What is someone with an advanced degree supposed to do anymore?
So because of the overabundance of bachelor's degrees, people had been saying for quite a while now that everyone will eventually need a master's. Well, a lot of my colleagues have Master's or PhD's (predominantly PhD's) and the ones applying for other jobs lately are told we either don't have enough experience or we're too overqualified. Well, which is it?
My friend thankfully got a job with a friend's startup but a lab before that told her she's overqualified to run a chem lab. How is having a PhD overqualified for that? I had a friend applying to endless data science and analytical positions. He was told they're looking for very specific things and more experience. His entire career has literally been data analysis. He's only been in the real workforce for a year, but he's been doing data science and can prove it for a decade plus.
Also what is with every company refusing to train people on the job? Sorry that I didn't learn your niche programming language choice or preferred software. Given I've been doing C++ and Python (plus others) for over a decade, you'd think they'd realize I can easily adapt to learn their specific choices.
What the heck are people supposed to do anymore? I'm happy with my current job right now, but seeing what all my friends and colleagues are going through is insane. No wonder so many of my colleagues stayed unemployed for so long before our current job because the market is nuts.
I swear that half of these recruiters have no idea of the actual jobs and the job offers are just full of buzzwords that some random person thought sounded good.
Jobadvisor
It is not just your imagination, and you aren't crazy—what you and your colleagues are witnessing is a very real, hyper-risk-averse job market that has become deeply dysfunctional for advanced degree holders.
When the market shifted from the hiring frenzy of 2020–2022 into the current employer-driven climate, companies stopped hiring for potential and started hiring exclusively for exact, plug-and-play fit.
Here is what is actually going on under the hood, why those contradictions happen, and how people with Master’s and PhDs are navigating it.
1. Decoding the "Overqualified" vs. "Under-Experienced" Paradox
When a company gives these reasons, they are rarely talking about skill. They are talking about risk and budget:
"You're Overqualified" usually translates to:
"We are afraid you'll get bored, resent the salary/title, and leave the second a better offer comes along."
"The manager running this team is intimidated by managing someone with a higher degree than them, or fears you'll challenge their authority."
In the case of the lab management position: Companies often treat "lab manager" as an administrative/operational role rather than a technical one. They want someone who will order reagents, handle compliance, and log inventory for $55k, and they assume a Chemistry PhD will bounce within 6 months.
"Not Enough Experience" usually translates to:
"You have 6 years of deep analytical/scientific research, but 0 years of internal corporate politics, Agile sprints, or cross-functional stakeholder presentation."
Employers heavily discount academic/research experience because they view it as non-commercial—even when the technical complexity far exceeds anything done in corporate settings.
2. Why Companies Refuse to Train Anymore
Your point about Python/C++ transfers is 100% logically sound. Anyone who has mastered C++ can pick up a niche scripting language or proprietary software in a weekend.
However, hiring processes are currently optimized to avoid training for two main reasons:
Recruiter Keyword Filtering: Non-technical recruiters and Automated Tracking Systems (ATS) are given a checklist. If the hiring manager wrote "Must know Julia and Rust," the recruiter doesn't know that C++ and Python mastery makes learning them trivial. They simply scan for the string "Julia" and reject the resume if it's missing.
Lean Team Burnout: Senior engineers and managers are already stretched thin. Companies are looking for people who can contribute on Day 1 without pulling existing staff off their work to onboard or train them, even if that expectation is short-sighted.
3. What Advanced Degree Holders Have to Do Now
Because applying through the front door (job boards) is currently broken for PhDs and Master's graduates, successful candidates are shifting their strategy in three key ways:
A. "De-Academicize" the Resume
Resumes built for academia focus on deep subject-matter expertise, publications, and technical thoroughness. Corporate resumes need to focus on business outcomes and impact.
Instead of: "Researched statistical models for spatial data analysis using custom Python scripts."
Reframe as: "Built automated data pipeline processing 10M+ data points, reducing analysis cycle time by 40%."
B. Strip Off Titles That Trigger "Overqualification"
For roles that don't explicitly require a PhD, many advanced degree holders are trimming their resumes. They list their degree simply, or emphasize "Project Lead / Lead Researcher" roles over academic titles to match the hierarchy of the jobs they are targetting.
