Applying for Job Below My Skill Set? Need Advice!

[oldtoyota]

I do not need to earn what I made before to meet my goals. My hope is that I can open up possibilities--and even potential contracting work/clients in specific cases--by leveraging my personal referral network to gain my next gig/client.

Do you have advice on how to finesse a cover letter to address the fact that I know I am overqualified and yet I am interested in the position anyway? Hoping that I can get a foot in the door and then persuade them that it would be in their best interest to hire me as a contractor/freelancer. This would save them $$, I think. My inside source says that they would probably be open to this in this particular case.

[RyanAtTanagra]

Good question and commenting to follow.

At some point I'm hoping to be able to go down a step in my field (IT), as I'm tired of on-call and being the most responsible for everything that goes wrong.  I'd like to go down to a mid-level position where I can just show up and do what needs done, go home, and forget about work.  I've wondered how hard it will be to get a job like that where I'm obviously overqualified, and how to explain in a positive light that I want less responsibility.

I imagine this isn't uncommon for the RE crowd and would be interested to hear some stories on how it went going down a level or two in your field.

[Left]

I don't know why it's so hard, at least in the field I'm in, I have supervisors/managers moving up and down the ladder from bench tech back to their original roles. They just say that at this time, they didn't want the stress/paperwork with that and are happy with being a bench tech that can put in the hours and go home. No calls/work after leaving/etc. And then a newer tech moves into their position and still have the "old" manager on hand to get tips from.

Not sure if you can do this in IT field though. Could you take a lower position as PRN saying you "needed" the money there, and then make it into a full time position at the lower position because you are happier there?

[mozar]

For freelancing I suggest selling the quality of your work rather than the idea of saving other companies money.

[oldtoyota]

For freelancing I suggest selling the quality of your work rather than the idea of saving other companies money.

Did that part already. Thanks! =-)

[oldtoyota]

I used phrases like "most enjoyed ________ in prior positions", "in my evolving career, I'm seeking to ______" (without defining for them what that career track was), and really called out how I fit what I perceived they needed (esp. where I knew this, usually through pre-interviewing the boss or similar).

I worried more about the 'below' my qualifications piece more than others hiring me did, it seemed.  (Only government positions HR people seemed concerned--primarily that I might get bored.) They recognized they could get good work done and that even if I didn't last as long as others might, there was little / no training required, and I was highly productive for that period. 

I did go into one position as a consultant, evolved into part-time, grew to more days, then went back to fewer (contract) days, all at my own decision.

Thank you! I appreciate your response. =-)