How to deal with being overqualified for a new job?

A few years after I left the civil service I found myself short of cash and took a seasonal job with a well-known UK high street chain as a temporary stockroom assistant. The work was similar to working in an Amazon warehouse, but with rudimentary tech (I had to memorise the layout of the stockroom to be able to locate items).

The intellectual challenges of the work were zero. I coped by lowering my expectations, parking my intelligence outside the shop before clocking on for my shifts and getting on with the work. What got me through each day was the people I worked with: they may have been low achievers academically but they were infinitely fascinating and complex people with lives and hopes beyond the stockroom which they were happy to talk about as we worked.

It's been the same with every job I've taken over the years: the challenges of the work are always secondary to the colleagues I've worked with. Take an interest in the people around you and the boredom (or fear) of the tasks at hand will become more manageable.

You made a choice for reasons that are important to you. Accept your choice.

Assumption 1:

> a company that is safe from the recession and unlikely to be laid off

Assumption 2:

> I don’t think I will be able to find another job

You're probably not as safe as you think, and you can probably find a better job than you think.

Focus on building relationships with people and mentoring them. Identify future potential cofounders.

Invest in other areas of your life.

Determine how much you value the security, and if you can fit other things into the time you have if you’re underutilized. Alternatively, bounce for something “better” while keeping in mind the grass is not always greener and the remorse you may have if your next role evaporates during a global recession.

if you went for guaranteed salary, you value peace of mind over exciting, or meaningful work, anyway, and you acted upon that, maybe for your family or whatever

you can find meaning in things other than work anyway

it might seem a bit extremist, but if a job for which you are not overqualified is not on the level of the polio vaccine, insulin, penicillin, glass lenses, the wheel, etc. you know, "changing the course of human history"-level, then what does it matter what the job is anyway?

You don’t have to settle for this shit.

The unemployment rate is still very low and we are going into a demographic crunch where all the boomers are leaving the workforce.

You sound like you don’t have a better idea or calling. Does nothing interest you?

Go build new skills, find a side project in the direction of your higher goal and work on that.

I went years being underutilized. Then I learned to get a life and create some side activities to channel my creative energy. I run two newsletters, an annual summit and a YouTube channel. I use those to constantly meet people and keep learning.

Participate.

Why stop interviewing? These people (your job) don’t give a crap about you. This is just the floor. Your basic needs are met. Now find a company that meets the rest of your needs.

I quit my underutilized boring tech job to do a startup. I work all the god damned time and have several jobs.

I would not go back.

All we have in life is time. After four years of bad managers and bad environments I just no longer cared. I ripped the bandaid off.

that implies youll be underpaid, can you live with it?