Ask HN: How much has your college GPA played a role in your career? - nyxxie
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askafriend
I didn't finish graduating. I left school with 8 or so credits remaining (I
already had a job lined up) and something like a 3.0 GPA.

Hasn't affected me in the slightest. To be fair, I also had multiple top tier
internships through college and led a bunch of events on campus. I disregarded
GPA entirely while in school and focused on what I felt was impactful and
important (internships, community, etc). It doesn’t mean I slacked off in
school though - I definitely learned the same material and put a lot of effort
into doing so. I just took the tests and assessments less seriously and
applied the 80/20 rule aggressively.

Today I have a fantastic career at a Unicorn startup while multiple top tier
companies contact me every quarter trying to poach me away. My parents were
initially very skeptical and were pushing me to finish school but now that
they’ve seen the results, they don’t care anymore either.

The real lesson here is that GPA matters initially because companies have
nothing else to frame your experience with. If you give them something else,
then you’ll find that they’re more than willing to overlook GPA. If you don’t
give them something to anchor your skill on AND your GPA is bad, it will be
rough finding a job initially. Once you’ve had quality experience under your
belt, GPA should cease to become a factor.

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muzani
I had a GPA of roughly 2.4, from a top Australian university. Australian scale
is very different, where good students would get about 3.0, and 4.0 would be
extremely rare, about A+ levels.

My country had a good dose of grade inflation, so no matter how good the
university was, the number itself meant that I didn't get pass the grade
filter most organizations had.

Interestingly, bosses with ivy league level credentials would recognize the
university and offer me jobs. So I got into a good starting job, rather than
working for some corpotation like IBM or Sony like my friends.

That starting job gave me a lot of room to learn and it was a small enough
company that I managed to get to know the company's clients well.

But if I had a strong GPA, it's possible I could be VP of some moderate sized
tech company by 30 instead of being a top rate consultant.

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ilovecars2
Not on the U.S GPA grade, but I have two top grade degrees in the U.K. - one
Undergraduate (1:1) and one Masters (Distinction) - known as Grad school in
the U.S.

It comes up quite often in interviews and I think it gives me a strong
foundation to get roles that I might not be as qualified for as someone else
who doesn’t have the academic qualifications. I believe the reason for this is
that the academic qualifications demonstrate that I can adapt to a wide range
of disciplines whilst also being able to understand those disciplines on a
deep level.

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mathattack
Medium.

I had a 3.2 in Computer Science which was just enough to let other things
shine when I was getting out of undergrad in a lukewarm economy. Later it was
enough to not hinder my getting into a name brand grad school, which was a big
benefit. (Signaling and networking more than anything else) I was never asked
about GPA outside those cases.

I suspect if I got a 2.0 I may not have learned enough along the way.

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cimmanom
Basically none. Perhaps it would have been harder to get that first job out of
college with a resume listing a GPA below 3.0/4 (in the US, where grade
inflation is rampant; I had a 3.7 IIRC).

A point or two makes no difference whatsoever; and especially if you're going
into a field other than what you directly studied, it's at best a weak signal
that suggests (in the absence of work history) that either you have a good
work ethic or you're good at determining minimum viable output.

It's also a weak signal because the factors like whether one had to work to
pay for college introduce a lot of noise.

After that first job I never even listed it.

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dyeje
It only matters for your first job because it's your only credential. If you
keep it above a 3.0 you should be fine. If you're below that then just make a
couple portfolio projects to impress interviewers.

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tdhz77
I second this.

Blog, Github and highlight your small projects. That is worth more than a high
gpa.

I don't hire 4.0 students because I like to have a good social atmosphere.

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dsacco
_> I don't hire 4.0 students because I like to have a good social atmosphere._

That seems both judgemental and poorly considered as a hiring heuristic.

I could flip this on you to make an equally invalid assessment of people: I
don’t hire people who have a lot of GitHub projects because it means they have
no social life.

That doesn’t seem very fair, does it?

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TaylorGood
Had a career prior, so my 1.whatever GPA didn’t matter. I pretty much stopped
going to class within a month of starting and dropped out before first finals.
Everything since has been relationships. Key for me was to define my skill set
and evolve accordingly.

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asicsp
makes a noticeable impact here in India, we had CGPA (out of 10).. many
companies coming for placements have a cut-off to even be allowed to sit for
tests.. some allow to bypass the test if you've got higher CGPA..

I topped my class and got the job I wanted.. however looking back, I could see
issues with this - I was good at memorizing stuff and motivated enough to get
good grades even for subjects I didn't like.. there's just too many subjects
and students that the college life was mostly about mugging up and not
oriented towards practical aspects of engineering.. even implementing open-
book tests would help to improve our way of thinking..

and during my time, most students got placed in IT despite studying
ECE/EEE/Mech/etc

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psyc
Exactly zero. I've been asked about my non-existent formal education about 3
times in 20 years.

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bsvalley
GPA? Zero impact. Building things aside played a huge role though. It's the
main reason why I'm where I'm at today. I'd say aim for average score, spend
your extra hours building things aside. Your real GPA is the positive impact
you have on people.

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nicholas73
Not having a good GPA does set you back temporarily, in the form of less
access to graduate schools or an initial job. Which in turn lessen chances of
some traditional advancements, like fast track management, doctors and
lawyers, or finance careers.

Everyone else, zippo.

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dchuk
Never. Never finished college, left with 1.5 semesters to go (kinda asked to
leave really because of poor attendance) and just got straight into working.
Connected with good people who cared more about ability than credentials and
never looked back.

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imauld
Absolutely nothing.

I can tell you however when we see candidates that list their GPA it's kind of
a turn off. Even coming out of school you should have some more interesting
stuff to put on there.

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bowlich
Zero. I've never listed it on a resume and no one has ever asked.

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Kevin_S
Very little, 3.1 GPA and I'm in accounting, where GPA actually is important
for internships and first jobs.

Got a job with Deloitte in consulting.

Now an incoming PhD student.

GPA means nothing if you have an ounce of personal skills.

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Raed667
Nothing. I was a quite good student but no one asked about college in
interviews. I tried to bring it up but no one seemed to care. (France)

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AnimalMuppet
It might have helped me get my first job. After that, I don't think anybody
cared. (But it was on my resume for decades, just in case...)

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joshdance
Very little. I don't think I have ever been asked about it. Usually focus is
on skills, experience, and fit.

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cm2012
Didn't graduate, make 250k a year at 26.

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itsevrgrn
what do you do?

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cm2012
Freelance Marketing consultant, used to manage online marketing in house

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potta_coffee
I didn't get my CS degree so none. But I also don't have an amazing career,
there may be a connection.

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throwaway413
The same as my GPA.

0

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jackgolding
None, no one has ever asked for a transcript when I apply for jobs.

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pruthvishetty
Zero in the U.S. Maybe a bit in India.

