Dave Jensen wrote: I guess that applying a stringent "no PhD" rule could be considered stereotyping. There must be someone out there who would be happy in such a job with a PhD and who wouldn't leave the moment they saw a PhD position open that they fit.
For better or for worse, many stereotypes exist for a reason - and perhaps hiring policies are designed to reflect this. In this particular case, we have received approval to hire for X position, with Y salary and Z advancement opportunities associated with a position at that level within our organization. As the hiring manager here, I do not really have flexibility with this.
It's not that I wouldn't like to add a brilliant PhD level scientist to our program, but that X position does not require such extensive training, nor would Y salary be appropriate for an such an individual. Sure, as Dave said there may be someone out there with a PhD, multiple postdocs and several high impact publications who would be happy to remain at the bench doing research for someone else, but it would first take an incredible amount of explanation to convince me they really wanted to do so long term.