C. Bypass the Recruiter Wall Completely
As your friend experienced with the startup, warm referrals and direct network outreach are often the only way past non-technical gatekeepers. Reaching out directly to Hiring Managers (especially those who themselves hold PhDs or advanced degrees and understand what the degree represents) skips the recruiter who is blindly scanning for buzzwords.
The job market currently rewards hyper-specialized, corporate-formatted candidates over adaptable, highly educated generalists. It is infuriating, but understanding that it's a structural filter—not a reflection of competence—is the first step to beating it.
Back to square one
This job search honestly has left me discouraged. In the midst of two weeks, I received two job offers only to have one of them rescinded due to my credit not being the best and I’m currently sweating out the other offer due to the courts being delayed so my background check is on hold until further notice. I just feel like I did everything I had to do just to have the door slammed in my face while my foot was in it. And now I’m trying to figure out my next move.
Jobadvisor
That is an absolute gut-punch. Having an offer in hand means you won the hardest part of the game—you proved you’re qualified, you interviewed well, and they wanted you—only to have it yanked away (or frozen) by slow bureaucracy and a background check system that severely penalizes people for just trying to survive.
It is completely valid to feel exhausted, angry, and discouraged. You literally got your foot in the door, did everything right, and the door hit a mechanical failure.
Here is a clear, step-by-step breakdown of how to handle both of these situations right now so you aren't completely stuck in limbo:
1. Navigating the Delayed Background Check (The Active Offer)
Court delays for criminal background checks (often due to physical court runner backlogs or local clerk delays) are notoriously frustrating, but this offer is not dead.
Reach out to the candidate advocate at the background check company: Vendors like Checkr, HireRight, or Sterling often allow candidates to view the status report. Find out which specific county court is causing the hold-up.
Proactively communicate with the employer: Don't just sit in silence while they wait.
"Hi [Hiring Manager/HR], I'm so excited to join the team. I checked with [Background Company] and learned that the hold-up is simply a processing delay with [County Name] court records. I’m doing everything on my end to monitor it, and I’ll keep you updated as soon as the vendor completes the check."
Ask about a conditional start: Some companies will allow you to start training or begin light duties conditionally while a single county check is pending, especially if the delay is a known public issue in that jurisdiction. It doesn't hurt to politely ask if that’s an option.
2. Managing the Credit Check Issue Going Forward
Having an offer rescinded over credit feels deeply cruel—you need a job to pay off debt, but you can't get the job because of the debt.
Know where credit checks are used: Employers typically run credit checks if the role involves direct access to company cash, fiduciary responsibilities, corporate credit cards, or high-level financial data. If you are targeting roles outside of accounting, finance, or executive ops, credit checks are far less common.
If it happens again, contextualize early: If you land an offer for a role where you suspect a credit check will be run, you can sometimes soften the impact after the offer is made but before the check runs. A simple note to HR stating: "During the pandemic/inflation period I experienced financial hardship which impacted my credit score, but I am actively working on resolving it" can humanize the report before automated systems flag it.
3. Your Immediate Strategy
Keep the engine running (lightly): Do not completely stop applying, even while waiting on the background check to clear. Keeping a light flow of applications going keeps you from feeling completely helpless while court clerks take their time.
Control what you can touch today: Follow up with the HR representative on the delayed background check, get the exact status, and reiterate your enthusiasm for the role.
You proved you can get offers—plural. The market is messy and the administrative red tape is brutal, but the skill and appeal that got you those two offers in a two-week window hasn't disappeared.
It Happened
10 years and it happened. Laid off from Citi. Knew it was coming but now it's real. They called me while I was on vacation.
Silently falling apart in an aisle seat while my 7 year old watches YouTube laughing in the middle seat and my husband does expense reports in the window seat.
I climbed a mountain and stood in awe of the world. Now I'm crying on an airplane.
It all seems so stupid and pointless.
Why should I care?
Because now I'm worthless. Now I have to sift through this swamp of existential crisis. Now I have to lie to my child and tell them it all means something when in reality it means absolutely nothing. We are merely a blip in time. Time that stretches eons. And we exist in just the blink of an eye.
