Why do they say if you get good grades in school you can get a really good job? dont you need exp as well?

Question

I have been talking with family about school and how grades are important. They say that if you do good in school you can get really good jobs? How is that? Do employers look at your grades when you apply for a job? I mean my grades arnt that good but I am pulling it up and probly transfering to another school to have a fresh start and have had decent jobs at companys so far so my resume is decent. How can getting my grades good land me a good paying job? My brother is making alot of money now but his grades are horrible. Do grades really matter too employers?

Answer 1

It depends on what field you are in. For example, I teach in a business school. Most employers don't really check transcripts EXCEPT for the accounting firms. For those students, it makes a huge difference. Also, I have a lot of employers say that they want to speak only to students with a GPA above a 3.5. That means that that particular employer is an option for the best students but not for those with lesser grades. I have NEVER heard an employer say, "Please don't send my any students with good grades. I only want to talk to average students." That says that the students with better grades have their choice of more options than do those with worse grades. While the economy is strong, that doesn't matter much, because everyone has an easy time finding a good job, but as soon as the economy starts to weaken and jobs become scarce, it becomes a problem for the weaker students.

Answer 2

The overly simplistic view follows the line that good grades = good worker = good pay. However, if you haven't already seen it, read "The Tyranny of the Diploma" (http://www.forbes.com/global/1998/1228/0120082a.html) and consider some salient facts:

1) The killer question in most job interviews: What kind of experience do you have?

2) Grades aren't an accurate indicator of success in life. There are many people with high grades and low ability. Add the variability of human psychology to an education and job market and you get a mixed bag that makes it hard to predict what happens with anyone graduating from college.

3) Most people learn best from their mistakes and failures than their successes. Our society sometimes seems to put too much emphasis on the "success" and the "high grades" and the "winning team" while ignoring the fact that most jobs in the country are common, boring, unglamorous jobs that must get done each day for the country to function.

4) The key things to get out of school is learning how you learn, strive for understanding, and to make learning a life long activity.

5) Employers are looking for good workers. They don't rely on ONE single factor when trying to find them. Your education can take place both in and out of school. Formal or informal education is how you build up your "tool" box for life. The more tools you have, the better prepared you are to do a job.

Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Answer 3

Actually, it's a combination of both grades and experience. Employers want to hire people who made good grades in school, but they also want experienced people. If you have some type of relevant experience (usually obtained through part-time jobs or internships), and your grades aren't that great, the experience that you've earned while in college may be exactly what gets you in. Employers understand that if you work while you're in college, then this can possibly offset your grades a little. But at the same time, they don't want your grades to suggest that you were a total slacker during college. My suggestion is to aim for good grades (3.0 or higher), but be sure to get some related experience. Take it from me, I'm a college senior currently starting my job search. Employers expect for you to have experience nowadays.

Answer 4

Grades don't directly translate to good jobs, but someone who gets good grades presumably gets a good job.

What good grades do, is they get you into better high schools and universities, and from THERE you get good experience and hopefully good contacts and a job, and just the fact that you managed to graduate from, say, Dartmouth or Yale implies you must have a certain amount of smarts. You also learn a lot more at a good university than a poor one.

You get jobs by (1) your demonstrated ability to do the work or (2) by the appearance that you should be capable of doing the work (hence the school that you went to).

Lots of places ask where you attended and what you majored in. I've never seen anybody ask what grades you got, but people do offer up information if they were particularly good (e.g.: graduated Summa *** Lauda from X University).

Answer 5

There are corporate scouts that actually search for above average students to whom they offer high salary positions before graduation. You could be a junior in college and get offered a 6 figure salary position.
Naturally there are exceptions to the rule where as there are jobs that pay really well but do not necessarily fit the description as highly desirable. There are multi-billionaires who are high school drop outs. Your interpretation of a lot of money may affect your judgment. How much does your brother earn and in what line of work is he? Is he earning over 100k yearly?

Answer 6

You're right, experience matters - but when you don't have much to speak of, employers have to look at something else to determine whether you'll be a good employee. And if you and someone else look equally qualified in other respects, your GPA and/or the quality of the school you went to can be used as a tiebreaker.