For many years, I studied the experiences of employees who are overqualified or otherwise underemployed for their jobs, and their emotional and behavioral reactions to such a situation. In 2011, Daniel C. Feldman and I co-edited a book on the topic, entitled Underemployment: Psychological, Economic and Social Challenges. Published by Springer Business + Science, this book is a collection of 14 chapters written by the foremost scholars on underemployment in the disciplines of psychology, business, economics, and sociology. It was named a 2011 Outstanding Academic Title in the Business, Management and Labor category by Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries.

Measuring perceived overqualification

The Scale of Perceived Overqualification (SPOQ) is a 9-item measure that taps perceived overqualification – in other words, the feeling that one possesses surplus education, experience, and/or skills in their current job. This scale currently available in 5 languages: English, Spanish, German, Mandarin Chinese, and Brazilian Portuguese, largely thanks to the work of other organizational psychologists around the world.

• The English version of the SPOQ can be found in Maynard, Joseph & Maynard (2006).
• The SPOQ was translated into Mandarin Chinese by Yi-Jung Chen. It can be found here, along with the citation. Please note that this version utilizes simplified characters.
• João Moreira Gonçalves Neto translated the SPOQ into Brazilian Portuguese (this version is called the Escala de Sobrequalificação Percebida or ESQP), which can be found here, along with the citation. You may contact João at goncalvesnetojm@gmail.com.
• For the Spanish or German versions of the scale, please contact me directly at maynardd@newpaltz.edu.

If you use any version of the SPOQ, please use the following reference in your work:

• Maynard, D. C., Joseph, T., & Maynard, A. M. (2006). Underemployment, job attitudes, and turnover intentions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(4), 509-536. doi:10.1002/job.389