next job interview.

Related articles

• Job interview? What you really need to know (cbsnews.com)
• What Employers Are Really Looking For – A Job Interview Primer (biginterview.com)
• A Fail-Safe Guide for Interview Prep (money.usnews.com)

Your resume has six seconds to get you a job
by Eve Tahmincioglu, MSNBC/Life
How much time do you have to make a first impression? About as much time as it just took you to read this sentence.

The Killer Resume: How to Get Hired by the Machines
by Cindy Perman, CNBC.com
If you are still writing your resume for the humans, you’re doing it wrong.

Three Keys to (Much) Better Decisions
by Tony Schwartz, Harvard Business Review
Each day, we make an average of 217 food-related decisions. Is it any surprise we so often make poor choices about what we eat?

9 Common Interview Questions That Are Actually Illegal
by Vivian Giang, Business Insider
During job interviews, employers will try to gather as much information about you as possible, so there’s bound to be some questions that will require you to think.
But it’s the simple questions that are often most harmful, and even illegal.

Why It’s Sometimes O.K. to Bad-Mouth an Old Boss
by Jay Goltz, NY Times
There is now one more person out of work in this great country of ours, Greg Smith. If you haven’t heard, he is the man who recently quit his job at the investment bank Goldman Sachs, doing so in dramatic fashion.

Networking Advice: 5 Tips for an Effective Elevator Pitch
by Luke Roney, CareerBliss
Tell me … what do you do, who you do it for, why you do it and what can you do for me? And tell me quickly. Such is the challenge of the elevator pitch – a personal marketing spiel seldom delivered in elevators, but a staple of networking.

Image Credit: Ultimate Summary

People are busy. Why would they want to take time from their busy day to meet with you?

Even the busiest professionals tend to be open to informational interview requests if you approach them the right way.

Who Do You Know?

But first things first: How do you decide who you’ll approach?

1. Start with your inner circle. First, reach out to your friends, family members, and advocates. Ask them if they know someone in your desired field or a related one. Request introductions to likely candidates. If you’re nervous about the prospect, you may also consider asking one of these trusted friends to be your first informational interview partner. Even if he or she is in a totally different line of work, you can practice asking questions and talking about yourself with a friendly interviewer.

2. Expand your reach. Next, make a list of everyone in your network (if you’re active on LinkedIn, that list is just a click away). Include former colleagues, friends of friends, alumni contacts, recruiters and acquaintances. Note who might have useful insights to share. You will likely want to reach out to some of these folks to request informational interviews. Others may be able to introduce you to someone in their circle.

You should also think about going out to industry events that are likely to attract interesting contacts. Mix and mingle and collect business cards. There’s no need to stalk or beg. Have a good conversation and follow up later with a respectful request to meet (see below for tips on how to do it without coming off as obnoxious).

How to Ask for an Informational Interview

It’s generally best to initiate contact with an email (unless you already know these contacts well).

1. Ask for advice, not a job or a favor: Start by requesting a brief meeting to ask the person’s advice about career opportunities in the industry. Make it clear that your goal is not to beg for a job. That’s just awkward.

Most of the people you contact won’t know much about you yet and some may not even have influence over hiring decisions at their company. However, almost everybody is happy to provide advice if you make it easy for them and ask nicely (see below).

2. Name drop: If one of your friends or contacts referred you, use that person’s name in the first sentence. A request is much more likely to be prioritized a if it starts with, “Our mutual friend, Karen Johnson, suggested that I contact you…”

Don’t overstate your connection to the referrer. If Karen is your sister-in-law’s ex-boss’ assistant’s cousin, don’t claim abiding friendship or you’re likely to get busted. However, as social networking has proven, even a distant connection can provide a comfort level. Most people want to help in general and they especially want to help someone referred by a friend or colleague.

3. Be respectful: Yes, these are probably busy people. They are more likely to agree if you explain that the meeting will be short (30 minutes or less) and that you’re happy to meet when and where it’s most convenient for them.

4. Show that you’re legit: Briefly describe your current situation and why you think they can help. Here’s one way to do it: I have been working in development for nonprofit organizations for the last three years and am currently looking for my next opportunity. I would love to hear your advice on areas to explore.”

Demonstrate that you’ve done research and won’t be wasting her time. Show that you’re a professional and not a stalker. Attach your resume if you think it can help you establish credibility.

5. Don’t take “No” personally: I’ve actually never had anyone respond with,”No, I can’t meet with you EVER.” However, some of your correspondents may not reply for a while or may write back that they’re super busy right now, but might be able to connect in a few months.

Do not interpret either of these replies as a rejection or a judgment of you. I have been guilty of both of these responses to those requesting informational interviews. I love to provide career advice, but my schedule is sometimes hectic.

I am more likely to respond to you promptly if you follow the advice above and make it easy for me to accommodate you. Others in my network agree.

If someone says they’re too busy, ask politely when might be a good time to contact them again. If someone doesn’t reply at all after two weeks, go ahead and send a follow-up note. If a second note gets no response, move on to other candidates for now.

