Work-to-hire needs to be more prevalent. Start this guy off as a janitor so he can work his way up. No American feels above mopping floors, in case you, hiring manager, were unaware. Source: unemployed techie who gardens and moves in Silicon Valley, for people who would love to hire me if they had a computer job and is dodged by recruiters.
Yep. Also, most companies won't hire people who are massively overqualified for unskilled [or lesser-skilled] positions. In fact, many managers view unused skills as a waste [e.g., in the "Lean" philosophy / cult, it's called the '8th muda or waste'] and are specifically wary for that reason among others.
now of course, it's not always interpreted as a negative incentive to hire certain folks due to their having skill A, but instead to use skill A if someone has it -- but I have certainly heard it interpreted as one of the reasons to avoid overqualified candidates].
I wouldn't be surprised if part of the reasoning is there was a threat to power that would come from an overskilled person taking a position. For example, that overskilled person may not fall for certain lies or controlling aspects that the manager uses on actually-unskilled labor, who presumably don't have industry experience or are too afraid of losing their job to cause a fuss.
