Does the Job Market Care About Grades?

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Clarissa

February 23, 2014

People who know nothing about education or the job market keep trying to come up with ways to improve both:

Colleges could take things further. Why not allow students to use their scores on these or similar tests in job applications? A national college testing system would level the playing field in the job market and could help students at lesser-known schools prove themselves based on what they know rather than where they went to school.

Employers don’t care about grades. I can’t imagine anybody making anything but the worst possible impression by saying during a job interview, “And by the way, I got an A on a test.” I always tell my students that the moment they march across the stage to get their diplomas, grades should disappear from their radar forever. Even if they have been accepted to grad school, nothing ever again will be about grades.

Recruiters will correct me if I’m wrong, but I can think of no better way to make oneself look unprofessional and childish than by mentioning grades and tests during job interviews.

If an employer wants to know how well my school, for instance, teaches students to speak Spanish, the most logical way to find out is to speak the language to them, not ask about some idiotic test score that means absolutely nothing.

We need to stop infantilizing Millenials, folks, or we all will pay through the nose for this mistake.

P.S. By the way, I was desperate enough to interview with Kalamazoo when I was on the job market. And if you need to ask why I use the word desperate, then you probably have never been in the sad, ravaged area where it is located. There are states that are dying and states that have a long life ahead of them. Michigan is definitely moribund.

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8 responses to “Does the Job Market Care About Grades?”

Lear

February 23, 2014

in the UK they care for financial jobs. They usually ask for 2.1 (70% and above marks) from top tier universities. Consultancies such as Mckensy and the like reserve certain kind of jobs for 1st honors (80%+).

I know this is not the norm, and likeky unheard of in in the humanities ecosystem. Just thought that I’d mention 🙂

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1. JaneB
  
  February 23, 2014
  
  The standard UK mark scale has 2:1 as 60+ and first as 70+
  
  It’s not just finance – many graduate schemes was 2:i or first only, to the extent that students are told that lower degrees are worthless in the job market by some organisations. And then people wonder where grade inflation comes from – if we mark our students against some ‘old-fashioned’ notion of what an A, a first, is, then we set them up for failure in the job-market.
  
  It’s a consequence of many more people going into higher ed, I think – when 10-20% did it, any graduate had a good chance of being better than a non-graduate. Now 40-50% do it, simply having a degree isn’t enough of a marker of difference.
  
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J. Otto Pohl

February 23, 2014

It is certainly true that five years after graduating that undergraduate grades become meaningless for everybody. But, I think particularly for applying to graduate school the GPA still has some value. I know here that people in certain jobs such as the national police that their grades have direct bearing on their pay. That is they get raises based upon having certain grades not just passing classes.

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valter07

February 23, 2014

Admission to grad school is significantly grades-based. And so are the chances to get some award while in grad school…

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1. Clarissa
  
  February 23, 2014
  
  This is why I said “when they have been accepted to grad school.”
  
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Matt

February 23, 2014

For top-tier business jobs they are hugely important in the initial screening process – The consulting firm I worked out whittled 150-200 candidates down to 30-40 primarily on grades and SAT scores.. and then interviews took from 30-40 to 4-5. This is pretty similar for a great number of other top undergraduate businesss schools.

Not sure that I really agree with it… but that indeed was the practice. I know you aren’t a big fan of business degrees and their value (and I agree to some amount)… but hopefully that tidbit is useful. Now obviously you SHOULDN”T bring up your grades in the interview.. but every resume will aask for them so that is how they are relevant.

This is just like how resumes are using degree status, x numbers of work experience to take 200 applications down to the 10-40 who actually get called by humans..

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Anonymous

February 26, 2014

Law school grades are a primary factor in whether young lawyers (in the first 5 or so years out of law school) get hired. A lot of firms openly say they won’t look below a certain percentile rating–say, they won’t look below the top 50% of the Harvard/Yale/Stanford class, won’t look below the top 25% of the rest of the top 14, and won’t look below the top 5% of any other school. (I made up those numbers, but the phenomenon is real.)

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Melissa

February 26, 2014

Law school grades play a huge role in law firm hiring. A lot of firms will openly say that they won’t even look at an application where the student was, say, below the 50th percentile in grades at Yale/Harvard/Stanford, below the 75th percentile at the rest of the top 14, or below the 95th percentile at any other school. (I made up those particular numbers, but the phenomenon is real.)

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