Related articles

• How to Approach an Informational Interview(money.usnews.com)

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• Four Steps to Take When You’ve Been Downsized(personalbrandingblog.com)

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• Senior Struggles: 8 basic networking tips(careercenter.dsa.umich.edu)

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After The Job Interview: Five Crucial Steps To Seal The Deal
by Jenna Goudreau, Forbes
You did it. Your resume stood out from the stack. You landed an interview and expertly dodged the hiring manager’s trick questions, smartly answered the toughest queries and even asked a few good questions of your own. Think your work is done? Think again.

3 Types of Oddball Questions
by Donna Fuscaldo, Yahoo! Finance / Bankrate
Ever go on an interview only to be asked who would play you in a movie or if you were an animal, which one you’d be? While these oddball job interview questions may have you scratching your head, there’s actually a method to the madness.

7 Signals to Send During Your Next Job Interview
by Luke Roney, US News
Most of what you say will never be heard. It will be observed. Some 90 percent of our communication is nonverbal, according to body language expert and jury consultant Susan Constantine. Given that statistic, it’s a good idea to think about body language before you head in for your next job interview.

Should You Send A Handwritten Or Email Thank You Note After An Interview?
by Jessica Liebman
The number one mistake people I interview are making these days: They don’t send thank you notes. If I don’t get a thank you note, I assume the person doesn’t want the job, is disorganized, and I’ll likely forget about them.

Find a Job Using Disruptive Innovation
by Jeff Dyer & Hal Gregersen, Harvard Business Review
Disruptive innovators ask the right questions, observe the world like anthropologists, network for novel ideas, and experiment to make things work. Applying the skills disruptive innovators use to your job search can help you unearth more, and better, opportunities.

3 Overlooked Hazards of Working for a Startup
by Jemima Lopez, Brazen Careerist
When 20-somethings hear about startups, we invariably imagine the glamorous cafeteria and play space at Google or the young and enthused workforce behind Facebook. Startups have a reputation for playing fast and loose with their work schedule, fostering innovation and offering a lax atmosphere that’s lacking in many established and corporate working environments.

What to do if you don’t feel appreciated at work
by Debra Auerbach
If you don’t feel like your boss appreciates the effort you put into your day-to-day tasks or recognizes that time and again you go above and beyond what is required of you, what should you do? Should you confront your boss about it or learn to find other ways to feel valued at work?

Top 9 Dumb Mistakes That Are Sabotaging Your Interviews
by Pamela Skillings
Are you making any of these dumb (as in easily avoidable) job interview mistakes? Are you sure? Walk through the list and double-check.

Are you making any of these dumb (as in easily avoidable) job interview mistakes? Are you sure? Walk through the list and double-check:

Mistake 1: Not being on time

Always arrive for a job interview on time. Seriously. Being late suggests you are unreliable, disorganized or disrespectful, possibly all three. Being a few minutes early is great, but arriving more than 20 minutes early might signal that you are insecure or desperate.

Mistake 2: Not doing research

If you have to ask what the company does, you have probably already lost the job. Information is readily available and if you can’t be bothered to conduct a Google search, then you probably don’t deserve the position. Human resources experts tell us that lack of research about the company is the biggest (and most easily avoidable) mistake that they see.

Mistake 3: Dodging questions

A hesitancy to answer questions will turn your interviewer off, and if you don’t have any specific stories to tell about your professional life and business triumphs, you should sit down and come up with some right now (use the Big Interview Answer Builder to get started).

Mistake 4: Rambling on…and on

Having too much to say can be just as devastating. You may impress the interviewer by sharing that you went to college on a football scholarship, but you needn’t give a blow-by-blow description of your college career or the knee surgery that ended it. Tweak their interest, but allow a little mystery to remain. Don’t dwell on trivial topics, because they trivialize you.

Mistake 5: Making it all about you

During the early stages of the interview process, don’t focus on how the job can benefit you. If you seem too interested in how the position can advance your career or line your pockets, your interviewer will take note and wonder if you are more diva than team player.

Mistake 6: Lack of focus

Remember your interviewer’s name. If you blank, don’t attempt to guess. Trust me. A bad guess will make you memorable in the wrong way.

Mistake 7: Going negative

Don’t bad mouth your current or former bosses, even if they were terrible managers and human beings. Find a way to keep it positive.

Mistake 8: General cluelessness

Boasting about your “people skills” and being a “people person” is rather cliché. It is appropriate to include people skills as part of your repertoire, but boasting about how much you love people can seem weak. We all have to work with people, with the exception of that guy who lives alone in the lighthouse. Get more specific about the types of people skills you possess — mentoring, communicating, motivating, collaborating.

Same deal with crowing about what a hard worker you are and how you routinely put in long hours. Maybe you’re just slow and can’t keep up with your job demands? If your work ethic is truly a strength that sets you apart, make sure you have an interview story about a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty.

Mistake 9: Dropping the ball

Always remember to follow up after the interview. It’s easy to rationalize that the employer should be the one contacting you with either the good or bad news, but you need to show your interest with a thank-you note or email before the end of the next business day.

This demonstrates your interest, your communication skills, and your understanding of common business courtesy.

Related articles

• The 10 Commandments of Job Interviews (biginterview.com)
• The Dreaded Weakness Question (biginterview.com)
• Job Interview Thank You Notes 101 (biginterview.com)