If you are "overqualified"

If you are a high-skilled worker such as a computer programmer, reach the age of 40, or have more than 10 years of experience, and don't want to go into management, then you will be confronted with being rejected for jobs for being "overqualified". Recent surveys of hiring managers show that more than 95 percent of them either have never hired anyone with more than 10 years experience, or would not consider doing so. There is no easy way of getting around this problem. You just have to adapt to it the best way you can.

The first thing you need to do is understand what is going on. Here are the salient elements:

1. Rejection for being "overqualified" is a fairly recent cultural development. There was no such thing before the 1970s.
2. "Overqualified" is not just about age, although those over 40 may be presumed to be "overqualified".
3. HR professionals, who are also a fairly recent development, and many hiring managers, would rather leave a job undone than risk being criticized for making a "bad hire". There is no downside for reporting that no one could be found to fill the position.
4. Hiring managers often have a personal agenda that differs from the best interests of their company, and a worker who has more skills or knowledge than the minimum needed to do the job may be a threat to the hiring manager and the established order in the department. This attitude has been expressed by some in such words as, "They've seen it all and want to show you how it's done."
5. Highly experienced technical workers are also seen as misfits by co-workers. As a manager once put it, "It doesn't work to start a senior guy at an entry level because he knows too much, and sets a standard the others can't match, but if we start him at a high level the others resent him for not having come up though their ranks. It is easier to just avoid the problem by not making the hire."
6. Hiring managers will usually prefer to fill a position with someone underqualified, or leave the job undone, than hire someone who is "overqualified".
7. The myth that "overqualified" workers are more likely to leave for a better job is just that. Nonoverqualified workers are just as likely to leave. It is only the incompetents who cling to the job. But the myth is deeply entrenched.
8. It is not about obsolete skills, and retraining is not the solution, unless it is for working in an entirely different field, such as carpentry.
9. Discrimination against the "overqualified" is relentless. Don't believe protestations that they don't discriminate on the basis of age or experience or "overqualification", or when they point to a token "old guy". They are lying.

The second thing you need to do is plan for becoming "overqualified". Don't wait until you get laid off and find it takes two years to get the next job.

1. Plan your career move. Basically, there are only three alternatives if you haven't become rich enough to retire:
   1. Move into management, but the supply of management jobs is limited compared to high tech skilled jobs.
   2. Become an incorporated contractor and go into business for yourself. If you do, you had better have your own product, because clients tend to discriminate against over-40 contract workers as well, although not as much.
   3. Move into another field, such as construction work, but be prepared for seasonal layoffs.
2. Save money, have sources of financing, and keep your overhead low. You may be out of work for six months between jobs in your twenties or thirties, but that will increase to a year or two, perhaps more, as you approach 40. Don't run out of money and become homeless. It is probably better not to have a family or a mortgage that will tie you down to a place where there isn't any work.
3. Don't plan on company "benefits" being there when you need them. For every company that makes its workers rich when it goes IPO, there are hundreds that will lay you off just before the benefits vest. Get it in cash, and exercise the stock options as soon as you can. If you invest, invest in land where you can survive by living off the land.
4. Even if you get rich, don't count on remaining so. Eventually the government or some crooked lawyer will find a way to take it all away from you, or the economy will go bad and make your investments worthless. The only security is basic survival skills, and if you can't keep anything else, hang on to your firearms.
5. Take care of your health. Get and keep a health insurance policy. Exercise, eat right, don't smoke or drink.
6. Make friends with people who have skills and resources complementary to yours, so you can form a mutual aid community if things get bad. A family can serve that purpose, but is less likely to do so today than in ages past.
7. Make your motor vehicle a van you can live in if it comes to that, keep it well-maintained, and learn to do your own repairs.