importance of college GPA
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I honestly don't believe it matters, I just graduated from college with a 2.9 and I had 4 interviews with an employer and they didn't once ask me what my GPA was. Graduating gets your foot in the door, having charisma and good interview skills gets you the job.
Now it does in this climate. Posted a job online 2 days ago, got about 300+ applications so far. A fresh college grad has to have a great GPA and good internship experience for me to consider them over an experienced worker that just got laid off. Competition's fierce out there for jobs.
I got a job Jan 08' without a decent GPA and know plenty of friends who did as well. It's just now employers have a much larger and talented pool of employees to choose from than before.
p.s. on another note I don't think too many employers are going to ask for a transcript to verify your GPA.
I got a job Jan 08' without a decent GPA and know plenty of friends who did as well. It's just now employers have a much larger and talented pool of employees to choose from than before.
p.s. on another note I don't think too many employers are going to ask for a transcript to verify your GPA.
If we're discussing computer related jobs, I think the more appropriate question would be, "Importance of a college DEGREE".
I made up my mind in the 9th grade (hm, 11 yrs ago) I wasn't going.. a decision I've never regretted once. Why spend $50k+ at college on something you can learn entirely online for free? Plus with a portfolio (whether you design, code, or even SEO/market) that's more valuable than a degree alone.
Plus, college for computers is such bullshit. Lot of my friends have college degrees for computer science and don't know shit.
(but yes, college degree for everything else a must
)
I made up my mind in the 9th grade (hm, 11 yrs ago) I wasn't going.. a decision I've never regretted once. Why spend $50k+ at college on something you can learn entirely online for free? Plus with a portfolio (whether you design, code, or even SEO/market) that's more valuable than a degree alone.
Plus, college for computers is such bullshit. Lot of my friends have college degrees for computer science and don't know shit.
(but yes, college degree for everything else a must
)
dreamache, it depends where you go. There are nice schools out there (but they cost more than 50k). If you go with a generic degree at a generic school, you'll have a generic outcome.
As for grades, it does matter. It's not the final word on anything though. If you have the experience or projects to make up for it then there's really no harm with a lower GPA. You have to give the employer something to justify hiring you. If you have no experiences and no projects and no knowledge to prove, grades are the only thing left sometimes.
As for grades, it does matter. It's not the final word on anything though. If you have the experience or projects to make up for it then there's really no harm with a lower GPA. You have to give the employer something to justify hiring you. If you have no experiences and no projects and no knowledge to prove, grades are the only thing left sometimes.
Everywhere I applied to as a graduating senior last year requested GPA and transcript. Now being on the other side, we throw out almost every applicant with anything below a 3.6-3.75, even higher this year in light of the increased number of applicants/less available jobs.
It all depends on what field you're going into. Start looking at some of the jobs you want now, regardless of how far away you are from applying to them and see what they require: resume, cover letter, sat?(some ask for this), gpa, transcript - should give you a sense of the relative weight of a gpa for your field.
It all depends on what field you're going into. Start looking at some of the jobs you want now, regardless of how far away you are from applying to them and see what they require: resume, cover letter, sat?(some ask for this), gpa, transcript - should give you a sense of the relative weight of a gpa for your field.
If you are serious about grad school, getting into a Tier 1 grad school is critical and they won't take you with less than a 3.2. While you can be employed easily with a BA in Business from Joe Blow University- if you want to be an investment banker/ consultant/ et al., you had better have your MBA from one of the top 10 in the most recent issue of US News & World Report.
Conversely, GPA won't matter to your employers unless you plan on working for someone like Google, where you have to rock a 4.0 from Stanford in Computer Science while simultaneously closing puppy mills single-handedly, getting a patent by the age of 18, curing cancer and freeing the refugees in Sudan.
Conversely, GPA won't matter to your employers unless you plan on working for someone like Google, where you have to rock a 4.0 from Stanford in Computer Science while simultaneously closing puppy mills single-handedly, getting a patent by the age of 18, curing cancer and freeing the refugees in Sudan.
^^ I agree with a good portion of your post...but:
banker/consultant, etc. will hire top notch undergrads for their burn and churn positions.
Google - well you don't have to do all of that. Some of my classmates are PMs there and were definitely solid students, but not all CS majors, not from Stanford and no patents to their names.
banker/consultant, etc. will hire top notch undergrads for their burn and churn positions.
Google - well you don't have to do all of that. Some of my classmates are PMs there and were definitely solid students, but not all CS majors, not from Stanford and no patents to their names.
I'll be graduating in a couple months, so I know how you feel.
