Your GPA is not Important
A popular/unpopular opinion
Since I was 6 years old, I was told that I need to get good scores in school to achieve success and it’s relevance towards career development. I took this advice and for the next 15 years from high school to college, this become a priority in my study.
Lucky me I was always surrounded by smart people and they provided assistance both in learning and homework, which helps me greatly. I never been much of an achiever in academics though and kind of disappointed that I was rather an average student, lamenting that I can’t got good scores. Moving on into college does not change the fact that I was (and still) an average student, graduating with only 3.03 GPA.
4-year university degree, 2 workplaces, and several hundreds meetings later however, I found that GPA is not that matters outside college. GPA is only needed to pass your exams so that you can graduate.
After graduate? Not so much, if there is any importance at all. I did my research and found that only a handful of companies that seeks fresh graduate with GPA above 3.50 / 4.00 and the rest would often ask for 3.00 / 4.00, sometimes 2.75, sometimes it was not considered at all.
Nobody asked about my GPA ever. Not my boss, my colleagues, my neighbours, my clients, my relatives, and not even a single hiring manager ask about it. They did however, asked about many things like previous works, skills, and personal life (seriously, it was the most frequent one). That GPA score never come into question (Unless you’re in some kind of a student forum or academic seminar, then maybe you will be asked. Maybe)
I once try to bring GPA into conversation with my office mates, they cringed and their answers would be like “….why are you asking me that? Is that still relevant?”
The only ones asking about my GPA was my parents (as their assessment metrics) and close friends (for friendly comparison), and it was back in college days.
That was only the GPA part, how about those good grades and scores you desperately earned in high school? People never once asked about which high school I graduated from (FYI my senior high school was the regional top 3 back then), let alone GPA.
So, why GPA is not important? I think you will find these arguments rather interesting. Please have a look:
- GPA only shows theoretical proficiency, in 1 particular field
If someone says he/she has 3.5 GPA in public relations, it means that they mastered the theories of public relations that when they asked about it, we could assume that they will give a proper answer about public relations in theory. However, that same someone even though understand about public relations theories, they are not guaranteed to understand other aspects such as their ability to execute a PR plan properly or tools and technologies to boost PR plans.
The sole reason is that students in college are learning in an artificial environment (in this case, classroom), not a real world situation until later they need to do internships. College classroom as an artificial environment only uses past business cases as learning processes. In real working environment, something can come and go unexpected with no explainable reasons. As such, GPA is a metrics to gauge textbook knowledge and not practical-real world scenario.
Other supporting reason is that if you took public relation class in college, what you learn will be mostly about public relations (obviously), and depends on the university you attend sometimes they neglect other curriculums that will potentially benefits the said field (like basic graphic design or technology management), thus limiting your knowledge and perspective outside your selected field or curriculum.
To have high score in PR (or other fields) doesn’t mean they have the practical ability to execute the project, especially if different approach is required.
2. Not (if not most) everyone get a job in line with their major
I knew someone who takes economic major, then took courses in graphic design. Now he’s working as graphic designer. Another graphic designer I knew took a psychology major before choose his current career path. Even myself working as sales and previously as customer service, though I have a degree in communication.
The reasons varied:
- Little to no demand in said field
- They took selected major on advice from their parents, which later turns out it was not suitable for them
- Higher pays or benefits from a job that different from their major
- After 4 years in college, they found their “calling” or “passion” in the process and decide to take a different path
- They have talents outside college major and proceed to monetized it
- And so on
Learning is a continuous process, and your GPA evaluation stops when you graduated, because you are no longer taking classes in college. As you immersed yourself more at work you will learn new tools like new computer softwares and hardwares. Learning about these new tools will make your work process easier and will have greater impacts than your something-something-old GPA
You learn specific job-related skills only at specific work experience, because the skill you acquired and needed in college are different. At this point in the next 2–5 years ahead, your GPA will lose it’s credibility to KPI achievement, promotion, soft and technical skills you learn, and projects you accomplished. The idea is rather than to focus (or judge) a person by GPA we can always opt to ask their background, why the made that decision, and why they choose their path.
