I've not posted here in ages having long since moved on.

However, I popped back to share the following with you.

Would you consider this gentleman massively overqualified?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FEtnBSCWYAIfhdZ?format=jpg&name=small

His students apparently don't even consider him a decent lecturer, but he takes every opportunity to keep mentioning his qualifications during lectures.

Ian

I heard his department head only offered him a 3 teaching month contract with an effective wage of £4.32 an hour

Hmmm. I see his long list of qualifications as a massive red flag of someone who truly doesn’t know what he wants to do his life and career. Looks very confused and short attention span. There is no point in taking multiple masters etc. So much time and money wasted on additional qualifications that do not bring additional value to his career. If I were an employer, I would not hire this person as he clearly cannot plan nor strategise in his career decisions. I do not want this person anywhere near my project where I need good planning skills and long term dedication and perseverance on specific goals

A quick google and it's kinda interesting.

For me, this is the extreme of someone who's good at being a student but cannot move beyond it. I have seen this before (admittedly to a much lesser degree!), often with students later in life doing PhDs; they have the aspiration of the qualification, but not actually a plan or desire to move beyond it.

It's not actually that crazy because, if you think about it, it's much easier to live life in a series of clear objectives, deadlines, exams, courseworks, and requirements (c.f. that classic Lisa Simpson 'grade me! grade me!' bit). Really the hard bit is after you graduate (at whatever level), and need to go beyond doing what you're told. It's not that surprising that someone with the means and desire could just do, and pass, degree after degree. But for me it's not academically or intellectually an achievement, it's just a Guinness-book-of-records pitch.

That's a good way of putting it. There are a few students at my uni who openly say that they are doing the PhD to be called 'Dr' and few other reasons. They don't plan to enter academia or do an industry job related to their research, but I guess if they are happy with doing it, good for them.