HIRING
MY BRILLIANT CAREER
Overqualified Workers Can Offer Employers An Edge • Past research warned against hiring overqualified workers. • In fact, slightly-to-moderately overqualified workers are more likely to be valuable and to reimagine their duties in ways that advance their institutions. • To capture this advantage, employers need to give workers a strong sense of connection with the company, and the flexibility to expand their vision of their jobs.
You’re a rocket scientist. You’ve worked for NASA. You won a Nobel Prize. Shouldn’t your qualifications give you an edge on a job at the local soap factory? According to typical hiring practice, the answer is no. You might not even get an interview for a job sweeping the floor. That’s because, for years, research has warned that hiring applicants with too much experience or too many skills will saddle you with employees who don’t appreciate their jobs. Now there’s good news for rocket scientists and others who happen to be overqualified for their work. According to a groundbreaking new study coauthored by Rice Business professor Jing Zhou, workers who are slightly to moderately overqualified are actually more likely to be active and creative contributors to their workplace. As a result, they’re more likely to be assets. The study adds to a new body of research about the advantages of an overqualified workforce. Zhou’s findings have widespread implications. Worldwide, almost half of the people who work for a living report that they are overqualified for their jobs. That means Zhou’s research, conducted with Bilian Lin and Kenneth Law of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, applies to a vast segment of the labor market.
38 RICE BUSINESS