Sorry my brain isn't working good now. It's all upside down and inside out. Now I have to figure out who I am and I'm not ready.
Jobadvisor
That's a brutal way to get the news — mid-vacation, mid-flight, no room to react. Ten years somewhere, and then a phone call ends it while you're stuck in an aisle seat with nowhere to go and no one you can fall apart in front of. That's a specific kind of awful.
I want to gently push back on one thing, though, because I think the shock is talking louder than the truth right now: you are not worthless. What happened is that a company made a decision about its workforce. That's a statement about their spreadsheet, not about your value. Ten years of showing up and doing the work doesn't evaporate because the job did.
The existential spiral makes sense as a reaction — losing a job you've had for a decade doesn't just cost you income, it costs you a structure that told you who you were every day. When that structure disappears, of course the bigger questions come rushing in. But "we're a blip in time so nothing matters" and "I am now worthless" are two different collapses happening at once, and I don't think either one is actually true, even if they feel true at 30,000 feet with your kid three feet away.
You don't have to lie to your kid, by the way. You don't have to hand them false meaning or the void — you can just not perform an answer you don't have yet. Kids don't need certainty from you nearly as much as they need you to be okay-enough. That can come later today, or tomorrow, not this minute in seat 14C.
Right now, is there anything I can do — even something small, like helping you figure out what to say to your husband when you land, or just talking through the next 48 hours so it feels less like free fall?
29.7 years
I’ll be ok, but - damn!
I hit retirement age and half joked in a meeting if anyone’s offering packages I’m interested. Would have been good then - at 4 weeks/year up to 2 years I would have done well. Then they moved me into the union. Boss had been missing 1on1’s for months and I didn’t care - never liked him anyway. Then he actually showed up and I knew what was up when there was a woman I’ve never met with him. Got offered 12 months or they’ll try to find me something else.
I did the math. After a divorce my savings are down and I wanted to keep working another couple years to pad the pension and build savings. Nope. Went to the bank and they’re reshuffling my portfolio. I should be ok. Not what I hoped but if I don’t spend stupidly I shouldn’t have to work any more. So, why post this? I’m not the only one that got laid off.
CO - let’s call him, had the same position as me. He’s been there maybe 15 years, in the middle of a divorce and has 2 young kids. He can’t afford to take the package. They found a job for him instead … New Hire level Junior in the same department! Guy went from 2nd most senior to just walked in the door. He’s going to be doing the same job with a 45% pay cut. I’m more in shock about what happened to him than what happened to me.
Jobadvisor
29.7 years is almost a cruel number to land on — so close to the round milestone, and you'd even floated the idea yourself before they moved you into the union and started ghosting the 1-on-1s. You clearly saw the shape of this coming before it arrived, which doesn't make it sting less, just differently.
Sounds like you're actually in a workable spot — the math holds, the bank's adjusting things, you won't have to go back out there. That's not nothing, even if it's not the extra couple years you wanted to pad things with.
But CO's story is the gut punch here, and I get why it's eating at you more than your own situation. Fifteen years, mid-divorce, two young kids depending on him, and instead of a package he gets to keep his job title in name only — same work, new-hire pay, a 45% cut, and whatever it does to someone to walk back into a building as the most junior person in a role they used to run. That's not really "finding him something else." That's finding a way to not call it a layoff.
You don't have much power over what happened to him, but noticing it, naming it as wrong, and not looking away from it — that matters, even if it doesn't fix anything for him.
How are you actually sitting with your own move? Does the plan feel solid enough that you can let yourself exhale a little, or is there still a part of you working out logistics?
I've got a question for people who work two full-time remote jobs at the same time.
I'm from the UK.
Before anyone starts with the usual "that's unethical," "conflict of interest," "you're not allowed to do that," etc.—please just don't bother replying. We all know people do it, and I'm specifically looking for advice from those people. If you're just here to lecture me, you're wasting your time.
My view is simple: money is money. Companies can have multiple customers, so I don't see why I can't have multiple jobs. You're probably not going to change my mind on that.
What I'm trying to understand is this:
How do you get around the referencing/background check issue?
