<p>The only reason I can see for a person not returning to school? They don’t think it’s worth it - their record is already too bad, they don’t see job prospects on the horizon, etc. I’m not personally at that point but success stories would still be helpful to me…and I am sure for many others who ARE at that point.</p>
<p>DougBetsy, how did you get a job? Did you have a lot of good work experience? Have an “in” with someone?</p>
<p>UMCP11 - How many credits (or semesters) to you need to graduate?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I found a company that would take me as an unpaid, uncredited intern. Basically, I gave them free labor and got nothing in return. But, when they did have an opening for a “real job” I was the first one they hired. Been there ever since and am coming up on my 25th anniversary with the company.</p>
<p>I need 3 more semester of a full courseload to graduate.</p>
<p>I can understand the concern about the lousy economy and getting a job, it is rough out there there is no doubt. That said, a less then stellar GPA (i.e sub 3.0) does not necessarily mean that it is impossible to get a job. As a hiring manager and someone with a lot of experience (25 years now) and as someone who didn’t have a stellar GPA, I was able to get a job out of school and from there have had a pretty successful career, reached positions of real responsibility, helped build one company in a new industry and doing the same at another…no, IBM wouldn’t hire me at the time, which was a blessing in disguise. I found a job looking at miscellaneous job postings in the career center working at the software development arm of a major player in the securities industry; the job was at night,which some looked down on, but I learned an incredible amount there, and my GPA basically didn’t mean much, my ability to learn and do the job did. I actually took several years to finish my degree, I had several courses I needed to take to finish it…</p>
<p>One of the things to consider is that even kids with stellar GPA’s pretty much have to learn everything, college is a great experience, but it also doesn’t teach that much of the nuts and bolts. There are plenty of paths to take to get to some point else, people with college degrees often start as administrative assistants or similar positions, and end up moving up the line when they demonstrate their ability, as one person posted with a position they have under them. Could be sales assistant, could be a lot of things, the point being that there is no one magic road to success, I don’t care what some claim, there simply isn’t.</p>
<p>I would finish your degree, and while doing that think about what you love to do, the kind of things you are good at, and figure out where that will work. </p>
<p>As far as having the less then stellar GPA, when interviewing think about a good explanation that doesn’t sound like an alibi. Maybe there were other things going on in your life,whatever, most interviewers are not jerks, and they are looking for people who will fit in (I know, because I have interviewed probably hundreds of people over the years). On top of everything else, unless you are interviewing some idiot from an investment banking firm whose snob factor is up there, lots of people doing the interviewing were not exactly phi beta kappa,l bet they probably have their own stories, so as long as you are honest it may not be as big a deal as you think. And from my perspective, a company that makes a big deal about GPA may not be worth working for, because GPA is kind of like an SAT score, it is a measure that quite frankly doesn’t always predict much about real world performance, and good managers know that. In my technical management track in grad school, some of the coursework dealt with hiring practices, and one of the things that have come out in studies is that the 4.0 GPA types actually have negative correlations in terms of performance on the job, that many of them don’t perform as you would think, while the kids with lesser GPA’s often explode on the job. Among other things, kid with the lesser gpa’s IME tend to try harder, are willing to learn from the bottom up, whereas a kid with a 4.0 might think they are ready for the corner office or ‘know everything’ (on top of everything else, the kids with 4.0’s often are kids who know well how to game the system, how to spit back what teachers want, how to ace tests, which often doesn’t mean much in a real world context). </p>
<p>The other thing is that almost any job can lead to other positions, i know plenty of people who started with very different jobs then moved into other positions , people who got a degree, worked on a factory floor, then moved into management, someone else worked construction, then moved into the office, is now a high level manager with one of the large firms. And once you are working, no matter what you do, if you switch to another type of job I can almost guarantee you no one will ask about your UG GPA (by then it ancient history, like the battle of Thermopylae), with some exceptions (some consulting firms, and occassionally a hiring manager will (in the few times I have seen it, it usually is someone from an Asian country, though I am not sure why, from what I can tell it isn’t so common there, either, these days).Getting that first job is tough, I know, and these days even more so, but keep plugging away and be willing to do the non obvious. One of the reasons some of the stellar performers in college may be having a hard time is that some of them come out with an attitude that they deserve to be hired for a high salary job and those are not easy in the best of times;My suggestion is to find something that looks interesting, something you might be interested in doing, even if it seems low level, then use it to learn the business; ask questions, take initiative, and you I suspect will find it opening other doors.</p>
