I've heard a few folks in this conversation allude to "they don't want to hire someone with a Ph.D. because it'll cost more." That doesn't match my own experience (pre-Ph.D.) being hired for a county-government job I was distinctly overqualified for -- and pretty much everyone we were hiring was also overqualfied. (The job market in that town was honestly such that nearly every good job went to someone thoroughly overqualified, since people were willing to take steep salary reductions to move there.) So it still seems a bit odd to me to keep hearing this common assumption that I won't be hired for a government job just because it only requires a M.S.
I'd appreciate if someone in government could explain the nuances of the whole "overqualified" concept from your perspective in hiring, as advice to a soon-to-finish Ph.D. who might be sending you a job application. I can understand that you might see a Ph.D. as a retention risk, since they might jump ship for a better-paid job elsewhere. But are there any other barriers to hiring a Ph.D. that I should be aware of? For example, do federal jobs essentially mandate being paid commensurate with your degree? Otherwise, why wouldn't you be happy to hire someone that brings extra skills and experience? I'll be finishing my Ph.D. this summer, and I'm certainly exploring job options of going back into government work -- bringing with me some strong, transferable skillsets from my Ph.D. like grant-writing, hiring/training/supervising, designing and managing complex projects, and science communication. I'm seeing jobs out there that are advertised as only requiring a M.S. but provide plenty of intellectual room and challenge to keep a Ph.D. happy -- and even though they pay less than I might technically be qualified for, they still pay as well as or better than many academic postdocs. (and far, far better than part-time no-guarantees-next-semester adjunct teaching!) Advice and perspectives on marketing myself to government jobs -- and avoiding triggering a "skip this one, he's overqualified" summary rejection -- would be extremely helpful. Thanks in advance, Daniel Daniel A. Nidzgorski Urban ecosystem ecology Ph.D. Candidate Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
