Hiring someone who is overqualified sounds like a recipe for disaster. What if they get bored and quit? Or what if they develop a bad attitude as a result of feeling above the duties of their job? Turns out you shouldn’t worry, according to new research published by the Academy of Management Journal. It found that hiring someone who is overqualified can be a win for both the employee and the employer.

“A major trend in our current economic condition is the rise in underemployment,” says Jing Zhou, a professor of management and psychology at the Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University. “[Employers] almost universally believe it’s a bad thing to hire someone who is overqualified, but we found that there is another side to this with positive implications for management.”

Zhou performed two studies with Bilian Lin and Kenneth S. Law of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In the first, teachers were asked to rank their qualification level on a scale of one to seven. The teachers’ supervisors were then asked to rate the teachers’ creativity and organizational citizenship. Those who rated themselves as overqualified for their position–a five on a scale of one to seven–also received the highest ratings from their supervisors.

Please click here to read the complete article from Fast Company.