Totally agree…its a complete/pure bias and that company would turn off me as well.
I don’t disagree that it was a bias but I also know shortly after leaving the company it was announced that the company hired more recent college graduates than any company in the country. The entry level was not a glamorous job and there was significant employee churn as a result which in part led to the accomplishment of hiring more grads than any other company. The upside was a tremendous training program and tremendous opportunities early in a career if you were able to plod your way through. Ultimately I found a different niche but it was a niche I would never have found without this company.
Every employer has things they are looking for and use different “identifiers” to find them. Some use a high GPA and will not consider anyone below a certain point. Isn’t it fair that a company that is now well up on the Fortune 500 list just flipped the script? My experience showed me that they had found the “party crowd” from college (generally large state schools) had both the personality needed for the position but also the ability and tenacity to dig into an unglamorous position and succeed just as they had probably done to graduate with a less than stellar GPA. I think this is the reason so many NCAA athletes were hired/gravitated towards this company. Athletes understand that a lot of the “work” is not glamorous but could see the payoff down the road.
If it’s the company that hires the most college grads, then it’s Amazon. I know a few folks who have worked at Amazon. Not one cared for it. Turn over is common due to working conditions, etc. Those I know IRL who have worked there haven’t had other options to choose from when they went there.
I don’t know that they look for low GPAs TBH. I think it happens naturally. Someone might say they screen it out, but I think it’s hot air. It’s not exactly a dream job that any high schooler dreams about. It’s never been the top answer - or any answer - I’ve gotten to my, “What are you hoping to do after graduation” question. (Just my opinion, of course, but an opinion based upon a bit of reason and having a fair number of laps around the sun.)
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I may be shooting a hole in your theory - my 4.0 GPA daughter got an internship at Amazon. She would agree with you that it is not a good place to work (but it was only an internship, she never wanted a regular job there). I could go on for pages about all the negatives. They stated over and over again during the recruitment process, that the internship was not a pipeline to a real job. Then they spent the entire internship having the interns do stuff to decide if they wanted to offer them a real job when they graduated.
Hmm- I think you would have to clarify the field those Amazon jobs were in. I know someone with Amazon for several years now- intellectually satisfied in software development so far. Of course knows no company is perfect. I wonder which fields these people are in.
@kiddie If you thought you were blowing a hole in my theory (I’m not sure you meant me), you didn’t. You confirmed it. Amazon doesn’t discriminate against 4.0 GPAs - and it doesn’t seem to be a top choice for graduates with that GPA esp if they have other options. The latter I knew (though there can always be an exception to what’s common, of course). The first I highly suspected.
@wis75 For mine, definitely not software development. Plain old distribution in its various forms from ground floor (not college grads for that) to office overseeing distribution shuffling papers and schedules, etc. I’d have to ask to get more specific. There’s a reasonably close distribution center near us that’s almost always hiring so if someone needs a job and can commute a little…
In today’s economy where local companies are also hiring even basic labor I haven’t heard of anyone choosing Amazon in a few years and it’s provided the bit of info I have as others switched away from it. I suspect Amazon is pulling from areas with higher unemployment rates elsewhere in our state. I see them recruiting at pretty much any job fair shown on TV.
@Creekland Apples and oranges. Amazon software development jobs vs. distribution recruitment, jobs probably have little in common.
Excellence is never a disadvantage. But a 3.5 in computer science is better than a 4.0 in social work if you want a well paying job.
@sevmom I agree totally. I still doubt Amazon would discriminate against a 4.0 GPA in CS. @iaparent would have to let us know what part of Amazon they were talking about as would @kiddie with her D’s internship, but even so, the fact that they took a 4.0 GPA student for an internship leads me to believe they don’t have a GPA limit as a rule. I also believe most Summa Cum Laude students have better job offers than typical (non CS) Amazon jobs.
The (good) CS majors I know from even small unheard of colleges have multiple offers. If Amazon wants any of them they would need to be competitive.
My daughter was a math/econ major. The internship was a Financial Analyst position. She was working there in Seattle when the NY Times published that controversial story about how poorly they treat their employees.
This thread is fascinating from my view as a parent with a freshman in college. He’s still in the high school mindset that he needs to get all As. We’ve told him a mix of As and Bs is just fine and he needs to settle down. Lol. He’s heard anecdotally that a 3.5 from his college will be just fine for anything he wants to do after graduation.
We cant use our own experiences when they’re a couple of decades old. Times have changed.
Any kid savvy enough to get a 4.0 or close will have the smarts to get a great job, post college. To me, that’s the reality for OP.
So a college student does not have to chase a 4.0 GPA to be interviewable by most employers (though a 4.0 GPA won’t hurt and will pass any cutoff, including anomalously high ones at a few employers). However, a 3.01 GPA is likely to be a lot better than a 2.99 GPA in getting to interviews.
Once at the interview, other factors will determine the outcome.
Students aiming for medical school or a law school with good law employment outcomes do face much greater college GPA pressure.
@homerdog That isn’t accurate. There are certain employers that have very high unofficial cutoffs and they don’t lower it for any school. They are in the minority for sure, but to say anything he wants is not accurate. A friend learned that the hard way recently. Her D attends a top 20 school, and while she has a great GPA, it was too low for certain employers she was interested in; they only interviewed the top students in the class. Even more frustrating is when she saw students from lower ranked schools, but with a higher GPAs, get interviews.
I don’t think anyone goes into social work to get rich. Not financially rich, anyway.
Sorry I have been away for a day or so. No the company I worked for was not Amazon, in fact Amazon was founded just before I left the company I referenced.
Not “anything” as there are places like US MD med schools where a 3.4 to 3.59 GPA only gives one a 32.2% chance of getting accepted somewhere
https://www.aamc.org/system/files/2019-11/2019_FACTS_Table_A-23.pdf
and there are some businesses plus grad schools which require higher.
That said, most students in college don’t graduate Cum Laude and most (IME) who have decent people skills and a degree end up being self supporting with a job - often a job they like.
The main question of this thread as I understand it is if graduating Summa Cum Laude is a disadvantage anywhere. I’m doubtful, and if so, that’s rare plus likely has a personal bias/jealousy issue going on rather than anything meaningful. Those latter things can happen. Humans are human and bias is a thing at times.
I can guess the company iaparent refers to. 20-40 years ago, they were known for easy hiring, at lower salaries, making all start with low responsibilities, little growth and less satisfaction. Big name company.
But no matter. My kids were not asked their gpa and if they were, would have referred to their major gpa. They were being reviewed based on more than some arbitrary cutoff and their experiences were the icing. They had plenty to draw attention, in the right ways.
Sure, there’s a lot of competition for some swell sorts of jobs. I think it’s unfair to discourage OP.
The grade in a vacuum may not tell much of a story other than the student is a good at learning and retaining information. Many students with 4.0 GPAs will have much more to their resumes because that is the type of students they are. They may be in leadership positions, have had internships, done research and involved themselves in organizations, volunteerism and other ways on campus. Many of the best students I have met are not only top students but very engaged and involved young people. The skills, habits and character that contributed to their good grades also follow them in other aspects of their lives and resumes. If all they have on their resume is their GPA they likely will not be looked at as closely.