Does GPA matter

[IlPadrino]

Every job I've ever had, including the present one, required college transcripts. Trust but verify, I suppose.

OK... but if you'd lie about having a degree, isn't it reasonable you might forge some transcripts? Or do you think the employers are calling the colleges to verify?

 

[csanped411]

After graduating college in 2001 with a 2.5 GPA in EE, I interviewed with 11 companies and had 1 offer. I believe GPA was the main factor as I had great interviews with a couple of Big Companies that took around 2 months for them to formally decline me. I stayed with my first employer for 6 years, got my PE License, and decided to look for a change in 2007 in which I had 5 interviews and ALL immediatley made an offer of employment arty-smiley-048: ; GPA does matter for the type of job as well as it is more heavily weighed for entry-level.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

OK... but if you'd lie about having a degree, isn't it reasonable you might forge some transcripts? Or do you think the employers are calling the colleges to verify?

I think most colleges use special paper for printing transcripts. I now USC does. Makes it virtually impossible to forge one.

 

[chaosiscash]

For an entry level position at the national laboratories (Sandia, Los Alamos, Livermore), there is a stated minimun GPA requirement of 3.5. It may become less important for non entry level jobs. The labs like to pick-and-choose contractors for direct employment that have been working for them for a while and have proven themselves. Since the labs generally have great benefits that cost them lots of money, they like to be sure about people they hire. I guess the only way they feel they can do that with fresh out of school people is with GPA. (Of course this is probably hit and miss).

Same at Oak Ridge National Lab (my local lab). But the local DOE sites that are more "manufacturing" oriented have lower GPA requirements, and they are scattered based on the demographic they are targeting to hire (geographic origin, race, sex, etc). (Note: I don't want to start a debate on hiring practices. I'm just stating how several of the Fed prime contractors in the area hire based on GPA). After all, I had a lower GPA that a lot of the guys I hired in with years ago (entry-level), but because I wasn't from one of the two local universities, my minimum requirements were a little lower.

The strange thing is, now that I'm on the scum sucking subcontract side, when we submit resumes in bid packages, these same sites that require GPAs on the resumes of people they hire don't require it for us. It is never listed on our "bid" resumes and is never requested. That includes the labs (ORNL, Sandia, LANL, LLNL, etc). It doesn't make a lot of since, because we are doing the exact same work in many cases as the direct employees.

 

[chaosiscash]

I now USC does.

In the spirit of Engineering Boards, and because it is not football season, and b/c I am one of the few native South Carolinians on the board, I shall refrain from what I was about to say about USC transcripts.

 

[MA_PE]

I think most colleges use special paper for printing transcripts. I now USC does. Makes it virtually impossible to forge one.

For my PE application here in MA I needed to provide "official" college transcripts. Official transcripts are sealed and/or mailed directly from the University to the requesting party.

On a different notye. Recently my wife was made a full-time employee at the company that she had temped for. A requirement for the job was a college degree (which she had and produced a copy of. She graduated in '83). The HR department called the University to verify the degree. The university said they did not have a record of her graduating. I won't bore you with the details of numerous phone calls and me raising the BS flag at the registrar (I graduated fromthe same university), but when they converted the files to the current database some transferrred credits got lost. They eventually verfied the degree but what a PITA.

 

[Techie_Junkie_PE_LEED_AP]

Its not the size of your GPA, its how you use it. hmy:

 

[ODB_PE]

In the spirit of Engineering Boards, and because it is not football season, and b/c I am one of the few native South Carolinians on the board, I shall refrain from what I was about to say about USC transcripts.

The tired old gag at U Texas was for someone to write "OU" or "Texas A&M diplomas - take one" above the roll of toilet paper in the john. Suppose that would work for transcripts as well.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

For my PE application here in MA I needed to provide "official" college transcripts. Official transcripts are sealed and/or mailed directly from the University to the requesting party.

Jeez, I'd forgotten about those. Luckily, all my employers wanted was the embossed transcripts because, as is SOP for USC, they charged a ridiculous fee to stuff it in an envelope and mail it. Seems like it was five bucks more.

 

[Casey]

My bachelor's university sends out transcripts free of charge (properly sealed and everything). My graduate university charges me 10$ for delivery. Probably more these days.

The same is with email accounts, the former gives me an account for free for life. The latter charges an annual fee.... Cheap bastards...

 

[mech engineer]

So, I am finishing off my second degree in Electrical engineering. Man, it is tougher than computer engineering. Anyhow, I am expecting a GPA of 2.7 due to all the signals courses that I am struggling with. Do employers require a GPA when I get a job or do they ask if I have a diploma?
Thanks

Guys, my GPA is 4.0, however I never felt it gives me ANY advantage. :banhim: On the contrary people often try avoid hiring someone who they think maybe out of realy world, unlike 2.7 grads... Real life experience and real skills - that's what they look for...

 

[Carlito]

When I first graduated with my BS, I was often asked at interviews what was my GPA - even had to explain why it was low (B-).... I remember stressing about that a lot :-(

However, I did much better when getting my ME, but by that time I didn't get many interviews, so I don't know if they still ask you after X years of experience - my current employer has not.

I agree with most fellow engineers that while it is obviously nicer to have a higher GPA than a lower one, I would not overemphasize this one indicator of a candidate's potential... other skills such as interpersonal and attitude, ability to reason, are as important, if not more...

 

[mbparksPE]

I will add to the chorus that says the GPA is mostly important when getting that first job out of college. In fact, the Johns Hopkins program I am in for my MS does not even give out an official GPA. You must get A's or B's to graduate however, no Cs.

