an example of being “overqualified” would be, say, a person with an MBA from harvard applying for a job as a counterperson at mickey d’s...applying for a job beneath what your education and experience indicate that you should be applying for...

Over qualified means they are afraid you’ll take their job

Derek, It could mean they don't want or can't afford you ? They want someone out of college to push around Tough Job Market !

They don't want you they want somebody that can pay for less money.

Jeff you are so right with that statement

In my experience, it usually means a couple things. First, they are looking for a younger, less experienced person to fill the role and typically pay less for the fewer years experience. I have even seen some job requirements that actually say 5 years or less experience. They used to always say x years or more, but now the trend is to shift to less experience so they can pay less. The other is they feel like you won't stick around in that position, you will continue to look or try to advance faster than they would like. I have heard that same thing many times.

What is your area of expertise? Maybe that's the issue, being overqualified means more money

I received that kind of answer and I asked the person what did he mean. He explained that when you are overqualified you can cause many problems with the other employees and also I agree with the other comments, they know that you´ll be there until you find a better job

wow crazy!

It means that the person that told you that are afraid that they will loose their job to you in a short time because you are more qualified than they are.