We can find many examples about successful people who drops out of college, yet so little examples of great people states his /her GPA. Google “what makes a great employee” or “great entrepreneur” and you will see no GPA will be the key factor on the lists. It was the passion, dedication, and willpower that will guides you.
3. GPA does not guaranteed to get you internship, job, or scholarship
The use of GPA after graduate would be limited only for administrative qualification, usually geared towards fresh graduate who tends to have limited working experience. At least in Indonesia, the usual requirement score is 3.00 out of 4.00. You might think that by having 3.5 or above GPA will give you an edge, until you consider this; if 3.6+ GPA can guaranteed you to get that dream job or scholarship, why there are things such as HR interview, user interview, aptitude test, essay writings, and leaderless focus group discussion as a process? Will you brag about your GPA during one of those test or interview? (More on that later)
Honestly after 3 years in workplace, I have attend about 5–15 job interviews for over 3 years, yet none was asking about that GPA. Your practical skills, passion, and humility will get you the job and scholarship you need.
4. You need other qualifications to get a better, prestige jobs
I am not saying that GPA will not help you to get the most prestigious jobs out there, but from what I learn most prestigious jobs needs the most prestigious qualifications. Professional certifications (among other things), such as CFA (certified financial analyst) or CFP (certified financial planner) are certainly one of the most sought after that will have a real impact than GPA qualification.
Remember these certifications required you to do recertification and validity test after certain amount of time (usually 3 to 5 years) to determine if you still possessed the skill. GPA on the other hand once attained after you finished college in 3–4 years, does not require you to undergo similar process to reassess your skills and capabilities written on your certificate, leaving it rather unreliable as an assessment tool.
5. GPA is not the best quantitative method, or a reliable source to measure your performance
Because there were several factors that might affect your GPA:
First is the lecturer. Usually the assignment given in college is different between lecturer, in another word every lecturer have different grading system one and another. Not to mention if there is some kind of favoritisms or bias (not quite, but possible). This makes getting good score are rather tricky and actually akin to a gamble. Those who are lucky will get a good score.
Second, usually GPA is composed of several key indicators like individual assignment, group assignment, midterm exam, and final exam. You can rely on your friends or teammate for both individual and group assignment respectively, thus does not reflect your true proficiency. In fact back then I have this one classmate who does the assignment, then distribute it to class for all student to copy. As for midterm and final exam there will be usually some kind of “clue” given by lecturers, making it easier to predict the question and benefitting those who tends to study only the night before exams (and yes myself included).
Real-life work situation does not come with these benefits. You will have no clue what is coming for you next in real-world business situation. You have to respond quickly with little resources.
Third, you can cheat to get high GPA. I know several people from high school to college that obtains passable GPA but relied mostly (or entirely) by cheating (sometimes by keeping a small cheat sheet), or relying on their friends or teammates in a group assignment. Different with other quantitative method like TOEFL/IELTS, or GMAT/GRE, instead you are put in a room full of stranger, with stricter rules. You are on your own thus limiting the possibility of cheating, resulting in a rather reliable scores.
6. Low GPA does not immediately state that you are stupid or lazy
I found people says that GPA symbolize discipline. I disagree completely. Getting late in class because you have to attend this international conference? Getting low score such as C because you observe your CEO in the company where you’re interned delivering a presentation to investor last night and does not have the time to study? Having this entrepreneur project that attracts many VC and investors and you spend a night building an attractive pitch deck? Well, I would prefer to do things above than studying for an “overkill” GPA.
You might think that to achieve things I mentioned above AND getting a good GPA at the same time is possible. While it might be true, I do believe people have priorities and as an open-minded person, we should ask first if somehow they are not able to attain both. I bet you will have an interesting conversations there.