It really depends on your personal situation. If you have no real work experience, or just one or two summer internships, then yes, your GPA matters a lot. If you're like me and have been working in the industry full time for the last four years, it doesn't matter as much.
That said, in this economic climate, employers can afford to be picky. They're probably just going to hire the guy with a ton of valid work experience AND a 3.6+ GPA.
It really depends on your personal situation. If you have no real work experience, or just one or two summer internships, then yes, your GPA matters a lot. If you're like me and have been working in the industry full time for the last four years, it doesn't matter as much.
That said, in this economic climate, employers can afford to be picky. They're probably just going to hire the guy with a ton of valid work experience AND a 3.6+ GPA.
Correct it depends on the field
Incorrect GPA is an indicator if future progress. You really prefer to have a bunch of pussies who know a few Robert Frost poems versus a kid who contributed to OSS projects for 3 years? Failboat
I think experience (references) mean a lot more than GPA.
If you have no experience, GPA would be more important.
From my experience, the biggest thing that employers look for is that you meet minimum requirements of ability and especially that you can "fit in".. "Fitting in" is a big, big deal.
The thing to understand is that workplaces are political.. great talent and being apolitical is much more difficult than being political and not being able to really do much, because people in general personalize everything.
All politics is personal, and people are political animals.
In 15 years as a Solutions Developer I've never been asked for a transcript.
I posess a certain amount of application design/development talent, but the most difficult thing has always been dealing with people.. like I needed to be everybody's fucking shrink or something.. deal with their fears and insecurities (egos).. made my job miserable..
Thank the Lord that (hopefully) I'm out of that and will never have to do that again (if the Lord is willing).
You can build them a space shuttle and they will complain about the cup holders..
If you have no experience, GPA would be more important.
From my experience, the biggest thing that employers look for is that you meet minimum requirements of ability and especially that you can "fit in".. "Fitting in" is a big, big deal.
The thing to understand is that workplaces are political.. great talent and being apolitical is much more difficult than being political and not being able to really do much, because people in general personalize everything.
All politics is personal, and people are political animals.
In 15 years as a Solutions Developer I've never been asked for a transcript.
I posess a certain amount of application design/development talent, but the most difficult thing has always been dealing with people.. like I needed to be everybody's fucking shrink or something.. deal with their fears and insecurities (egos).. made my job miserable..
Thank the Lord that (hopefully) I'm out of that and will never have to do that again (if the Lord is willing).
You can build them a space shuttle and they will complain about the cup holders..
Depends what field you're trying to go into. If you're coming from a top school (Harvard, for instance), and trying to go into investment banking, proprietary trading, or a hedge fund? Matters a lot. Same with consulting.
If you're coming from Joe Schmucks Buckaroo College and trying to land a gig at a normal firm, probably doesn't matter nearly as much. Also your GPA will only matter pretty much for your first job out of college -- after that it's all about what you've done at/for your previous jobs.
If you're coming from Joe Schmucks Buckaroo College and trying to land a gig at a normal firm, probably doesn't matter nearly as much. Also your GPA will only matter pretty much for your first job out of college -- after that it's all about what you've done at/for your previous jobs.
It solely depends on the industry. With what we do I don't give a shit about someones GPA or the school they went to. Show me what you did, show me you are interested in what you are doing and ideally you went beyond the minimum that's required by colleges these days. There's enough people that finish college with excellent grades but have no experience whatsoever. Not only does that mean you have to train them, it also tells a lot about a person.
Do more than most college students and you'll be fine.
Volunteer to work in your preferred field with companies in your area. Slave yourself out for a little bit, get your foot in the door and show them what you can do.
Then steal their landing pages and start your own network.
Volunteer to work in your preferred field with companies in your area. Slave yourself out for a little bit, get your foot in the door and show them what you can do.
Then steal their landing pages and start your own network.
I agree GPA is not an indicator of future progress, but it gets your foot in the door. No one cares how successful you may be one day if you can't even prove you can work hard with a decent GPA in college.
You can do all the projects in the world but if your GPA sucks, we'll throw your resume away.
What exactly makes a kid who works his ass off in college a pussy?
This is what.. for years I sat around and listened to asswipes spew out "test facts" that enabled them to do good on tests and make good grades, but if you got them into a conversation, didn't understand what they were talking about.
People who are really smart (not clever, but intellegent) synthesize information instead of just regurgitating it.. the really intelligent ones tend to be somewhat eccentric.. hire the weirdos.. not the clones that you may feel more comfortable with..
We used to call them "Brownies".. brown-nosers who had their nose up the professors ass.. and made good grades.. but were basically empty shells.. couldnt think their way out of a paper bag.. fuck a GPA..
again, so much of it is politics..
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