We have always heard, the much you will study and acquire skills the more it will be easy to get job opportunities, right? But have you ever heard that being highly qualified can also become a barrier for you to get a job? Yes, you read that right. Even being overqualified for a job is not that good.
You must be thinking that showing more skills, education, and experience than what the company requires is a good thing. In fact, the more you will bring to the company, the merrier the growth will be.
So, in case you are confused with this point of “Overqualification”, here are some points, according to hiring managers’ concern that may clear your doubt.
Why being overqualified for a job is not good?
The possible reasons why you are not being hired can be;
1. You may demand a higher salary:
The employer may think about whether he’ll be able to pay you the salary fairly, what you deserve. Salaries are directly linked with experience and skills. So, basically, you are being paid on the basis of your experience and skills. Hence, more experience and skills may mean that they have to pay you more, to meet your worth.
As a general procedure, organizations calculate the salary amount of a person based on his/her educational qualifications, skills they have, to meet the particular work designation and experience.
So, if at any point the employer feels that they will not be able to pay you the amount you may have expected, they will not hire you. This is the reason why employers decide and quote an amount they can afford to give you.
Maybe you are fine with the pay scale of the company but still, as you have a good experience the recruiter will feel that you will have unaffordable salary expectations. And on the basis of their assumptions, they will reject you.
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2. You may leave the job:
Recruiters may have this worry that the candidate will leave their company as soon as any better opportunity comes. Having more experience and good skills compared to your colleagues means other companies will try to swipe you with better chances.
Investing in an experienced employee and then losing the candidate will waste the investment of the organization.
3. Craving for promotion:
Admit this, all businesses don’t have big fundings, some small companies can not afford to pay increments to their employees every year. And also in some family-owned companies, your growth is limited. And others may get highly competitive.
The bottom line is that people stick to a job only if they know they will be rewarded according to their performance. High pay, good benefits, promotions, and growth are the basic things every job aspirant searches for while they apply for jobs. And if there is no room for your growth and the employer knows this they will not hire you.
Look it in this way; the employer knows that you are worth the promotions and all the growth you want so you should take better opportunities for yourself, and time to explore more jobs that can match your heights.
4. You prove to be an internal competitor:
Sometimes an employer consciously decides to not go with a highly qualified candidate. Because in a hierarchical environment where there’s a lot of internal politics, the employer might avoid hiring a visionary or leader.
Employers sometimes see overqualification as a threat and in such a case, employers engage themselves with the candidates as a consultant instead of an employee.
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5. You will not give your best:
If the hiring manager rejects you because you are overqualified for a job then it is because they think the job will not be competitive enough for you. Hence, you will not give your best.
After all, if you will be asked to perform a task you are perfect or great at, you will not do it with full engagement. Maybe you are not the kind of person who will work like this, but the hiring person may have seen such situations before, so they want to move safely.
Conclusion:
Being overqualified for a job sometimes may let you down and you have to face rejection, but you always have a coming opportunity for you. Even the employers let candidates down because of their overqualification for reasons we discussed above.
But don’t get discouraged, you can still get the job if you want, just make sure you explain the whole thing clearly. Why you want the job position, your dedication towards the job, and how your overqualification will not come in the way of your job.