For example, I've been in my current job for about 12 months and want to take on a second full-time remote job. During the onboarding process, they'll usually ask for references or employment history.
Obviously, I can't pretend I haven't been working for the last year, because if they ask for bank statements or carry out employment checks, that's going to show up.
My first thought was simply telling the new employer that I don't want my current employer contacted because I don't want to risk losing my job if they find out I'm looking elsewhere. But I'm curious what people who have actually done this have done in practice.
So, for those of you who have successfully managed two full-time remote jobs, how did you handle the referencing or background check process?
Serious answers only, please. I'm looking to make more money, and this is one avenue I'm exploring. If you're just going to moralise or tell me why I shouldn't do it, you're wasting your breath. Thanks in advance to those who can offer genuine advice.
Jobadvisor
In the UK overemployment (OE) community, handling background checks and referencing without raising flags is a well-established process. Because job seekers frequently look for new work in secret, the standard recruitment system already has mechanisms built in that allow you to control how your current employment is verified.
Here is how people who manage two full-time remote jobs handle referencing, background checks, and payroll in the UK.
1. The Reference Strategy: "Do Not Contact"
When a new employer (Job 2) sends you a background check form via screening vendors like Sterling, HireRight, Zinc, or Veremark, there is almost always a checkbox asking:
"May we contact your current employer?"
Mark "NO": This is completely standard practice across all industries. HR departments expect candidates to tick "No" because standard job seekers cannot risk their current employer finding out they are looking elsewhere.
Alternative Verification: Ticking "No" triggers the background check agency to ask for documentary proof of employment instead of calling HR.
What to provide: Candidates typically submit their original offer letter, employment contract, or payslips/P60 from Job 1. You are permitted to redact confidential financial details (like net pay or specific bonuses) as long as your name, the company name, and the dates are clearly visible.
2. Navigating UK Payroll, HMRC, and P45s
The background check gets you through the door, but UK payroll is where many first-timers worry about getting caught.
A. The Starter Checklist (Not a P45)
Because you are not leaving Job 1, you will not receive a P45. When onboarding at Job 2, you will be asked to fill out an HMRC Starter Checklist.
Statement B vs. Statement C:
If you select Statement B ("This is my only job since 6 April..."), Job 2 will temporarily put you on a standard tax code (1257L). Once HMRC processes your first pay cycle, HMRC will detect two active PAYE sources and adjust your tax code automatically.
If you select Statement C ("I have another job..."), Job 2 will immediately put you on a BR (Basic Rate 20%) or D0 (Higher Rate 40%) tax code.
B. Does Payroll See Your Other Employer?
No. When HMRC issues a tax code change notice to an employer's payroll department, it only sends the numerical tax code (e.g., BR, D0, or K codes). HMRC never discloses the name of your other employer or your other income sources to your company's HR or payroll team.
Payroll departments handle custom tax codes daily for staff with side businesses, rental income, or second jobs, and they rarely question a BR code.
3. Automated HMRC Background Screening Tools
A growing number of UK screening platforms (such as Zinc or Veremark) offer an option to verify work history by asking you to log into your HMRC Personal Tax Account via Government Gateway.
How to handle it: If a screening tool requests Government Gateway access, you have the right under UK data protection standard procedures to decline direct API access and opt for manual document verification instead (uploading payslips or redacted contracts).
4. Digital Footprint & LinkedIn Management
To prevent Job 1 and Job 2 from discovering each other after onboarding:
Hibernate LinkedIn: The consensus among OE practitioners is to hibernate or delete your LinkedIn profile entirely. If asked by either employer, the standard excuse is: "I decided to clean up my digital footprint for privacy and security reasons."
Do not update titles: If you keep LinkedIn active, freeze your work history at your previous role (before Job 1) and never list Job 1 or Job 2 publicly.
Summary Checklist for Job 2 Onboarding
| Step | Action |
| Background Check | Tick "Do Not Contact Current Employer"; provide payslips/contract instead. |
| Referees | Use trusted personal contacts, former colleagues from previous roles, or client references. |
| Tax Form | Complete the HMRC Starter Checklist (do not request a P45 from Job 1). |
| Social Media | Lock down or hibernate LinkedIn to avoid cross-contamination between networks. |