Overqualified. Why Is that a thing?
On Friday, a colleague mentioned that she won't get a certain job because she’s “overqualified”.?? We both casually acknowledged that this was a thing and moved on to other topics. ?Later on, I started thinking about the concept of being “overqualified.”?? Does it have legitimate baggage associated with it?
?I typed the phrase into Google and saw the following definition and peculiar comment:
?“Being overqualified means that your experience and skills far exceed what is needed.”
“You’re not the ideal match for the position because you might expect to have greater authority or challenging work than the role offers, or you won’t enjoy the position.”
?My immediate thoughts included:
?Would you ever waive off your heart surgeon? “No thanks, You have too much experience.”
?Would you be dismissive of your pilot? “You don’t want to fly this segment – Albany to Charlotte will bore you.”
?Or … “Hey, let’s not bring in our best relief pitcher in the top of the 9th when we’re holding a 1-run lead. Let’s try a rookie pitcher instead”.? (Cubs fans might answer this question differently)
?If you purchase your dream car for the right price and -just for kicks – your dealer throws in ALL the extras, is that a bad thing?
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John Quincy Adams was our US President from 1825 – 1829. And yet served in Congress from 1830 – 1848.? 18 years!? ?Wait. What? ?Wasn’t he overqualified having been president?
?Tex Winter was an accomplished college and NBA basketball coach. ?He won multiple awards for head coaching. But, he is most famous for being an assistant coach and winning 6 NBA rings in the later part of his career. ?As an assistant coach!
?So best I can tell, within the realm of careers, being overqualified brings three broad stereotypes:
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(1) Because you’re overqualified, you’ll be bored or not challenged with the work. Therefore, you won’t be happy and will be likely to leave. Or you will expect a quick promotion.
?(2) Because you’re overqualified, you’ll not be happy with the compensation and, therefore, ?you’ll be likely to leave.
?(3) Because you’re overqualified, you’ll be more likely to challenge leadership, policy, or pre-existing guidelines. This can perpetuate a negative culture or environment.
There doesn’t seem to be a substantive body of research here to affirm any of this.?? An HBS study from 13 years ago tended to downplay this topic:
“There is a lot of misunderstanding over what overqualified is” according to Berrin Erdogan of Portland State University.???? “The assumption is that the person will be bored and not motivated, so they will underperform and leave”.??? Yet research doesn’t validate this. ???Sales Associates in her study who were thought to be overqualified performed better. “People don’t stay or leave a company because of their skills”, she concluded.??? “They stay on leave because of working conditions”.????
?Is that it?
The essence of the argument against being overqualified? Built and perpetuated on an enduring hypothesis?
Risk – turnover, dissatisfaction, compensation.
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I’d love to hear more reasons why being overqualified is bad.
How do ATS systems treat overqualified candidates?
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From recruiters. From HR types.
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Please add comments here and illuminate.
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3 个月Dave, thanks for sharing! How are you?
Recruitment & HR consultant
7 个月Having experience in the recruitment industry both on the corporate and agency side,I can agree with this to a certain extend. There is a point where life issues hit and people leave not because they will be happier in a certain role but rather because they either can not stand being where they are or feel they are underpaid and view the role that they are over qualified for as a temporary position till something better does come along. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with it in fact its how careers grow sometimes, but companies might need the position for longer then what the person will be committed to. I think that's why hiring managers are hesitant, its not easy to judge the motives of a candidate in this sense.
Any recruiter or hiring manager who interviews a candidate and tells them they are overqualified, isn’t qualified to hire someone. “Overqualified” is full of opinions and assumptions. The candidate that applied for the job, wants the job. I was a Director in year’s past and year’s later, applied for an Executive Assistant job (it’s the role i stated my career in) because, I discovered, it’s a role I really enjoy and excel in. Thank goodness the hiring managers asked me if I minded doing certain tasks and i told them, I could never mind doing tasks I enjoy, are part of the job I want, and am very good at. This belief that you will only hire someone you think won’t leave is arrogant and naive. People leave jobs for all kinds of reasons.
Super article Dave Beasley! As a former HR executive, I can say this phrase was used a lot to explain that someone might not be happy with the lower level aspects of a role, would not accept a lower salary and most likely would not fit into the team they would be part of. However, rarely would someone discuss this with the candidate to try to understand if this was true or not. Or maybe you think they might accept it because it’s a job but not really like it. This being said, now would be great time to turn this assumption into a dialog with great candidates. All the other bias can be tested with probation and other performance tools. With older job candidates and employees fast becoming a significant cohort, we all need a new narrative and recruitment approach!