Unlike most of the other anecdotes posted here, this one actually took place long before I could consider myself unemployed. I was in college, and wanted a job so I could get some money to defray the costs of well, living. One fine day, I saw a listing for an open position for a supervisor of an on-campus Psychology computer lab. It sounded pretty perfect, so I printed out the application and turned it in a few hours later. The administrative assistant that I handed the form was startled at first--I had responded so fast she hadn't even been aware that the listing had already been posted. She glanced over my application and resume, told me that I was exactly what they were looking for, and stated that they would contact me soon. (Man, how many times have I heard that recently?)
If you've been paying attention, you probably have already guessed that I didn't hear back from anyone, despite assurances to the contrary. Already knowing by then that not getting a response was about as expected as a politician with a sex scandal, I put it out of mind.
Fast forward about three months, and I was heading back home for Thanksgiving with a carpool of people I didn't know to save myself the cost of buying a plane ticket. Towards the conclusion of the drive, the topic of on-campus jobs came up, and the driver began to gloat about how his job as overlord of the Psychology computer lab was excellent in that, since no one ever used it, he didn't even have to show up, but could still say that he was putting in his hours and get paid nonetheless. Another passenger raised the possibility of him getting caught, or at least being made to show up by perhaps a resentful coworker, at which point he delivered this bombshell:
"Nah, I mean, the department tried to make me hire someone. But I told them I could do it all myself, since I can, since no one ever shows up anyway. There was this one guy that applied, had a weird name, starting with V or something, and I couldn't give him the job because he was waaay more qualified than me, and they would've had no reason to keep me around if they had him. So yeah, his application disappeared."
This was, of course, pretty perturbing, even aside from the fact that this guy was apparently stupid enough to gloat without noticing that I also had a "weird name" that began with a V. Part of me wanted to reach my arms around his neck and start strangling him right then and there, but the twin realities that he was driving and that I would need him to be functioning to be able to grab a ride back down prevented me from doing so.
At least the other employers that presumably reject me for being overqualified don't make it a point to regularly tell me how awesome I would be at their job while rejecting me to my face. Not yet, anyway. There's still time.
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