Unfortunately, if you do take a job that's "beneath" what your qualifications would suggest, you'll sometimes wind up torpedoing your career prospects going forward.

I think a developer who was "consulting" or "freelancing" (read: unemployed) for the past six months would get more callbacks than one who'd been working at McDonald's, or needed to telecommute from North Dakota.

I suppose you can mitigate that effect by leaving it off your CV, but working a "crappy" job is still going to take away time and energy that could otherwise be spent improving your skills for your desired career.