Blind faith in the immutability of the bell curve spawns quite a few fallacies, of which the title of this post is one. It prompts us to prefer “dumbing down” instead of “raising up”. Of course it does, it’s much easier to dumb down, gravity is in your favour! If we raise people up, that would imply that we are living on a higher plane (horrors!). Raising someone else up might mean that they pass us by and leave us behind, and, oh, most of all, does it mean we have to go back to those dreaded books and studies again, so that we can grow continuously? The entire human race believes in lifelong learning, it just doesn’t want to invest the time, resources and effort to do so! The entire HR-related fallacy of someone being “overqualified” for a job post reinforces this type of thinking.

How many of you have been rejected because you were deemed “overqualified”? How many of you have rejected candidates because they were “overqualified”? For the former, be thankful, because you have been spared some misery working for a company not worthy of you. For the latter, time to stop, go outside, take a walk and do some soul-searching as to why your company is even in business!If you are willing to spend money on machines and infrastructure maintenance, you’re out of whack if you’re not willing to invest in your own people!

Now, being “over-certified” is something else. There is nothing wrong if you have a string of degrees and other accolades to your name, but if you insist on displaying them everywhere you exist in print or online, then I would expect you to have something like a bridal train included as part of your everyday business attire. And while you’re at it, make sure you put in some bells and pom-poms as well! Highly qualified people don’t need to act like the ringmaster at some circus. Your countenance and the vibes from your very presence will speak volumes on your behalf.

So, don’t worry about being “overqualified”. If others won’t take you in because you are, blaze a trail of your own! Everybody likes to quote that, now’s your chance to do something about it! Just make sure you don’t fall into the category of the “over-certified”!