Students and postgraduates preparing their résumés and anticipating life after college may be wondering how much weight their grade point average may hold with employers while searching for a job.
While the general consensus is that work experience is the most important factor to employers in the hiring process, in today's competitive job market a solid GPA doesn't hurt one's chances of landing a job.
According to Robert Boroff, managing director for Reaction Search International in Memphis, an international job recruitment firm, some industries and companies take a job candidate's GPA into account more than others.
"I think any industry that is more competitive is going to take GPA into account," Boroff said. "Your technology, medical device, life sciences, obviously any financial services will most likely hire the applicants with the most impressive résumé and GPA."
Another highly competitive job market that relies heavily on GPA when hiring is the legal industry.
"Law school GPA is critically important in getting a job in most good law firms," Lewis Thomson law firm attorney Jonathan May said. "They generally won't even interview someone outside the top third of a class."
Company size also plays a factor in whether one's GPA really matters. The larger the company, the more important a GPA is going to be when trying to land a job, according to Boroff.
However, not every industry takes a students GPA into account. Creative fields are more interested in an individual's portfolio of work than the grades they made while in school.
Taking these factors into account, the big question for job-searchers when putting together their résumé is whether or not to include their GPA.
According to career services at Virginia Tech, in fields where employers care about GPA, leaving a GPA off may run the risk of employers assuming that it is very low.
In situations where graduates have a low GPA and are job searching in a competitive field, other measures can be taken to increase their odds of being hired.
"Apply for an internship with the company you want to work for and try to find a position that fall with them," Boroff said. "A lot of companies will actually make their offers to students before they graduate."
Work history is often times more important to employers than academic success, giving students with below average grades the opportunity to shine in that area.
Internships, volunteer work and athleticism on a résumé will highlight an applicant's accomplishments while networking, having solid communication skills and making connections in an applicant's job market will also help in landing a position after college.
"If you know people who work in the same organization, letters of recommendation always holds a lot of weight," Boroff said. "Leveraging relationships actually makes a big difference. Something to think about that might help you overcome a lower than average GPA."
Personality, maturity and the overall way an applicant comes across to employers also plays a role in whether or not one gets a job.
"People are looking for energy and vitality basically," Boroff said.
