Perhaps my least favorite term in the job search is the term “overqualified”. Ever notice how many times you hear the phrase “I’m overqualified” and how rarely you hear the phrase “we thought he was overqualified?” There’s a reason for this…
What the Company is Saying…
It’s the minority of cases when a company tells an individual that he or she is overqualified. The reasons these are the minority of cases are:
- Response – The large majority of companies these days are not telling people that they didn’t qualify for a job, much less why they didn’t qualify
- Candidate Pool – Even though the pool of available candidates over the last couple of years has been bigger than any other in recent memory, the percentage of truly overqualified candidates is still very small.
- More Responsibility – Companies are asking more of positions of responsibility than they have in recent memory.
When a company does tell a candidate they are “overqualified” its generally a wimpy way of saying:
- You want too much money
- Your ego is too big
- Your story is bigger than the position
- You’re too old
- You’ve made it clear you want the hiring manager’s job instead of this one
What We Hear When Someone Says This…
The statement “I was overqualified” is perhaps the weakest disguise of a jobseeker. It’s also usually the first one people try on. To those of us who have gotten down in the dirt and really explored career transitions, interviewed hundreds of job seekers and studied the world of the job seeker, it’s a little hearing the song “it’s a small world.” The song is cute and catchy, we even like hearing it at first, but then it gets stuck in your head and you can’t get it out.
It’s a chorus that is easy to learn, but a refrain from which we should refrain.
What others hear when a jobseeker states she is overqualified:
- “I’m too good for them anyway!”
- “I got rejected but don’t think I should have!” (i.e. The company was wrong!)
- “They couldn’t afford me.” (i.e. My fixed costs are too high.)
- “I don’t know why I got rejected, so I’ll claim I’m too big for the position.”
- “I didn’t know how to sell myself.”
- “I have a GIGANTIC Ego!”
Any of those sound a little egotistical? I think I speak for a lot of people when I say, most of us would rather hear, “they couldn’t afford me,” or “I’m not ready to take a step down and that’s what they were asking me to do.” At least then we know it’s a conscious choice rather than Ego, conscious or subconscious.
The Truly Overqualified
People who are actually overqualified generally don’t have to say it. It’s a little bit like integrity, if you have to tell people about yours there’s something wrong. Either everyone knows an individual is overqualified and understands the reasoning behind why this person is taking a step back OR no one knows because the individual plays the part perfectly and doesn’t let on to the fact that he/she could be doing more.
There are a few people who apply for positions for which they are truly overqualified. Generally this is because:
- They don’t know it,
- They know it, but don’t believe it, or
- For some reason, they don’t want (or can’t get) the higher level of responsibility.
In the case of #3, a truly overqualified individual will know how to present herself in such a way as to appear perfectly qualified. Class, after all, is an essential soft skill for any well-qualified individual.
My experience, by the way, is that no individual who is actually overqualified for a position has ever felt the need to tell me they were!
Good luck and keep your chin up!
