Let’s be honest here. Being overqualified will come with age. If you just barely get started professionally and know almost nothing, you are probably young. If you are very experienced and get the “overqualified” label, it’s because of ageism derived complications. This label comes with many names such as being jaded, arrogant, destabilize the younger manager’s position in the company etc. Anyone who is lucky enough to get to that age stage will probably experience it in one form or another. This is why I preach people should be diversifying their skill sets at an early age. When you are just starting out, show only enough competency to get by but do not show any brilliance at all.
This is kind of like patents. Sure you are “protect by the law,” do you have the resources to defend those rights in the long-term? Build up competencies in a multitude of fields and legally leach off the leaders. Then slowly strengthen your weakness and drift on the strength of others like certain “America’s number one nemesis” has been doing for years until they recently shown their hands, though they showed their hands too early and will likely pay greatly for their detrimental mistake eventually. Their population will get smaller and older than rich unfortunately. Remember, a resume/CV is basically a marketing brochure about your capabilities. You can be selective about what you put on there.
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How to get past the ageism “overqualified” label and secure that job to survive.
Companies worry that hiring overqualified people will increase turnover, hurt internal dynamics, bring insecurity out of people and more. Obviously each person’s situation is different but I think when possible, try to only include relevant experiences from the last 10 years. If you are applying for a non-managerial position, you might not want to highlight managerial experiences on your resume. Ultimately, you will want the interviewers to ask you questions related to the job since your objective is to get that job you applied for. More than anything else, the more important thing is the change of mentality. Most people don’t like to work for other people and getting told what to do. However, you have to remember why you need this job.
You need this job not because you are trying to gain experience but rather, you need the money. Your pride is essentially worthless in this situation to the employer. You have to decide whether you are willing and able to swallow your pride to “come out of the bench” and let the other person get the shine. If you could get that position in a timely manner for which you are not overqualified for, you probably would probably have gone with those options instead of trying to lower your own standards. Ultimately working for other people will always be just temporary and transitory as you are essentially hired and get to maintain your job because the organization needs you at that moment. The money comes from working for yourself and building brand equity. But since you need to first survive, this methodology is probably what you needed.