<p>Company I worked for had a pretty hard and fast criteria of a minimum GPA of 3.0. You could kind of slide by if your engineering GPA was above that and your non-engineering GPA was a little under. It was a well known high tech aerospace company (in the group I managed, about 40% had their PhDs) and we pulled in a lot of resumes, even many years ago before the easy electronic submittials. With all those resumes, it was easy to be picky.</p>
<p>My son was the one about to graduate with no job offer that started this thead. His overall GPA was 2.8, around 2.9 in the STEM classes. However, his last two years GPA was about 3.4. He also had taken much more than the minimum required classes in his major, robotics, as he took 5 years to graduate (due primarily to class availability) and always taking a full class load. </p>
<p>He bypassed the larger companies that would have a GPA criteria and looked into smaller companies (which was also more his preference). Several companies had him take various “tests” within the in-plant interviews. The company that he ended up working for gave him a 2 hour design problem test with several small problems and 1 large design exercise. A lot of the discussion with his future boss was the results of that testing. I had never heard of this kind of testing being done during the interview process but it seems like a good idea to me. You can see right away how a person will perform. </p>
<p>So as far as I can see, the 3.0 GPA is kind of a hard rule for the larger companies but not necessarily for all companies.</p>
<p>KC
Sometimes that works.
DS had a Jan 1 Postgrad internship with MS. At the end of that internship (India) a manager wanted to hire DS. HR said no. Ballmer placed hiring freeze. Chance and fresh with HR, they came up with another internship, Redmond. Microsoft flew him out from Geneva to Seattle, next day. On completion of this second MS internship, a manager wanted to hire-HR said no. His researcher at MS said to follow him to Germany where he is a professor at Potsdam (guy was on sabbatical to MS). This was spring 2009-not even a nibble from MS or anyone else other than his CMU professor who said to work her at UW. </p>
<p>Microsoft spent some princely moneys and not to eventually hire. Each of DS projects got written up in their research notes. He even got to meet Gates at a conference in Qatar, they flew him out from Seattle. DS even did a hack on kinect that got great reviews. Alas, it was not to be with Microsoft-</p>
<p>So now he works on Apple and Google platforms. :)</p>
<p>DS last search, companies had asked him to do same. One asked him to come up with a product, demonstrate it, and give a presentation the next day (may have been DS volunteered his skills). He called home 11pm to give us an assignment with camera and then email video to him-he’ll wait on line and keep by the cellphone. Took us 3 hours to get a 15 second video uploaded to the computer and then sent off.</p>
<p>A friend of my son had a subpar (< 3.0) GPA but didn’t have any problems finding work. He was in a hot field (it’s still hot) in the area and was in ROTC or the Reserves. He’s doing well in industry now.</p>
I read a lot of whiny engineers on engineering forums. I’m not sure who Mark77 is exactly, I’ll take a look.</p>
<p>But I also know what makes absolutely no sense statistically. If I believed every emphatic declaration I read on here, you would have to graduate from a top 10 school with a 3.9 in a triple major to get a job. There would be 99% unemployment. </p>
<p>There are lot’s of comapnies that hire engineers. Everyone doesn’t have to work for Google or Apple. As a matter of fact, IMO I have no idea why so many people want to.</p>
<p>
A large number of grad schools actually do require a 3.0 GPA.</p>
<p>I’ve worked for mostly large companies in the last 25 years. I’ve seen GPA cutoffs. Things are probably different for smaller companies but there have been stories recently of companies getting inundated with resumes when they post positions and they have to have some method of picking one person out of a thousand resumes.</p>
Sure, and I’ve worked for a big company, a medium sized SV company, and the government. I could post my individual experience but who cares? The notion that you need a 3.0 plus to even get a sit down for a job someplace makes zero sense statistically to me.</p>
<p>Some places, sure. You should always try to get the best GPA you can regardless. But just because you’re pulling a 2.7 senior year is no reason to drop out and throw in the towel.</p>
<p>
This I believe. The operative word being “hot.” If you just read this website you’d probably think all engineers work for the same 5 companies and all engineer’s primary job is writing some sort of software.</p>
<p>^^^
Since these are all strawmen (one of your favorite words I see) then I take it you agree with what I posted. Fine by me. I wasn’t intending to debate you on a point by point basis, I was merely using your posts as a point of reference to state my opinion.</p>
<p>BTW I don’t exactly see how you can quote me agreeing with something you wrote as an example of a “strawman” argument. THat’s pretty bizarre.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Isn’t that phrase in bold your point? Some places you need a 3.0?</p>
<p>I posted some things which you turned into strawman arguments. I generally don’t pay a lot of attention to strawman arguments as they are fallacies.</p>
Since you are obviously enamored of the term strawman, I assume you know that it means arguing against a misrepresentation of someone else’s opinion.</p>
