Why Overqualified Means Unqualified, Unless ...

I just read J.T. O’Donnell’s piece – “If Called “Overqualified” .. Try This.” She presents some great advice on what to do when faced with the classification. As a recruiter, I’ve been telling people for years they’re overqualified, but I also tell them why. A few proved me wrong. You might find what they did useful. It starts by redefining “qualified.”

Being qualified on a skills and experience level does not mean the person is either qualified or unqualified, competent or not competent, or motivated or not, to do the actual work. Unfortunately too many job-seekers and interviewers alike assume they’re equivalent. For example, 3-5 years of international accounting experience and a CPA, does not mean a person is competent and motivated to audit the international consolidation process of a publicly traded company under a tight timeline with inadequate resources.

As far as I’m concerned a person is overqualified if he or she is far above the level of the job or has not done the work recently, isn’t intrinsically motivated to do the work, or is only willing to do it to get a job. In the case of the accountant, someone who is now a manager or someone who didn’t want to go back into auditing, would be considered overqualified. Under this definition, a person must prove they’re both competent and motivated to do the actual work to disprove the categorization.

For over 25 years, I’ve placed candidates who didn’t possess all of the skills listed in the job descriptions and many who possessed more. Regardless, all were both competent and motivated to do the actual work required. There’s valuable lessons for job-seekers on how this was pulled off.

First, I had the hiring manager clearly define the work that needed to be done. I refer to this as a performance-based job description. It describes what a person needs to do to be successful, not what the person must have in terms of skills. Most jobs can be defined by 5-6 performance objectives similar to the one in the accounting example above.

Second, I asked candidates to describe what they accomplished that was most comparable to the work described in the performance-based job description. This is a version of The Most Important Interview Question of All Time.

Third, while learning about the candidates’ accomplishments I focused on the type of work the candidates excelled at, what the person was passionate about, where the person took the initiative, did more than required and went the extra mile.

Finally, to complete the assessment, I compared what the candidates accomplished to the actual work that needed to get done. The best candidates were those that were both competent and intrinsically motivated to do the work described in the performance-based job description, and had done it recently. (Here’s a link to the complete Performance-based Hiring process described.)

Take Control to Ensure You're Not Incorrectly Assessed or Classified

Job-seekers can use a similar approach when there’s a chance they might be considered overqualified, or if they believe they’re being incorrectly assessed.

Anticipate It: the best way to overcome an objection is to prevent it from being raised in the first place. For those who might be deemed overqualified, start the interview by asking the interviewer to describe real job needs in terms of broad performance objectives. Then provide examples of work you’ve recently handled that are most comparable.

Disprove It: When the interviewer suggests you might be overqualified, immediately ask the person to describe some of the performance objectives of the job. Then describe in detail some of your most recent job-related accomplishments. Highlight where you went the extra mile, improved processes and motivated others. This technique will be less effective if your related accomplishments aren’t recent.

Change the Subject: Don’t just ask open-ended, “what are the performance requirements of the job?” type questions. Instead use a force-choiced question allowing you to describe a strength. For example, asking something like “Is tracking complex projects and costs a big part of the job," is appropriate if it’s likely this is part of the job. Then give an example of a recent and related accomplishment.

By identifying the work that needs to be done and providing recent examples of comparable accomplishments, the job-seeker will be more accurately assessed. If the examples aren’t recent though, it will be difficult to convince the interviewer the job-seeker isn’t overqualified. (The full version of this job-seeker advice is included here.) In this case, the job-seeker needs to demonstrate that regardless of the work assigned, he or she has a track record of delivering high-quality work, despite the challenges.

The concern with hiring the truly overqualified is that the person will leave once a better job is found. For most people, this is true. Job-seekers branded as overqualified must prove it isn’t. This is not easy, but it’s not impossible. It starts by redefining "qualified" and ensuring you’re accurately assessed against real job needs, not some arbitrary and misleading predictors of ability.

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Lou Adler (@LouA) is the CEO of The Adler Group, a consulting firm helping companies implement Performance-based Hiring. He's also a regular columnist for Inc. Magazine and BusinessInsider. His latest book, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired (Workbench, 2013), covers the performance-based process described in this article in more depth. For instant hiring advice join Lou's LinkedIn group.