7. GPA have little to no relations to your job descriptions or how you do things
I never found any articles or topics that binds GPA and work ethics or discipline. When you work in a company, no matter how big or small they’re always have key performance indicator (KPI)’s and standard operating procedure (SOP) in place. It is how the company measure your work in accordance to their target. Each KPI and SOP would be executed by employees at the same rate and speed, regardless of GPA score. I have never see how high GPA would receive some kind of different treatment in executing company’s KPI, SOP, or projects that matters. In fact, when we choose to promote someone from internal, 2 companies I attended use psychological test, user interview, and peer testimony to decide if he/she is worthy. The GPA score? I never heard it mentioned throughout the process.
8. GPA does not define what kind of person you are
Two types of intelligence we possess are IQ and EQ. IQ or intelligence quotient is represented by GPA, which indicate how much you perform well in college. On the other hand, EQ or emotional quotient represented by how well you re
Let me give you an example in short (since I am not an expert in psychology);
-If you have high GPA but acts smug to people around or come off too arrogant, will you win their respects?
-If you have high GPA but tends to talk people behind them, will they still trust you?
-When you lose people’s respect by having your reputation and trust getting shot at, would you earn them back by shoving your high GPA to those people?
As you can see, GPA is practically useless in networking and making connection, and it does not come in package with wisdom and maturity.
9. You can find most of the college materials you need on the internet anyway
Say you have a mediocore GPA score of 3.00, then at work you find a problem that solvable by something you learn in college. Our most natural response to this problem is to browse the internet which has thousands if not tens of thousand solution to your problem, including your college materials. So resourcefulness always triumphs.
Conclusion
There are tons of things way more important than GPA
-Your health
-People close to you (family, friends)
-Your skill (soft and technical)
-Your professional qualifications (CPA, CFA, PMP, etc)
-Your network and connections (college, boss, clients)
-Transition period from full-time (or part-time) student to full-time worker or entrepreneur
-How you behave personally and professionally
After I did some reflection upon myself, I found that what brings me into my first full time job wasn’t my GPA score. Instead, it was my internship and part-time job experiences, social skill I learned by networking (some of them including by skipping class lol), and some IT knowledge attained by simply browsing or watching Youtube tutorial videos. Guess what they have in common? They have nothing to do with my GPA
From my point of view, having high GPA is cool and in some cases advantageous.
If you’re afraid that you will be judged socially because of your GPA, don’t be! In my experience, people NEVER asked about GPA on first impression let alone judge. Humans are social creature, as such you will be judged naturally by how well your social interactions and how well you get along with others, not by some numbers on a paper. It is bad to judge solely by GPA, doing so only reinforced the idea that you are a narrow-minded person and not someone good enough to work with.
I know someone from my college that possess 3.5+ GPA but graduate in 4.5 years (me on the other hand takes 4 years). He/she wasted a precious 6-months time just to study in campus to get a better score. Not worth it in my opinion, you can do a lot in 6 month and time is something you will not getting back.
I do however, recommend that at least try to attain 3.00 GPA or higher. 2.90 GPA score or below is just does not cut it, especially early in your career. Don’t forget to graduate in 4-years time or less.
Everybody is different, and everybody learns differently. Learning does not always comes in books and papers. Try broadening your knowledge and perspective by socializing. I said before that we humans are social creatures, our most natural way to learn new things would be the way we are intended to do: socialize.
Should my article still not enough to convince your mindset about GPA, remember this quote:
“Education is not the learning of facts, but training the mind to think”
~ Albert Einstein ~
Disclaimer:
This article is far form perfect. The English needs much improvement, and the content is still not comprehensive. My apologies, I for one does not like writing much (I prefer talking, which is my passion) but I do writing in a sense to escape my comfort zone, as well as giving an opinion about a particular matter. I still hopes that my article here helps and does not offend many people and if it did, I humbly ask your forgiveness.
Thank you, and have a great day