“Overqualified” just means “well-qualified.” Let’s debunk the myths about overqualified candidates and reframe your career story!

Interviewing As An Overqualified Candidate: Let’s Debunk Some Myths

By A Portland Career, and edited by Dan Hahn, M.S., and Suzie Sherman

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“I think people are a little bit intimidated by me. You know, I’m not exactly a wilting flower, so I think they’re a little bit scared of me sometimes.” —Sandra Bernhard, actor and comedian

A lot of articles on recruitment and talent acquisition are focused on whether an employer should or shouldn’t hire “overqualified” candidates. This commentary spends a lot of time on the assumptions that candidates with a high level of experience, or many years of experience, potentially pose problems in the workplace, such as a tendency to demand more pay than is offered, or the likelihood of fleeting employment.

In fact, the research in industrial psychology points to how these ideas about overqualified candidates are flawed. Portland State University professor and industrial psychology expert Berrin Erdogan has studied perceptions of “overqualification” internationally, and across many fields. Pushing back on the idea that more qualified personnel tend to leave a job prematurely, for example, she finds that “People don’t stay or leave a company because of their skills. They stay or leave because of working conditions.”

In this post, we break down the misconceptions about overqualified candidates harbored by hiring managers, and show you how to present yourself as well-qualified instead.

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Why employers are worried about overqualified candidates

Candidates deemed “overqualified” often get boxed into stereotyped ideas about their possible impact on the workplace. Candidates with a lot of experience might present a perceived threat to a hiring manager who holds the unexpressed prejudice that the candidate will:

  • Get bored and leave soon.
  • Still be looking for a better-paying position and leave soon.
  • Criticize the way things are done based on their greater expertise.
  • Be resistant to supervision.
  • Steal some of the accolades that the hiring manager covets.
  • Expect more raises and perks.

Management could conclude it is better for the company in the long run to hire someone of more modest capabilities, especially if they are worried about staff retention, or under pressure to find employees willing to work for a lower salary or less compensation.

A case study close to our hearts

Vicki, the founder of A Portland Career, confesses that she was once a young manager with a wobbly ego. The finalists for the assistant director position were Clare – a very confident, poised, and exacting professional from Chicago, or Heidi, a less experienced, quiet woman from smalltown Burns, Oregon.

Vicki had several of the worries we described above about Clare, so she decided on Heidi, even though Heidi’s expertise was not as deep, and she had misspelled “liaison” in her cover letter. Vicki later regretted the cost of her insecurity because she had to work harder and do more damage control than if she had just had the confidence to hire someone with more expertise than her.

illustration of an interview candidate shaking hands with the hiring team

How to offset the employer’s concerns

Fears about longevity, boredom, and a possible reversal of roles between the supervisor and employee are at the heart of discrimination for older and overqualified candidates alike. If you are overqualified, you can use some of the same tactics as the older candidate to overcome a tendency toward age discrimination from hiring managers. Read our post How To Game Your Job Search Over 50 for some recommendations and examples of how to present yourself as smart, responsive to supervision, and in it for the team.

It is particularly important to offset the fear that you will be a short-timer. There is no law that prevents the interviewer from directly asking you about the job’s ability to satisfy your long-term career goals. A question such as, “Why would you want this position, given that the compensation and challenges are lower than your previous positions?” is perfectly acceptable. 

Present yourself as well-qualified, not overqualified

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In this video, Joanie Donnelly, our Resume and Cover Letter Expert, gives us some tips about how to age-proof and tighten your resume to appear well-qualified, rather than overqualified.

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A quick primer to tailor your overqualified resume

In the short video above, our Resume and Cover Letter Expert, Joanie Donnelly, gives us some important tips for age-proofing and trimming your job application materials down to the vital information for the job you’re applying for. If you have concerns that you’ll appear overqualified for the position, remember these rules to tailor your resume: they apply both to older and overqualified job candidates:

  • Keep your Work Experience section to no more than the last 15 years, maximum.
  • Remove the dates in your Education section.
  • Delete references to outdated software. You might very well have Lotus experience, but it’s not relevant anymore, trust us.
  • Focus on how your experience matches the specific job requirements in this job posting. For example, if you have tons of management experience, but you are applying for a non-managerial job, delete that from your resume.

