Why you should reject jobs below your skills

Kenyans value education. We view learning as the silver bullet that enables one to jump economic hurdles and gain a better life. Consequently, as a society, we champion educational milestones. The success cards commensurate with the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations or the graduation parties held upon university commencement all hold deep meaning in Kenyan culture.

However, Kenyans are all too aware that educational achievements do not necessarily turn into workforce success. We often emphasise certificate gathering from trainings, conferences, and even degrees, but less on the actual skills and competencies desired by employers.

As Kenya’s young adult unemployment rate stands at 26 per cent according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), many younger graduates from our colleges and universities will face both unemployment and underemployment.

Underemployment entails an individual conducting some economic activities or employment, but not making full use of their skills and abilities or not enough paying work.

William Borgen, Norman Amundson, and Henry Harder found that underemployment after university completion leads graduates to initially feel disillusion, dissatisfied, and frustrated during the initial phase but later turns into despair, hopelessness, and powerlessness.

During the disheartening periods of underemployment, the graduate also lowers his or her opinions about their career prospects and career earning potential.

Conventional wisdom assumes that such individuals’ self-opinions about their vocational futures returns to normal once gainful full employment is attained. However, an area of research surrounding the path of labourers’ career trajectories looks at path-dependency. Individuals of similar education can hold differing vocational options and levels of success depending on which career paths they take all else held equal.

In a 10-year study, social scientists Marijke Verbruggen, Hetty van Emmerik, Anita Van Gils, Christoph Meng, and Andries de Grip investigated the long-term lingering effects of underemployment early in workers’ careers and how it affects their work paths. Unfortunately, the researchers found some disturbing truths.

The researchers broke down underemployment into three different kinds: level underemployment, content underemployment, and contingent underemployment.

Content underemployment occurs when one has employment, but it is not in the same field as their education. An example is when an engineering graduate sells bank credit cards because he or she cannot find an engineering job.

Contingent type means employment that is temporary by its nature such as a fixed-term contract or temporary agency placements that carry job insecurity compared to regular permanent employment. Finally, level underemployment refers to work that is beneath a person’s education level. A secretary who holds an MBA degree falls into level underemployment.

The research compared the salaries as well as job satisfaction over the 10-year period. Content underemployment causes employees to have lingering low job satisfaction for at least five years even after the worker finds a job in their field.

Meanwhile, workers who faced either level or contingent underemployment at any point during the past 10 years suffered from lower pay even long after their bout of temporary or lower-level work finishes.

These types of underemployment periods adjust labourers’ opinions and expectations lower and they typically accept lower wages for the rest of their careers even when in gainful employment.

Interestingly, level underemployment also depends on when an individual faced an education mismatch situation because employers do not like to hire those who appear satisfied with previous jobs beneath their ability and education unless such level underemployment occurred long before.

In practical terms, tired of searching for your ideal job or one within your field? Do not give up.

Keep looking and do not be shy to use all your networks to find it. Hunting for professional jobs for well educated workers takes more than six months to upwards of a year in most situations.

Settling for lower jobs beneath your education or skill set or outside your field can have lingering negative effects on your psychology and earning potential for the next decade even if you only do the temporary, out-of-field, or lower-end job for a short period.