In the latest of his regular “Stuck in the Middle” series, our mid-level candidate columnist tells us why he's sick and tired of the "overqualified" tag. If you haven’t read his other articles, please click here and here.

This month I’d like to cover the problem of being over qualified. This issue is vexing me no end and I believe it has primarily arisen due to a dearth of mid-level positions in the financial sector. It is with ever increasing pessimism that I wonder if people in my 30-to-40 age bracket are even employable at the moment.

In a nutshell, it seems that the generation above mine (40+) is in charge of all the hiring and firing, whilst us 30-somethings are fighting for job survival, or, as is my case, are simply out of work.

The flip side is that there are roles for people at a more junior level, but these are inaccessible if you have closer to 10 years’ work experience.

It's the salaries, stupid

Before I go on, I’d also like to raise my suspicions about why this is the case. I don’t think banks are actually looking for less experienced or less qualified people, I honestly think it all comes down to wages.

They simply don’t want to pay mid-level salaries, so they are recruiting younger, more inexperienced staff (or the opposite - people with enormous amounts of experience, or with large client books).

For the record, I have nine years’ experience under my belt, plus 1.5 degrees (I’m halfway through my masters) and a professional qualification (that took two years’ industry experience and additional exams to achieve).

In my view, this is pretty standard, and really the minimum of what you need to be successful. I’ll be honest in saying that my first four to five years was really spent learning the ropes, while the last four have been spent moving up the corporate ladder.

What really makes me mad

Now, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but it would appear that mid-level, reasonably paid staff have taken the brunt of recent redundancies. While I don’t have a problem with this (probably because I wasn’t actually made redundant), I find it particularly annoying when I apply for positions only to be told that I’m “over qualified”.

Seriously, it simply seems like bad luck that I was born eight years too late – otherwise I’d probably be the one doing the hiring and firing. But the worst part is that it seems this is being held against me, particularly by agency recruiters.

Too often when applying for a role I hear the words “over qualified”. Sure, I have tried to dumb down my CV, but even then it becomes pretty apparent that I know "more than I should" for the role. It doesn’t take a genius to look through a CV, string some dates together (from finishing university to your last role), and then work out “where you should be” in terms of your career.

So, at my age, you seem to be faced with two outcomes: you are either overqualified, or are so bad at your job that you’ve probably never been promoted. Hardly a win-win situation!

No solution

All in all, I can’t figure out a way to get around this issue. Sure you can offer to work for half what people of your skill-level are being paid (and no doubt you’ll probably work harder than them too for fear of again being unemployed). But nobody seems to want to hear that.

Recently I tried telling a recruiter that it didn’t matter about the money, or really even the role, so long as the firm was the right fit and offered longer-term career opportunities. If I can do the job with my eyes closed, and also have something to offer the firm in terms of helping it to move forward, then surely I would be a good asset to have?

Alas, I was told “we’re not going to put you forward because we suspect that as soon as the markets improve you will leave and move onto bigger and better things”.

Okay, I appreciate firms dislike being used as a “stepping stone”, but honestly, if the business is well run and offers the right fit personally, then surely they are better off hiring someone who can actually do the job, rather than taking a punt on someone younger?

I’d also like to add that, after several years with a firm, if you are still doing exactly the same job, with no scope for career progression, then you’ll probably leave anyway (whether you’re aged 25 or 32).

So here I remain, aged 31, six months after returning from London, and still trying to find a firm that actual wants to hire smart, well qualified 30-somethings.