If you pare down your resume and cover letter to the relevant job skills you have that match the current position you’re applying for, you will vastly increase your chances of landing the interview.

Get your foot in the door for more interviews by booking a consultation with Joanie. 

Avoid “what’s in it for me” responses to interview questions

This job interview tip applies across the board for job seekers, but it’s particularly important for candidates with a higher level of experience than the job description calls for. There are a lot of valid reasons you might be seeking a new job that’s “lower on the escalator” than your last job. Whether you want more work-life balance at this time in your life, or a desire for less high-level responsibilities, or just plain economic necessity for stable work, you get to decide the kind of job you want, right now. That said, it’s important not to lean into centering your own needs in the job interview. Avoid these kinds of answers, even if they may be true for your own motivations to apply for this job:

“I need a root canal and this company has excellent dental benefits.”

“This job is a great stepping stone. I figured that once I am inside as a proofreader, you will see my brilliance, and I will become the marketing director next year.”

Needless to say, these are not responses that will land you a job offer.

Reframe and refocus on the company’s needs

Overcoming the concerns embedded in these kinds of interview questions might require a reframing of your own feelings and attitudes about your “overqualification” for the position. If you can think of yourself as a well-qualified candidate instead of as “overqualified,” you can present yourself confidently, without giving into the hiring manager’s (or your own) fears and preconceptions.

Put yourself in the mind of the interviewer, and focus on positioning yourself as a candidate with a matching skill set and a deep interest in the company or organization’s mission. With this “what’s in it for them” mindset, you can respond much better:

“I’ve been reflecting on what is most important to me in my career. I’ve decided my top two criteria are working with a team and fighting climate change. Although my old position had some positive aspects, this one meets my criteria better. I want to commit myself to an organization that shares my passion for environmental accountability.”

“After ten years managing a design team, I discovered that I truly missed the creativity and artistic side of design. I want to return to doing what I love, which is working collaboratively with others to come up with and implement excellent designs.”

Keep the emphasis on the new skills you are excited to acquire, and how the company culture is a better fit for you. Emphasizing that you like to work collaboratively with a team is a great way to address unspoken concerns that you might try to insinuate yourself into your potential employer’s management decisions.

Do your research to impress the hiring manager

Make a connection with your prospective hiring manager to gain their trust, and build a rapport. In your preparation for the interview, look up the hiring manager on LinkedIn and on the company’s website and other social media. Familiarize yourself with how long they’ve been with the company, and what their accomplishments are. If they have written posts, or published articles, read them and mention them during the interview. This will demonstrate an interest in their professional contributions to the field, and indicate that you will respect their professional guidance and direction in the workplace.

Final thoughts on interviewing for the overqualified candidate

Myths about candidates who appear overqualified for the job abound in company cultures. Under pressure to keep costs low and perhaps to allay their own insecurities, managers can sometimes lean into the idea that job candidates with a lot of experience might be risky to hire because they will want more money, will get bored and leave the job prematurely, or get in the way of managerial decisions. The reality is that workers with many years of experience and expertise offer a rich array of skills that managers would be wise to welcome aboard.

The trick to landing more job offers is to focus on the specific job requirements, your excitement about the mission of the company, and to present yourself as well-qualified, rather than “overqualified.”

Key takeaways

  • Hiring managers are often under pressure to kowtow to myths about overqualified candidates, such as their likelihood to demand more compensation, risk of fleeing too quickly, or tendency to be “bossy” and undermine managers’ authority.
  • In reality, hiring bias against candidates with a lot of experience is just that, a bias. Candidates of all levels of experience genuinely want to get a job and work hard. 
  • The key to landing and acing interviews as an overqualified candidate is to present yourself as well-qualified, and tailor your application and your interview responses to the skills required and the needs of this position and this company or organization.
  • Focus on “what’s in it for them,” rather than “what’s in it for me.”
  • Take the time to investigate the hiring manager and make a genuine connection.

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