Working at MBB or other top tier firms make you overqualified for exit opps?

So, I was just came back from a 4-day MBA recruiting event at a fantastic resort for a global FMCG firm and met many fantastic people with top notch MBB / GS type work experiences with excellent academic pedigrees.

Having interacted with about 40 odd of the aforementioned people, I came to the point where it seems like the job market is really tough out there for these people. Most of the MBB HBS consultants I met seem to tell me that many non banking/consulting companies regarded them as too overqualified and tend not to consider them even though they were comfortable with taking a paycut.

Experienced consultants, have you ever experienced that?

 
Best Response

I'm not in industry, but I can offer some thoughts:

1) Even if they're willing to take a pay cut, is it a big enough pay cut? 2) Usually when someone's labelled as "overqualified", it can mean a couple of things: -Overqualified in the wrong area (maybe wrong industry, maybe something else) -Just another way to let the person down easy -May have led the employer to believe that they don't really want THIS job, just A job 3) This is a very elite group it sounds like, they may just intimidate their employers, especially people without similar backgrounds

Just some thoughts since consulting (and especially HBS/MBB) is considered one of the better ways to get a good corporate job, or so I've been led to believe. Also, it's a tough job market in general and there are a lot of unemployed people out there. With so many people to choose from, why take someone that is "overqualified" when you can get someone that fits the description of who you want to the t? Picking someone who is overqualified is as much a risk as picking someone underqualified. Not because the person can't handle the work, but because it could bore them (leading to less productivity) or they could just be applying for the job as a temporary/backup job, among other possible reasons.

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 
D M:
I'm not in industry, but I can offer some thoughts:

1) Even if they're willing to take a pay cut, is it a big enough pay cut? 2) Usually when someone's labelled as "overqualified", it can mean a couple of things: -Overqualified in the wrong area (maybe wrong industry, maybe something else) -Just another way to let the person down easy -May have led the employer to believe that they don't really want THIS job, just A job

In my experience it is usually when the recruiter beleives the candidate will not enjoy the job because it is too easy/mind numbing for them. E.g. Obama applying to be a checkout chick at Wallmart. He would probably do a better job than the others, but it's clear that he will not be satisfied, given his previous employers include, the people of the USA.

 
timothy0:
D M:
I'm not in industry, but I can offer some thoughts:

1) Even if they're willing to take a pay cut, is it a big enough pay cut? 2) Usually when someone's labelled as "overqualified", it can mean a couple of things: -Overqualified in the wrong area (maybe wrong industry, maybe something else) -Just another way to let the person down easy -May have led the employer to believe that they don't really want THIS job, just A job

In my experience it is usually when the recruiter beleives the candidate will not enjoy the job because it is too easy/mind numbing for them. E.g. Obama applying to be a checkout chick at Wallmart. He would probably do a better job than the others, but it's clear that he will not be satisfied, given his previous employers include, the people of the USA.

To be even more precise, if an employer thinks someone is overqualified, they think that the person will leave for something better at the first opportunity. It's not an issue of being intimidated or ego, but one of pragmatism. It may or may not be a correct conclusion in a particular situation, but it's a concept that can arise in almost any organization.

 

So what are you expecting get out of this retarded question? Don't take MBB because you might be too employable and awesome that broke ass clients will think they don't even have enough to pay you?

That's a like a girl having a problem of being too hot or a rich guy being too rich. Sure there might be problems, but they're problems we wish we all had.

Crap like this annoys me.

 

Looking through her posts I can see how she can ask such a retarded question.

I hope you're good looking, through probably not after working in banking/consulting.

 
cibo:
Looking through her posts I can see how she can ask such a retarded question.

I hope you're good looking, through probably not after working in banking/consulting.

I hate that people like you exist.

 

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