Shopsmith Forums

charlese wrote:As long as we are just shooting the bull -- I never understood the term overqualified. Whenever I hired people I hired the MOST and HIGHEST qualified. Even had a PHD (sociology) hired and serving brilliantly as the manager for a firefighting helicopter operation.

As for "under qualified" Had a college music major serving as a squad boss. He was the best leader and firefighter ever. Personality and interest (drive) are very important. You can always teach methods and technique.

Also a manager friend of mine said "I never hired anyone who was smarter than me. Boy!-- I am paying for that now!"

I would say those aren't the kind of overqualified that we generally mean. I think the fear of hiring the overqualified revolves around the fear that he's going to leave you for a better job too soon.

Your 'overqualified' sociology Phd wasn't overqualified for the firefighting position. And, as accomplished as he was, he most likely had no better prospects. He wasn't going to leave you for a better firefighting position. And he probably already tried and failed to get a tenure-track position at a university.

charlese wrote:As long as we are just shooting the bull -- I never understood the term overqualified. Whenever I hired people I hired the MOST and HIGHEST qualified. Even had a PHD (sociology) hired and serving brilliantly as the manager for a firefighting helicopter operation.

As for "under qualified" Had a college music major serving as a squad boss. He was the best leader and firefighter ever. Personality and interest (drive) are very important. You can always teach methods and technique.

Also a manager friend of mine said "I never hired anyone who was smarter than me. Boy!-- I am paying for that now!"

I couldn't agree with you more. Motivation and a desire to do the job are the greatest attributes any employee can bring to the job. Most people who enlist in the military are not qualified for the job they will eventually have since most of them are not chosen for a job until they are ready to graduate from basic training.

They come in with basic mental and physical aptitudes but the actual detailed technical training on the weapons system they will support is done on the job. That is where their motivation makes a big difference.

charlese wrote:As long as we are just shooting the bull -- I never understood the term overqualified. Whenever I hired people I hired the MOST and HIGHEST qualified. Even had a PHD (sociology) hired and serving brilliantly as the manager for a firefighting helicopter operation.

As for "under qualified" Had a college music major serving as a squad boss. He was the best leader and firefighter ever. Personality and interest (drive) are very important. You can always teach methods and technique.

Also a manager friend of mine said "I never hired anyone who was smarter than me. Boy!-- I am paying for that now!"

Exactly, I still say over qualified is a term used when someone doesn't want to give the real reason for not hiring a person.
As far as bring hired and then leaving the job that is a chance but that can happen in almost every situation.
I suspect the PHD hired to be a manager might have been a little under qualified, but had the ability to learn the job quickly and made logical decisions.

I always tried to look for strong common sense over every other qualifications, my dad always had a term I kept in the back of my mind, "educated idiot". I have met many that had impressive credentials (education) but didn't have sense enough to come in out of the rain.

Yeah - "Educated Idiot"

That is a term I have heard used by people with a lesser education when speaking about someone with more education and with whom they do not agree.

My Grandfather was fond of using 'educated fool' to describe such beings.

There is a vast difference between mind function and memory.









Maybe that is why I seem to not remember things lately!

dusty wrote:Yeah - "Educated Idiot"

That is a term I have heard used by people with a lesser education when speaking about someone with more education and with whom they do not agree.

Well I carry 4 degrees and I have met a lot of educated idiots with lesser, equal and greater education. But you are right on one point I didn't agree with them. They also did not get hired.

And most of you asked them would say they were over qualified for the job. And had they gotten the job they would have doubled their salary every five years for at least 20 years.

JPG wrote:My Grandfather was fond of using 'educated fool' to describe such beings.

There is a vast difference between mind function and memory.









Maybe that is why I seem to not remember things lately!

There is a vast difference between knowledge without common sense and knowledge with common sense. The problem is the person lacking common sense doesn't know the difference.

Knowledge vs Common Sense

Is there REALLY a difference.

It is just common sense that you don't put your fingers on a hot burner plate. How did you "learn" that. By putting your fingers on the hot burner plate.

dusty wrote:Knowledge vs Common Sense

Is there REALLY a difference.

It is just common sense that you don't put your fingers on a hot burner plate. How did you "learn" that. By putting your fingers on the hot burner plate.

Knowledge allows you to design, engineer and build a bridge to cross a highway. Common sense allows you to look both ways and carefully walk across the highway.