I’ve thought about dumbing myself down to get a job, but two things get in the way. First, my stuff has been all over the internet for years. I was a part-time home health aid for three years concurrently with teaching at a community college and going to grad school. The ED got wind of my talents, googled my name and fired me.

Second, I once tired to dumb down in the interview — poor grammar, no eye contact, acting like I had zero general knowledge. But it occurred to during the interview — if I got hired, how long could I keep this up? How long until I slipped up and revealed who I really was? I had problems with deceiving others too. A lie is a lie. Right in the middle of the interview I told them who I was, apologized for deceiving them and they thanked me for coming in.

One thing that this over-qualification business tells us is that we have had a glut of workers for years. Employers can ask for exactly what they want and be assured someone fits the bill and is desperate for a job. Even now with the labor shortage myth working overtime I hear from HR directors that they will wait for the “best candidate”. I don’t see them raising wages appreciably or backing away from drug tests, credit checks, criminal checks and still have ludicrous education and experience requirements. If there really were a labor shortage we’d be seeing the labor force participation rate go up, but it’s going down instead.