When Emily wanted to move into her dream career, she assumed her best option was to apply for an entry-level admin position and work her way up. There was a vacancy at a major entertainment company in London; her five years working at other multinational corporations meant she fulfilled every requirement of the job spec.
The tactic seemed to work: the company’s hiring team contacted Emily within days. But there was good and bad news. “They said I had a very impressive CV and was an outstanding candidate,” she explains. “But in the interview, they told me I was over-qualified: that I’d quickly end up bored in a job that was beneath my experience.”
As a compromise, the company promised Emily a new role. Ultimately, however, the position fell through. Not only did it leave Emily stuck in a role she wanted to quit, but also in a Catch-22; she was too skilled for an entry-level position in her target career, but not skilled enough to apply for a vacancy that matched her current job title.
The whole process left Emily, who is using one name for job-security reasons, frustrated. “I’d rather have just been given the original role as advertised,” she says. “I may have found the job easy, but there was nothing stopping the company from promoting me if they thought it was a good fit. Hearing I was ‘too good’ was initially flattering. But when I realised I didn’t get the job, it felt like I’d been misled.”
On the face of it, being over-qualified for a job might appear to be a good thing. A candidate with more experience would logically be placed at the top of the applicant pile. And for an employer, hiring a worker who surpasses the job requirements would seemingly be a coup.
However, that’s generally not how it works out; in fact, being over-qualified can sometimes be a reason for employers to rule candidates out. Perhaps counterintuitively, employers often reject candidates based on an excess of skills and experience, even in a market where talent is hard to come by.
As workers’ careers progress, they typically ascend into more senior roles, gradually making their way towards management or executive positions. However, the higher employees go, the fewer the alternative jobs.
“They move towards the peak of a pyramid,” explains Terry Greer-King, vice-president of EMEA at cybersecurity firm SonicWall, based in London. “As they gain greater experience, there’s less breadth in terms of opportunities: trying something different would require scaling back down the pyramid.”
In some instances, employees want to take a step back to move forwards. This could be for a career change, such as in Emily’s case, or because an experienced worker, struggling to climb the next rung of the ladder, opts for a lateral or downwards move to make a longer-term gain. Personal circumstances can also play a factor: a relocation or a return to work following a career gap may force a worker to downgrade their job title.
Yet while these circumstances might feel like good reasons to candidates, recruiters can see workers applying for positions apparently ‘below’ their current career level as a red flag. For Greer-King, a CV of an overly-experienced candidate is like one indicating job-hopping or no movement at all – it's cause for suspicion.
“In hiring, you have to act paranoid,” he says. “If someone is coming down a level or two, and they've likely already achieved what the role offers, then you have to ask questions about their motivation.”
While a handful of candidates might manage to successfully explain their motives and convince companies they really want to take that step down, others may suffer from recruiters’ fears that a lower role will leave them unsatisfied. The concern is that the over-qualified worker will soon find themselves unchallenged, bored and itching for their next move.
“When someone joins a company, it could take three months to a year to get them fully productive,” explains Greer-King. “Even if someone is overly skilled for the role, they can’t just turn up and do the job: they need to understand the culture, processes and technology. So, investing so much time in someone, only for them to leave six months later, isn’t the wisest hiring choice.”
Workers in senior roles in industries where the corporate ladder is well established, like management consulting, can be particularly vulnerable to the perils of being over-qualified. “Someone might have deep expertise in one field and apply for a job in another, only to be informed by the recruiting team they should apply for a higher role,” says Davis Nguyen, founder of My Consulting Offer, based in Georgia, US. “But if the firm doesn't have an opening [at that level], the candidate would ultimately be rejected.”
In turning down such workers, employers may say they’re too experienced for the position. Sometimes, they inform them that they’re simply not the best fit for the company.
intuitively - instynktownie, na pozór
hire - zatrudnić
entry-level admin position - podstawowe stanowisko administracyjne
vacancy - oferta pracy
over-qualified - zbyt wykwalifikowana
beneath my experience - poniżej moich umiejętności
position fell through - stanowisko pracy nie powstało
too skilled - zbyt doświadczona
good fit - odpowiednia osoba do określonej roli
flattering - schlebiające
I’d been misled - zostałam wprowadzona w błąd
on the face of it - z pozoru
surpasse the job requirements - przewyższać wymagania stanowiska pracy
that’s generally not how it works out - ogólnie mówiąc, to tak nie działa
rule candidates out - wykluczyć kandydatów
counterintuitively - wbrew logice
executive positions - stanowiska dla kadry zarządzającej
the fewer the alternative jobs - tym mniej alternatywnych stanowisk
take a step back to move forwards - zrobić krok wstecz, aby posunąć się do przodu
play a factor - odgrywać rolę
career gap - przerwa w karierze zawodowej
red flag - sygnał ostrzegający
cause for suspicion - podejrzana sprawa
handful of candidates - niewielu kandydatów
get them fully productive - uczynić ich w pełni produktywnymi
the wisest hiring choice - najmądrzejsza strategia zatrudniania
corporate ladder - wspinanie się po szczeblach kariery
particularly vulnerable - szczególnie narażony
perils of being over-qualified - zagrożenia wynikające z bycia zbytnio wykwalifikowanym
deep expertise in one field - duże doświadczenie w jednej specjalizacji
apply for a higher role - aplikować na wyższe stanowisko
opening - wakat
best fit for the company - najbardziej odpowiednia osoba dla firmy