Or is it just a term made up to find an easier reason to reject job applicants?
So it looks like the consensus is “overqualified” is a euphemism for
- “I’m afraid you’ll leave this job because I’m assuming you’ll have better chances elsewhere” aka “you won’t accept being my slave forever due to lack of opportunities”
- “I’m afraid you might actually understand how shitty it is here and want to improve things. can’t have that”
- “I don’t want to figure out how much to pay you when you know your worth”
- “You cost too much”
- “I have other reasons, but won’t say them”
This was me a while back. I used to tell my wife that the fact that she didn’t know anything about tech meant my company would actually consider her a better employee because she would stick to the script and hold the company line, even if it was bullshit, because she wouldn’t know it was bullshit.