Eeking By
Getting through college is not that difficult. Basically, if you show up to your classes and put forth a minimal effort, your teachers will give you a passing grade and send you on your way. But is this really what you want?
Believe it or not, in striving to do well in classes you can develop something that many young people lack which is a solid work ethic and the ability to stay with a project until it is finished. These two things are essential in getting and keeping a job.
When an employer looks at a GPA, it answers several questions that they want answered. “How hard will this person work”, and “What is the quality of their work”? If I were looking at two students with degrees in the same field and one had an A and the other a C, I would take the A student.
The A student has demonstrated, in a measurable way, that they have achieved a higher level of mastery then a C student. I know that there are exceptions, but by and large it holds that a person who has taken the time to do well in the course work, will take the time to do well on the job.
But in most fields, it does not matter what your grades were. All that matters is if you can pass licensing and certification exams that are used by your specific field. These can be quite rigourous, and merely passing demonstrates that you have the know how to work in the given field. This, combined with a good grade point average will provide opportunities that you would not have otherwise. I know of people who did great in college but could not get hired because they could pass the licensing examinations.
But here is another fact that we rarely consider. You don’t need a degree to be successful. I know of many individuals who have made, and will make far more money in their lives then my father who holds a bachelors degree in business, and a masters degree in nuclear engineering.
In the end, you will be better off if you work hard at something and do a good job then if you just eek by.
Be an achiever, not an eeker.
Rusch spoke @ 7/01/2005 04:50:00 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I'm tired of being an achiever. I did all my achieving in high school, yes partly because my mother cracked the whip but also because I wanted to graduate with the rest of my class - and if you're wondering, *insert long and involved sob story here about how moving around and homeschool-hating principals made my high school career one big 'solid work ethic'.*
I figure I've deserved the right to eek for a while. Plus I'm lazy. So there.
Posted by Danielle (aka angel)
I think I will mostly not contribute to this topic except to say that in looking for a job, I am shying away from any employer that asks for a transcript.
GPA might be a fair indicator of how much work a person puts into school, but says very little of intelligence.
In the working world, I definitely agree that an employer should be loooking for hard workers. However, I doubt that the GPA has much ecological validity . What I mean is that it may not accurately reflect how someone will perform at work because school and work are 2 very different environments. Of course, that depends on the nature of the work in both the job and in school.
I'm sure the same weaknesses that manifest themselves in school can surface in the workplace in other ways, but behavior is always tied to the environment.
I guess this is my long winded way of saying that someone who doesn't have what it takes to be a good student may excel in the workplace because the nature of the work is different. And that makes the GPA invalid.
If you've seen my GPA, you'll understand.
Posted by Faye
What does it take to be a good student
determination
hard work
dependebility
being able to work well with others (group projects)
What does it take to succeed in the workplace? Well, if you don't have those things, your chances of being successfull are next to nill.
Posted by Rusch
What it takes to be a good student is a tremendous amount of charm and an unflappable sense of how to each particular's teacher's arse. Saying that doing good work will naturally give you good results is unspeakably naive, and, incidently, most employers are really looking for employees who know how to give people what they want anyway, regardless of what's best. I consider my GPA a statement of how well I've learned to work people over the years, and that's an real education.
Posted by nobody
If you are in sales that's true. In production related jobs, where quality of product matters, churn out crap long enough and you will lose customers and eventually close your doors. Why is Toyota the number automanufacturer in terms of profit out of all automobile companies in the world? Because they have consistantly produced quality cars that last. Why is GM and other american auto companies on the ropes, because they have produced a product a product that is inferior and does not last.
Customers want quality. They something that works right every time. Whether it's haircuts or drill presses, screw 'em enough times and they will go elsewhere. Work 'em over enough times and they will figure it out.
And besides whose naive. Pretty much all college students who believe that a degree is a magical key to a six figure salary, when they have no parctical skills that an employer could use anyway.
Posted by Rusch
What super-naive college students have you been talking to? P.S. Questions end with a question mark and who is is who's not whose.
Posted by nobody