<p>Wish you luck, hopefully this is worth something, coming from someone who doesn’t say i graduated from my college, but rather was thrown out with a diploma:)</p>
<p>Thanks musicprnt, extremely helpful response haha. And thanks DougBetsy too.</p>
<p>I especially like the advice about asking questions, taking initiative, etc.</p>
<p>I’m a very analytical type, I like to know -how- people have moved on from bad GPAs, not just that it -is theoretically possible- haha.</p>
<p>umcp11-</p>
<p>There is no magic bullet to it. It takes a lot of work to find a job opening and get it, no matter what you are doing. The biggest piece of analysis is figuring out what you like to do, figuring out what you are good at (you already said you are analytical, which is good) and then from there finding jobs/industries that need skills like that.</p>
<p>For example, if you were a math major, and loved statistics, fields like actuarial science are a possibility (though that is a tough field, and usually requires years of training and such). If you are someone who enjoys technology but aren’t a technologist, but can write, fields like tech writing might be an option. In my case, I was a CS major but didn’t really want to go into programming (the usual track) and ended up doing software QA/testing in the securities industry, which not only allowed me to find my niche, also gave me incredible background in the business…you need to find what it is you like to do, in my experience often people with so so GPA’s are people who either majored in something they didn’t like, or by that point found school itself to be a problem…</p>
<p>The other key to landing a job is networking, talk to people you know who are employed, friends and family, friends of the family, find out what is out there, who to talk to. Talk to the career office on campus, sometimes like myself you can find jobs posted there in what we used to call the ‘miscellaneous’ book, often jobs that seem to be jobs for students still in school but might lead to more…If you graduate and are having problems finding a job, I would recommend finding any kind of job and getting work experience, if all else fails. Temp work is another possiblity that may get you in the door someplace, but having work experience is a big deal. While working whatever (friend of mine worked in an auto parts wearhouse when he got out of school, learned a great deal about inventory management and the like, even though he was a ‘simple’ worker, got a job at a manufacturing plant based on that 8 months later working inventory management there, developed an improved system and was on his way up the ladder…and oh, yeah, his gpa was nothing to write home about). One thing hiring managers look for in entry level positions are signs that the person knows responsibility and has worked in something at least approaching a work environment; lot of kids come out of school having done strictly classroom work and it isn’t the same thing.</p>
<p>UMCP11 - Three semesters to go. Around 12 months of school. Much to think about, for sure.</p>
<p>One thing that crossed my mind is the financial aspect. Are your parents footing the bill? If so, will they continue to pay for your education if you drop out and take a little break?</p>
<p>Where will you live if you leave school? Move home with parents? Are they on board with this? Will you earn enough money to live apart from your parents? What about other expenses that will be involved?</p>
<p>Also - if you have student loans, when do you need to start repayment? Can you handle it financially?</p>
<p>umcp11, forgive me if I’m wrong, but it seems like you are hoping to get some justification for not finishing school right now.</p>
<p>I implore you to stick with it and believe those posters that have told you that GPA really isn’t that big a deal in the real world. Even if you only graduate with a 2.0. Quitting now and hoping to come back later to bring it up to a 2.8 won’t make a big difference in the type of job you qualify for after graduation. </p>
<p>Here is another little secret that I learned about competing with high GPA people my entire career…they often get bogged down in detail and perfection such that they have a real hard time getting the wash out, or in being productive. Us lower GPA people simply get the job done and move on to the next assignment or next day. Since we are not pre-disposed to perfection we usually are more productive and more practical.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, I received a call from a headhunter today to give a reference for a peer of mine, who graduated in my Petroleum Engineering class with a 4.0 in 1982. I told the headhunter the truth, that this man was brilliant, and would make a reliable employee. When they asked me if he was management material, I told them in no uncertain terms that he was not nor would he ever be management material. (I have worked with this man in a large corporate environment, and later on in a consulting basis, so I knew his capabilities well. And I like him.) My point is that high academic performers are not always the best people for certain jobs.</p>
<p>If you want to quit, go ahead and quit. But I assure you that your future job prospects are better with a degree and lower GPA than they are with an unfinished degree. Odds are not favorable that drop-outs ever finish their degree.</p>
<p>Hang in there!</p>
<p>“umcp11, forgive me if I’m wrong, but it seems like you are hoping to get some justification for not finishing school right now”</p>
<p>Nope, just looking for low GPA success stories. If I were to ultimately decide to take a break from school, I would make that decision knowing I was justified in doing so, so that is not the topic of this thread :).</p>