Finding the perfect job is very difficult. In most cases you must meet minimum qualifications to get consideration.  Just as likely, being overqualified can hurt you as well. While there are many reasons and excuses, I find that the most important/primary reason is simple…RETENTION.

In most cases, a hiring manager is usually responsible for a business unit or a certain business function, aside from hiring. As a result, his/her main goal is to fill a role with someone who will ideally be there for a very, very long time. The fact of the matter is if you are too good at the job…you’ll get either get promoted, or look for something more challenging. This leaves the hiring manager with the difficult task of looking o re-fill the role sooner than he’d like.

Exacerbate the “pain” by the thousands of dollars in “down time”, that the open position will cost the company, the stress on the team for picking up the slack, and the time the hiring manager has to take away from managing the rest of the business functions, and suddenly you understand why no one wants to hire a know it all! I know that it’s frustrating when being out of work and looking for a job, but this is the candidate perspective.

From an HR perspective (which is the one I am aligned with myself) however, you should not be in a role that bores you. Once one has enough money in the bank to meet basic financial needs, then the best workers need to be challenged to remain happy.

Take away that challenge and what are you left with? Boredom…and let’s be fair; once you are bored then the productivity drops and you begin looking for another job. This causes frustration all over again for you in yet another job search and the hiring manager with having to fill the same role again.

Just my two cents. And one of the key reasons my clients don’t like overqualified people.