Is It Bad to Hire an Overqualified Candidate for an IT Role?

Employee Insights, Employer Insights

Have you been struggling to find top talent to fill IT openings? With the growing talent shortage in the tech industry, it may be shocking to stumble across an overqualified candidate! While you may be hesitant to hire overqualified employees for various reasons, carefully vetting this type of candidate will help you determine which hires make the best additions to your team. When evaluating seemingly overqualified candidates, here are three key factors to consider during your interviewing process:

Individual career goals.

If one of your concerns involves hiring talent that quickly leaves your company for greener pastures, it’s critical to pay close attention to each candidate’s individual career goals. Overqualified candidates who are genuinely interested in being part of your team – rather than just using the job as a “stepping stone” to other opportunities – will demonstrate greater potential to stay in the long run. Getting a sense of candidates’ career goals will ultimately shed light on their true intentions for why they’d like to work at your company and whether they intend to stay for a long while.

Adaptability.

It’s fair to say an overqualified candidate may be used to having higher degrees of responsibility or authority than the job you’re presenting them with. The best hires are those who are highly qualified, yet willing to take on responsibilities that may be outside the scope of their designated role. Setting expectations with these candidates about the nature of the IT position and making sure they’re adaptable to performing various tasks will be essential to properly vet them prior to hire.

Enhanced workforce.

There’s a great advantage to hiring overqualified candidates when it comes to improving your current workforce and elevating your overall talent pool. This presents a great opportunity to introduce new and more innovative ideas, systems, and ways of doing things to your company, resulting in a high return on investment. Furthermore, candidates who bring a breadth of knowledge and experience to your team will typically require less training and supervision – and may even be able to serve as mentors for less experienced individuals in your IT department!

As you can see, being strategic and thoughtful about hiring overqualified candidates is critical. However, with the proper vetting and screening, you can be proactive in setting the stage for new hires who will best serve your IT department’s needs.