If you have a decent GPA like 3.25 or above with an engineering degree, I say put it on the resume. Otherwise leave it off and let the employer ask.

Lastly, once you've got about 5 years under your belt, that experience is going to matter most. Don't forget however, licensure, graduate education, and other continuing education is going to count if you decide to switch jobs.

 

[Katiebug]

It's sort of darkly amusing to me that I wouldn't be considered as an entry-level hire at my current company with my undergrad GPA. I had a hard-won 3.17 GPA at graduation, and now HR immediately "circular files" anything below a 3.0 and will only bring in for interviews someone with a 3.5 or higher. Same requirement for summer interns!

I got my job because I was a summer intern for two summers, and the summer prior to that I interned at another business unit in the corporation. Not once did my current employer ever ask what my GPA was. Heck, I didn't even have a real interview - just a phone interview before my first summer internship! At the time I got the internship with the other business unit, after my freshman year, I had a 2.8 GPA (I was an intercollegiate athlete as a freshman and it hit my academic performance hard). I brought that GPA up during sophomore year to a 3.0, but it hovered in the 3.0-3.2 range for the rest of my undergrad years.

I think after someone's been a working engineer for a few years, GPA is less of an issue. Having done recruiting and interviewing recently, we've never asked an experienced engineer what his GPA was - most probably wouldn't be able to remember!

For what it's worth, I had a GPA of 3.9 for my management grad degree - one B+ in accounting killed my otherwise perfect string of A's. :laugh:

 

[Dleg]

I don't even remember if my first employer (oilfield services company) asked for my GPA. I learned very quickly that GPA was pretty much meaningless in that job. I trained side-by-side with several top-scorers and PhDs who quickly bombed out of the training program, despite their academic credentials, while myself and one other lowly, B-student state university graduate took the top honors in the 2-month training academy, which was, oddly enough, quite academic (tests, homework, etc.) There really is a difference between academic knowledge, and the ability to apply that knowledge in the world outside school.

Then, on top of all that, one of the highest compensated engineers I know is my former roommate from college, who barely graduated because of a low GPA.

 

[snickerd3]

There was guy in my classes, he was failing all of his courses and on the verge of being kicked out for the bad grades but he got the job we all had interviewed for because Daddy was friends with the higher ups in the company. He opened admitted it too. The entire interviewing process was just a formality, they knew they were going to hire him going in.

 

[Katiebug]

There was guy in my classes, he was failing all of his courses and on the verge of being kicked out for the bad grades but he got the job we all had interviewed for because Daddy was friends with the higher ups in the company. He opened admitted it too. The entire interviewing process was just a formality, they knew they were going to hire him going in.

We hired a girl 2 years ago who was (sorry to say) useless as an engineer, solely because her father is a corporate bigwig. A sweet person but just not technically talented. She's going to law school now and is our "patent engineer" (basically she does about 10 hours of work per week and spends the rest of her time studying).

We also hired a guy with a physics degree as an electrical engineer in large part because his uncle is my soon-to-be-former boss. Interesting, given that company policy is that you need an engineering degree to be hired as an engineer. He's actually a bright kid and doing well (and going to grad school for EE) but he'd have never been considered if his uncle didn't work for the company.

 

[benbo]

We also hired a guy with a physics degree as an electrical engineer in large part because his uncle is my soon-to-be-former boss. Interesting, given that company policy is that you need an engineering degree to be hired as an engineer. He's actually a bright kid and doing well (and going to grad school for EE) but he'd have never been considered if his uncle didn't work for the company.

When I first started to school I was a Physics major. I got hired in as an Engineering Intern at Hughes Aircraft mainly because most of the old timers at the company couldn't use the new fangled CADAM programs.

The same company always hired every technical worker with the same classification - MTS (Member of the Technical Staff). It didn't matter if your degree was engineering, math or chemistry - you got that job title. Only the senior level people got classified more specifically (Sr. Engineer or Sr. Scientist).

 

[squishles10]

One more thing I forgot to mention. I believe some employers, including mine, are requiring transcripts because quite a few people as of late are trying to pass off 4 year Engineering Technology degrees as 4 year Engineering degrees. Their resumes are specifically stating "Engineering". I think my employer has finally decided that the title of "Engineer" can be "honorarily" bestowed upon somebody with significant experience, like 20 years plus. (This is few and far between, however). I don't know if I even agree with this. It is probably a way of "grandfathering" in some of the individuals that they have already done this for in past years. I can't believe how loosely the term "engineer" is thrown around sometimes.

My current place requires them if you don't have a PE (then obviously you're covered) because they had a guy who made up his degree and frankly didn't know how to do much of anything. More on that in a minute***. They just wanted my degrees verified, really, and didn't care about what was on the transcript. I don't think 2.7 is bad. I had 2.9 as an undergrad and I never put it on the resume. If they want it, they'll ask.

***So said guy from above didn't know how to use Excel, so he LITERALLY cut and pasted spreadsheets together. Like, with scissors and tape. Someone else found the remnants of his sheets after he was shown the door.

 

[Vishal]

***So said guy from above didn't know how to use Excel, so he LITERALLY cut and pasted spreadsheets together. Like, with scissors and tape. Someone else found the remnants of his sheets after he was shown the door.

got any pictures of that?? that would be a good fit for sunny pic thread..

on the topic, i agree with all others. GPA doesnt matter a whole lot if you know your stuff. It's just one indicator and one can't stress a whole lot on it. Of course, having a higher GPA helps, but having a lower GPA is not the end of the world...