<p>Where did I misrepresent something you said? I don’t recall mentioning you, or your point of view, at all. My original post on here did not reference your post at all. It was merely a statement of my opinion, which you took as some sort of argument against you, and commenced an argument against me. Take a look. This is merely a restatment of my opinion.</p>
<p>In the thread you reference as an example of “strawmen” I am basically agreeing with you.</p>
<p>I’ve worked for mostly large companies in the last 25 years. I’ve seen
GPA cutoffs. Things are probably different for smaller companies but
there have been stories recently of companies getting inundated with
resumes when they post positions and they have to have some method of
picking one person out of a thousand resumes.</p>
<p>You replied:</p>
<p>Sure, and I’ve worked for a big company, a medium sized SV company,
and the government. I could post my individual experience but who
cares? The notion that you need a 3.0 plus to even get a sit down for
a job someplace makes zero sense statistically to me.</p>
<p>Take a look at the last sentence. You’re basically saying that what
I wrote makes zero sense statistically.</p>
<p>You wrote:</p>
<p>Some places, sure. You should always try to get the best GPA you can
regardless. But just because you’re pulling a 2.7 senior year is no
reason to drop out and throw in the towel.</p>
<p>I replied:</p>
<p>Another strawman.</p>
<p>Where did I state that you should ever drop out and throw in the
towel?</p>
Where did I write that you said this? This is my opinion. Posted in my first post in this thread, before I even began this little colloquy with you. Ditto on your second example. Do I have to preface everything I write on here -
“But I have read statements on this website, but not from BCEagle …,” </p>
<p>I have read this notion that you need a 3.5 to get a job, or that you need to graduate from Harvard, or blah blah blah on this website many, many times. In an absolutist fashion.
But not from BCEagle.</p>
<p>So again, I take it you agree with me that you can certainly get interviews for engineering postions without a 3.0 GPA? With the exception of some selective companies where they may require a higher GPA.</p>
<p>I have a second cousin, not close, but lives nearby, who did/does hardware networks engineering. Dotcom bust of 2000 hit that sector real bad. Their primary customer said that they had enough units on hand to satisfy their then current needs for 10 years (at 2000-2001 demand) Cousin that he thought he had one more design left in himself before calling it quits.</p>
<p>The spouse of a coworker was laid off at Lucent about ten years ago and hopes were not good in that industry going forward. Several other telecom components makers did not do well in the next several years. He retrained in an entirely different area and he did contract work for a few years and landed a full-time permanent job last year. I think that they were worried about paying college expense for three kids but no worries now with their combined incomes.</p>
<p>Mark77 is apparently making a living in the financial industry with his own capital so it sounds like he’s a lot better off than many out there.</p>
<p>Nice jobs report this morning. Unemployment rate from 8.5% to 8.3%. New jobs 243K vs 121K expected. November and December new jobs revised upwards. U6 from 15.2% to 15.1%. Workweek unchanged, pay up 0.2%.</p>
<p>While it isn’t a hard and fast rule, a 3.0 is pretty much the minimum DH will take to talk to a new grad. He tends to look at the classes taken and by which professors more though. He tends to recruit from a handful of schools for the most part and knows which students he wants to talk to just by which teachers they took. If they took all of the ‘easy’ profs, even a 4.0 won’t get you an interview. If he has done an on-campus job fair and you have under a 3.0 but impressed him at the job fair, you will get a call back.</p>
<p>BC, should we be popping the champagne open given the surprise in the jobs number? I am a little dubious about the number and the economy…Having talked recently with many contacts,many of which haven’t seen a salary increase in a few years, i believe things are not as good as those numbers suggest…If the economy picks up more steam, the Fed will be hardpressed to keep interest rates where they currently are…And if the rates rise, how can housing ever recover…With historic low rates, housing still is bumping along the bottom of a recovery…Without a pickup in housing sales and values, we are looking a lot like Japan…i am way more concerned with deflation then runaway inflation…</p>
<p>If you look at the weekly unemployment reports, they are consistent
with slow job growth and not yet near a level to get a lot of people
back to work. The U6 number which includes discouraged workers ticked
down but 15.1% real unemployment isn’t anything to party over. Things
are improving slowly though.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>A salary increase isn’t the same thing as new jobs getting created. If
enough new jobs get created, though, then salary increases will come
too.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>It would have to pick up a lot more steam. We need 90K jobs each
month just to keep up with population growth. In that context, 250K
per month with 15 million unemployed does not a ton of inflation
make.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I’m a believer in markets for housing and would like to see a bottom
process. Housing prices are not supported by incomes, especially if
they are zero. I believe that employment should drive the housing
market; not the other way around.</p>