How important are grades to landing a GOOD job. What do people look for when they hire someone.
Pesonality, past experience, grades, reliability, motivation? Anything else?
Basically what im asking is… Since i have a 3.0 (i think this is shitty but, how important is it), i work two jobs, play on a team, have been working since i was 14, hit the gym five days a week, own and pay for my own brand new car, will i get something decent?. I’m Never late and always easy to get along with. You can tell im highly motivated because i set big goals and dont stop until i reach them. Take things very serious but know when to have fun. Will i be able to land a decent job in the future? Any thoughts and help would be cool.
I don’t think you’ll have any problems. Many employers do consider grades very important, howeve, as soon as they see your resume they’ll see you worked through college, etc, and that will count for a lot too. Plus, 3.0 isn’t bad at all.
My engineer uncle says grades mean nothing. Once the piece of paper is in the drawer nobody looks at it. & you have to have a piece of paper too; if you work on a PhD for 4 years but don’t graduate it means absolutely nothing. You waste 4 years even if it was at an advanced level if you don’t graduate. Major/honours might make a slight diff because someone will see you’ve got an honours degree so you work hard but that’s still not a really big deal.
I’m going to take the opposite view. I think grades are extremely important. I also had to go through the experience of applying to law school. Before I got my first acceptance, I would check my transcript every couple of days and kick myself because blew off a couple of classes (and I graduated with a 3.53).
If you’re heading straight into the job market it probably doesn’t matter as much (other than if it prevents you from getting a good recommendation from a professor). If you’re heading to graduate school and the world of US News rankings, then it’s going to matter a ton.
When I spent the two years consulting college students, I always had two pieces of advice: 1.) Study abroad - preferably for a semester or more and in a non-English speaking country, and 2.) Grades are more important than you think. You won’t regret screwing it up until it’s too late.
I hire a lot of yound people in my company. We have nearly 100 employees.
To be honest grades don’t mean anything to me. If you went to a good school and have a sharp personality ,you have an inside tract with me. Beyond that if I have more then one person who stands out it is purely a judgement call.
If it’s a sales job I want the person to be gregarious. If it is an inside or production position I am looking for a history of reliablilty, dependability etc. FYI- If I can get a reference from someone I know, especially a competitor then, that means more then anything to me.
Grades depend on your field. 3.0 in EE isn’t bad at all. 3.0 in education … If there is someone who can give you an inside track, your grades may not matter that much. If you want to stand out from a large pool of applicants, an honors degree from a prestigious university helps a lot. If you turn out to be an ass, they can fire you later. When my dad was hiring people, he looked at where they went to school, and if they came recommended from someone whose opinion he respected. I’d say to look into clubs/organizations that have a connection with your major, do internships and whatnot to make those connections. I did my student teaching at the school that wound up hiring me, and they held that job 6 weeks for me over people with better grades, from bigger schools, simply because they knew me, and knew what I was capable of.
The school you go to and the grades you get are, among other criteria, important in landing your first job. It can mean the difference between starting with a prestigious company or a secondary player. However, your rate of advancement after that is up to you and not what you did or where you did it.
I think 90% of it is how you come across in the the interview. If you are well groomed, well spoken, look the guy (or guys) in the eye, and are confident you will go father than a mousy slob with a 4.0 GPA.
Very true Steely but you first have to get the interview. The guy with a 1.7 GPA from Humbug Internet U isn’t even going to get the interview. BTW, what is it that your wife does with horses? I raise and train quarter horses for reining. I had the 1995 free style reining Congress champion mare (Flutter My Lashes)here that was then bred out your way in the NW with Peppy Badger Check. Is your wife in the reining business?
Your transcripts are going to mean less and less as the years go by and you get more and more experience, but for those first couple of jobs after college they are quite likely going to be used to determine whether you get called in for the interview. And if you ask me, if you have mediocre grades and are getting a call that reflects somewhat poorly on the employer’s standards.
Different companies interview differently. Where I am, the interviews are an extremely detailed process and take place over a full day. You are subjected to several different interviews and they evaluate your problem solving abilities, your technical prowess, ask you very detailed questions about past experiences and how you’ve reacted or would react to various situation, hit you with brain teasers, and so on. Your personality, grooming, handshake, and all of that mean nothing in this case because the scrutiny is coming at you from every angle and exploring you with both breadth and depth.
Like anything else, it all comes down to, “How bad do you want it?”
if you actually have to do meaningful work at your job, of course gpa matters. salary surveys at my school showed that every 0.1 increase in gpa correlated with an extra 1500 in starting salary…
it gives an employer a good indication of your work ethic and your willingness to do quality work…
like i said… if you actually have to do meaningful work…
Yes, your application on paper has to be good enough to get an interview, but 90% of it is how you interview. You can have all the qualifications in the world, but if the interviewer feels like he/she is talking to a brick, forget it. Physical appearance does count also. Sense of humor, eye contact, confidence, articulate speech, etc. all help your cause. Interviewers look for someone who is motivated and enthusiastic, so you need to portray yourself as being just that.