<p>My resume is pretty solid. My experience could be better/more relevant, but it's not terrible. I have a 4.0 in Industrial Engineering at a top engineering school.</p>
<p>Why are employers interviewing people I know with 3.1 GPAs and no better experience, and not even bothering to let me know they're not interested? I'm not even getting interviews! I have put a lot of work into my resume, there's nothing wrong with it. What is going on? Do they just see my 4.0 and think I'm going to expect too much money/promotions or take off when another opportunity comes along?</p>
<p>This is extremely frustrating. I've gotten only a couple of interviews and for some reason those interviews are for random weird jobs that I'm not really qualified for. For example, I was interviewed for a software development position despite not being a CS major and not listing much programming experience at all on my resume. It was a technical interview too, so they really only seemed to care about how well I knew C++ (I didn't even list C++ on my resume).</p>
<p>It’s laughable that you claim your GPA is too high to get a job. No employer is going to refuse to give you an interview on account of a high GPA. You application must be deficient somewhere else, whether it is your resume or your cover letter or any thing else you might have had to send them. I know you seem to think your resume is fine, but the evidence seems to point to that not being the case, unfortunately.</p>
<p>GPA isn’t everything. With some employers, it’s not even important. If you posted more about what is on your resume, people could give more specific answers about what could be improved. Based on the information you have provided so far, I’d expect you listed the issue in the first line of your post:
<p>Believe it or not, some employers actually see an extremely high GPA as a drawback. An uncommonly high GPA can signify the following:</p>
<ul>
<li>Candidate has lack of social skills and/or life skills</li>
<li>Candidate has very high expectations of job duties and work environment which can mean high risk of turnover and/or unhappiness</li>
</ul>
<p>These are the main reasons I can think of off the top of my head. There may be more. Most employers like candidates within a certain GPA range… 3.0-3.7/3.8 is the sweet spot - anything under or over that range tends to raise a flag.</p>
<p>And yet while an unusually high GPA may signal something like that to some employers, it generally won’t keep you out of the interview stage since you can’t judge a person’s personality based on a sheet of paper with their professional and scholastic information on it. The resume, GPA and transcripts are for assessing scholastic achievement and professional experience. They wouldn’t disqualify you due to personality until they’ve actually met you.</p>
<p>When do you grad? I’m pretty sure you are prior military, do you play that up on the resume? I keep that section pretty detailed on mine and people always seem to want to know a lot about it. Did you intern? Have you had a mentor or friend look over your resume and give you an honest critique? I’m sure someone on this site wouldn’t mind pointing you in the right direction since there are plenty of people on here who either are or have been a hiring authority.</p>
<p>That should tell you what the problem is right there. Employers are looking for talented programmers in every engineering field. If you don’t have experience in that, get some and watch recruiters swoon.</p>
<p>Industrial engineering has lots of different specialties and is also a generalist degree dealing with numbers, optimization, process, etc. If you’re trying to compete with software people, that’s a different story altogether.</p>
<p>I highly doubt your GPA is the reason you’re not getting an interview. If you REALLY think it is, then just leave it off your resume when you apply, but I doubt that’s the sole reason you’re not getting interviews.</p>
<p>There are tons of reasons why someone else might get an interview over you, regardless of GPA. Maybe they have more relevant experience than you do (and admit that you’re a little biased in judging what might be relevant to the employer). Maybe that experience was presented better in their resume (their duties were more in line with this position or impressive, it was easier to read than yours, etc). Maybe they know someone in the company who gave them a recommendation. For some positions, by the time it’s advertised on their website or through a job posting, it’s too late. Maybe they have a skillset that’s more attractive the employer (programming skills or other things that are directly related to the position that they are applying for). Maybe they just applied at the right time so that they were given an interview before your resume was even looked at. Maybe your resume got thrown out by HR, for whatever reason. Maybe they had soft skills on their resume that you didn’t include or demonstrate. Maybe they used more key words in their resume to get through some computer program that prescreened the resumes. You just never know.</p>
<p>I know you say that your resume is fine, but could it be better? Have other people looked at it and found absolutely nothing wrong? Perhaps, you could ask others (preferably people who work or hire in the field you’d like to enter) could look at your resume AND the job description of the position you’re applying to to give you advice. Make sure your resume is easy to read and tailored for the position that you’re applying for. Maybe you’re experience isn’t as relevant or extensive as another candidate’s. That’s okay–try to find a position that is better suited for your skill set, or try to present yourself in a more attractive way. Applying for jobs is all about marketing yourself to the company.</p>
<p>I’d suggest you ask for advice from people who are working in your field. They’ll know the best about what employers are looking for, and you might even be able to make connections with people who could later put in a good word for you at their company.</p>
<p>Ask your college career center for advise on resume and job leads. Also create a nice LinkedIn doc… that seems important these days. Use it to showcase interesting projects and such.</p>
<p>A 4.0 college undergrad GPA would raise some red flags for me, but nothing that would stop me from hiring them. There area couple of things that come to mind are:</p>
<p>1) Is interviewing this person an exercise in futility? Is he/she just going thru the job application process in case they don’t get into the grad school of their choice?</p>
<p>2) The job I’m offering doesn’t come with weekly quizzes. How is this person going to respond when the feedback they get is much less frequent and much more subjective? Am I going to end up baby sitting and pampering their ego all the time?</p>
<p>3) How well can this person work in group. Several of the few 4.0 kids I knew were real loners. They were quite smart and didn’t need anyone’s help to get the A. </p>
<p>For item 1, you will need to evaluate your goals and if getting a job is your priority, then you need to convince the manager of that. Items 2 and 3 should be obvious to the manager in your interview (assuming that he delves into those areas) .</p>
<p>I interviewed a couple of 3.9/4.0 GPA college applicants. Hired a couple, rejected a couple. I remember one 4.0 guy I rejected. He wouldn’t stop talking about himself to the point that I really questioned his ability to work in a group without someone punching him in the nose. Also, our company had a major role in the Space Shuttle program and they were showing a launch live on TV during his interview. He was upset when I suggested that we go watch the TV. “Why would you want to watch that” was his attitude. At that point, the rest of the interview was a waste of my time and his.</p>
<p>So, your 4.0 GPA shouldn’t really get in your way. Just make sure you present yourself well and do your research to be knowledgeable about the company that is interviewing you. You should do fine.</p>
<p>My husband hires engineers. He has just gone to two very renown engineering schools at different universities. The pickings were slim. Some would not look him in the eye. Some asked about time off in their first interview. Some were great on paper but in person could not present an intelligent question. He actually came home and made the comment these grads were socially awkward in several respects. There is more to a job than your grades. Engineers have to interact with co-workers and be organized to meet deadlines. If they interact with customers a firm has to consider their social abilities. There is SO much more than the grades. The past two years they have not hired the top students, but rather the well rounded students.</p>