In response to How Being The Slightest Bit Overqualified Can Cost You A Job I received several interesting Emails.



Here is an Email from "PhD In Distress" about overqualified candidates fresh out of college with nowhere to go, competing for jobs that essentially do not exist.



"PhD In Distress" writes:



Dear Mish,



I very much enjoyed your article today “ How Being The Slightest Bit Overqualified Can Cost You A Job ”. Although it seemed you and those giving comments seemed to focus on the overqualification of experienced workers, I would like to bring the plight of overqualified students (particularly PhD students) to your attention. I say this as a PhD science student myself.



In case you are not familiar, the “typical” PhD undergoes the following path: BS (usually adding significant debt) then PhD (most programs I know of skip masters level and pay about $20000/year and take 5-7 years) then postdoctoral experience (essentially you do the same work as your PhD for an additional 2-3 years in a different lab except you only make $35000/year) then you can attempt to get a job in either academia, industry or government. I should also mention that student loans can be put on hold while in a PhD program but not during a postdoc.



The postdoctoral experience has not been traditionally necessary for my field to get a job in industry and I am attempting to do so sans postdoc as I have no academic inclinations.



The problem that I see is that when I look for a job using keywords in my field is that I get one of two postings:



1) BS required, MS preferred (making up about 60% of postings)

2) PhD with 5+ years experience (making up 20% of postings and sometimes academic experience such as postdoc won’t even count)



This means that I am overqualified for over half the positions that are posted. Even worse, most of the positions for my level require experiences that I cannot even obtain after my PhD.



My plight is no company in this economy will spend money on an entry level, unproven PhD that will need 2+ years training before he/she is adding significant value to the company.



That leaves me and many others with the only option being a postdoc. However, there has been a glut of postdocs building since the 90s. More and more students are chasing fewer and fewer academic positions (which require a postdoc).



Many of them simply give up and start looking for industrial positions. This has not gone unnoticed by industry and has resulted in more and more companies requiring experience for what should be entry level positions.



The great recession has only exacerbated the problem and now I know of people on their third or fourth postdoc (mostly looking for academic experience but still well into their 30s and making $35000 with a PhD). This makes it even harder for recent grads just to get their first postdoc. Again, why would a professor hire a new grad when he/she can get someone with 3+ years experience and pay them the same?



So here I am highly educated with no place for a job. I’m overqualified and overspecialized for 60% of the work yet simultaneously underqualified for the other 40%. Moreover, there seems to be no way to rectify the situation.



Therefore, it should come as no surprise that more and more domestic (US) students have begun to realize what a raw deal a science PhD has become. This is reflected in lower numbers of domestic PhD students over the past couple decades. Though this is particularly bad for the US in the long run as foreign science PhD’s increasingly return home to work in available and relatively well paying jobs.



I feel particularly bad for the spike of new students entering a PhD program now to avoid the recession. If we will have structurally high unemployment for a decade (for which you have made a compelling case) then we will have 2 more “generations” of PhDs in an increasingly bleak situation. Even if the economy improves it would take massive growth just to get through the backlog of experienced postdocs and laid off scientists seeking positions.



In either case, my approaching graduation has made me more aware and thoughtful of my situation and thought your article was timely and informative. Keep up the great work spreading the word about real recovery through sound money and policy!



Just in case you would like to share this, please do not use my name or initials. Science is a very small and intellectually inbred community and not very open to criticism.



Thank you again,



PhD In Distress

Plight of the PhD

How Being The Slightest Bit Overqualified Can Cost You A Job

500 résumés came in for an administrative assistant for a trucking company

61 were selected out of the first 271 for review

The rest were not even looked at

Highly overqualified candidates were weeded out on the first pass

Slightly overqualified candidates were weeded out in the second pass

8 were selected for a one hour interview

2 were invited back for a second one hour interview

1 said she would try and grab a fly ball at a stadium ballpark in response to a random question, the other would not

Escalating Costs Out Of Line

To land a job you have to be the perfect candidate, near the top of the stack of résumés, neither underqualified nor the slightest bit overqualified and you have to be willing to grab at a fly ball

Résumé Lotto

College Price Comparison Flashback