As someone who searched for jobs as a de facto CS PhD, I can relate to what the author is saying. PhD's tend to slot into very specific niches, and if you don'

As someone who searched for jobs as a de facto CS PhD, I can relate to what the author is saying. PhD's tend to slot into very specific niches, and if you don't fill that niche they won't want you, even if your skills are a superset of the skills they need. I was rejected for certain jobs because my research wasn't closely related enough. People whose research was squarely in that area had no problem getting these jobs. In the end, my job ended up being something I didn't realize I was qualified for, but with hindsight I fitted the niche perfectly. Part of the problem is simply that the market is "thin". There are less jobs, and less PhD's than there are people with Masters or Bachelors in CS. So the matching process takes longer. People won't want to hire you for a job you are overqualified for, and in the long run this would be bad for both parties. As to the people who think that professors are just over-confident so they can keep churning out PhD's, I think this is wrong for two reasons. First, the situation is subtle, and hard to understand for someone who isn't actually going through it. Second, the market is not bad, it's just very peculiar: as you can see, the author did get a good job in the end, it just took a lot of time.