My major is a financial economics BS, business seemed like the closest thing so I chose this forum. I failed Chemistry 101 at my University and I’m a little freaked that an F on my transcript is going to keep me from getting a job. I’m not retaking the class because chemistry is complete gibberish to me and I’m not going to waste another semester and my money taking a class that I might just fail again. I know the class isn’t related to my major at all, and it’s nowhere in my course map of the classes I need to take to get my major, it’s just another gen-ed to me, which was a requirement in my previous major (mechanical engineering) that I later changed and couldn’t drop. Is this going to affect me when applying for jobs? I know my GPA will get hurt, but I have a 3.0 at the moment and it’ll go down but I can get it back up.
It’s not going to make or break you, employers rarely ever ask to see a copy of your transcript and even less, look at your individual classes. What they will see is your cumulative GPA and major GPA, assuming your GPA is a 3.0 average for the rest of your degree, it would bring you down to a 2.93 (assuming your total degree is 120 credit hours). Nonetheless, I would really really really advise working your ass off to get as many A’s as you can in your future classes.
It isn’t a good thing. First employers out of college often do ask for your transcript - but sometimes it is after making an offer. If an employers does see the transcript be prepared to answer questions about the grade.
You have a perfect built-in excuse. You tried mechanical engineering but the field and coursework wasn’t for you. Then, you went into finance and economics and found a niche there. I’m willing to believe that over 90% of professionals in finance or economics would cringe at the thought of chemistry, conjuring fond memories of their only “D” in high school or whatever.
As an employer, I would see it as an applicant who wasn’t adept enough to turn a difficult situation into a ‘D’ as opposed to a ‘Fail’.
@JustOneDad or more likely, an applicant who failed a class several years ago when he was 19 and too immature to care and in a completely unrelated course and degree program to finance or economics. Can’t hold something like that against him; that’s as stupid as not electing Christine O’Donnell because of her “witchcraft” videos she made when she was 20.
I just told you how this employer views it. I see lots of people who wouldn’t have let that happen when they were 19, so that excuse doesn’t really do much for me.
@JustOneDad But you have to admit, as an employer it is unfair to take into account what adult applicants did when they were children, unless it’s hard drugs or murder or something.
As someone who got a D in a class not completely unrelated to my major and successfully interviewed for positions in that field, I can tell you it doesn’t make that big of a difference. Assuming you want to work at a large financial firm, you will go through multiple rounds of interviews and tests, during which you prove your aptitude and knowledge of the foundations of the job, but beyond that it is based on your personality and behavioral performance.
Most employers, particularly smaller companies won’t ask for your transcript, but I have also had classmates that successfully placed in large firms despite handing over their resumes with poor grades in non-relevant classes. As @happy1 mentioned, I would just be prepared to discuss it if it comes up but otherwise it’s somewhat of a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. I definitely wouldn’t make up a story about trying another major and not having it work out, that will just cause more problems than solutions particularly when it comes to your behavioral interviews.
I wouldn’t worry about that one class and would instead focus on your overall GPA as generally 3.5+ is where a lot of firms make their cutoff for the majority of interview candidates. If your major GPA is significantly higher than your overall GPA, I would also list that on your resume.
Also, I hate chemistry as well :s
The odd thing about this whole thing is, I was originally a biochemistry major wanting to go to pharmacy school, and took Biology I and Chemistry I, both for science majors, my first semester at my undergrad before soon changing to business. Of course, I made high A’s in both of those, but still… a neat comparison. Also, I like how I made A’s in my “hard” science credits when most of my fellow business majors took “easy” science credits for their core such as astronomy and geology and still made B’s and C’s. Great stuff.
They might ask. I had a similar situation (a D in Calculus my freshman year) in undergrad and I did have one interviewer (when I was applying for my first jobs out of college) who asked about it even though my GPA was a 3.5. The only thing you can really do is be honest and move on from that question as quickly as possible in the event that someone does ask.
“Children”? College students are adults. If you are applying for your first job out of college, your college coursework is probably the largest part of your resume. Employers aren’t obligated to overlook that information just because you would rather they did not. If this was five or ten years down the road or if the applicant had significant work experience grades wouldn’t matter at all.
That being said, I don’t think that a single grade in a non-major course would affect most hiring decisions. It won’t help, but there are so many other factors involved that it makes more sense to work on improving those aspects of his resume instead. That way, he has plenty of other things to highlight.
Nineteen year old college students are not children.
Some additional comments:
- At my D’s college mechanical engineering majors are required to take two semesters of both chem and physics so I’m not sure if it is a completely unrelated course
- A 19 year old college student should have had enough presence of mind to talk to someone (an adviser, the professor etc.) when doing so poorly in a class and even to withdraw from the class before getting an F. Hopefully a lesson has been learned to not let a problem get that far, particularly for an elective class
- That said, I’m guessing the OP will find employers willing to overlook a mistake made at a young age assuming he/she has shown excellent achievement since that time and proved the one F to be an exception.
To the OP…go forward and prove to yourself, future employers etc. that this was one mistake that you have recovered and learned from.
You can retake it.
It depends on the job. Not all jobs require a transcript. But if a job you are applying to does, have a good
explanation.
I would not say what you said about complete gibberish or wasting your money. Major red flag. Say something about it being related to your previous major and realizing it was not for you and it was your first semester, etc, etc.
Employers will be more forgiving of first year mistakes without blaming or complaining but doing very well thereafter.
On a more realistic note, any company that would ask for your transcript is probably not going to even ask you for an interview because of your low GPA. Your low GPA is the bigger issue here IMO.