Effects of applicant overeducation, job status, and job gender stereotype on employment decisions.

Employment preferences of personnel representatives in electronics firms regarding job applicants who had varying levels of education were investigated. The applicants had either obtained a 4-year college degree, completed 2 years of college, or completed high school. The stimulus jobs required the equivalent of a high school education but varied in terms of status and gender stereotype. The personnel representatives tended to recommend college-educated applicants for higher status jobs and male stereotypic jobs and applicants who had high school degrees for lower status and female stereotypic jobs. Contrary to the results of most previous research on overeducation, the performance of the applicants who were college graduates was expected to be higher than that of the less educated applicants.