I’ve heard that a 3.5 can get you a job pretty much anywhere. But what about a 2.75? What’s the lowest GPA where you can still get a job?
Not that I’m planning on getting a low GPA, but I’d like to know just in case…
Many companies have a 3.0 floor. But I’ve also heard that low GPA doesn’t mean NO job, just harder time finding a job.
There is no GPA “floor” for getting A job, but of course, the more competitive positions will often require higher GPA’s. There is no magical threshold where a certain GPA will get you a job, and 0.1 lower will not get you a job.
You can have a 4.0 GPA and if you come across poorly in the interview you will not be hired.
But some companies will not even give you an interview if you are below 3.0.
This has been addressed before (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/engineering-majors/1579368-what-is-an-employable-engineering-gpa-p1.html), but I will repeat my scale here:
3.50+: Can work anywhere, and will be actively pursued for the most competitive jobs out there
3.20-3.49: Can work anywhere, but will need to work to get the most competitive jobs
3.00-3.19: Can work anywhere, but will generally be shut out of the most competitive jobs
2.80-2.99: Will struggle to find work at large companies, can generally find work at smaller employers
2.50-2.79: Will struggle to find professional work, and such work will generally be low-paying and/or unpleasant, with limited prospects for advancement
2.00-2.49: Probably will not find professional employment in engineering
Caveats:
(1) This is only looking at GPA, and of course no (or at least few) employers do that. If your GPA is your weak spot you will probably do better than this. If your GPA is your only strength then you will probably do worse.
(2) This is for schools roughly in the 10th-50th ranking - a degree from a higher school will outperform these numbers while a degree from a lower school will underperform.
(3) This is for new hires, your GPA will typically stop being a direct hiring factor within 5 years of graduation, but since all of this is accumulative the indirect effect can go on a lot longer. If you get a terrible job after graduation due to your GPA, it is a lot harder to show the kind of performance that will get you a great job in 10 years even if you work your backside off.
Does that answer your question?
Thank you all!
@cosmicfish Yes, that answers my questions.Thanks a ton! What makes a student with a poor GPA stand out? Volunteering?
If you have a poor GPA, you have two different obstacles to getting hired. The first is getting the interview, the second is surviving it.
A lot of companies use some kind of filter to winnow large stacks of applications down to a reasonable number, and GPA is usually the biggest factor that they use - it is simple, quantitative, and relatively reliable. The best way to bolster your position during this process is to have some good work experience you can point to. That means internships over the summers and reasonably professional part-time work during the school year, like working in a professor’s lab.
Once you have the interview, you need to be able to convince them that you have an interest in the work AND the kind of diligence and inventiveness that it requires. GPA does a pretty good job of demonstrating these (although not nearly perfect) but if you have a weak GPA you need to show it through meaningful participation in non- or pseudo-academic activities, like academic research, internships, and participation in technical activities like engineering clubs.
There is a fair bit of overlap in those two, but getting the interview is about quantity and surviving the interview is about quality. You may have all the work experience in the world but if your recommendations are so-so and you don’t appear to have learned from your work then it will show in the interview and you will get a “we’ll be in touch…” Conversely, if you turn a single summer internship into a revelatory and distinguished experience then you would be acing interviews if you ever got any.
Remember that employers are looking for job function, so volunteering helps if it teaches you something for the job or demonstrates skills that they need, it does nothing otherwise. In engineering, paid positions are always superior to unpaid positions, and there are enough paid positions out there that you should really focus on getting one.
Are you in university now?
I worked for one of the large aerospace companies. Obviously, we got a lot of resumes. So, as discussed above, GPA was used as the initial screen with the advertised cutoff at 3.0. Many times we had so many resumes even with the 3.0 cutoff that we’d raise it after collecting them. Pretty much nothing one could do to get yourself recognized if your resume is in the round file.
Smaller companies usually don’t attract the same number of resumes and will therefore look at them closer without round filing the low GPA ones.
@cosmicfish Thanks a ton for all of the advice! Yes, I’m in college now. I’m at CC taking my calculus,physics, and chemistry. I have a 3.9 after 55 credits and am in the CC honor society, but I’m worried my GPA will go down with calculus and even more so when I transfer to university and start real engineering courses. I’ve only taken two introductory engineering courses. Thanks again for the help and advice!
From others I have talked to, it is typical for one’s GPA to go down moving on from a CC. That said, a CC GPA of 3.9 is quite good.
Many students find the first two years or so of university to be the worst for your GPA. Lots of material to learn and not practical use of that knowledge. When you get to the upper division classes, they seem to make more sense because you’re actually doing something with that knowledge. Correspondingly, your GPA tends to go up.
Make sure you have developed good study habits and you should do fine.
As a corollary to cosmicfish, I had a professor that posted the following grading scale -
A = $$$$
B = $$$
C = $$
D = $
F = 0$
But as I mentioned earlier, a high GPA may get you an interview but if you come across poorly in the interview you will not get the job.
and lack of a sense of humor can keep you from getting a job too. just trying to poke some levity into the discussion.
I enjoyed your Grading Scale, DSH. Makes senses to me. LOL. Although my favorite cartoon regarding job hunting back in the day was a magazine ad for a company whose name escapes me. It depicted a newly hired associate at his desk with a huge smile on his face. The caption went something like this; “The first candidate got better grades. This guy got better advice!”
If you graduated with a low GPA, consider to pass the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam to become an “engineer intern” or “engineer-in-training.” Achieving EI or EIT may may make up the low GPA deficit.
That depends a lot on the discipline and industry. In my area, the EIT has almost no value. I know that there are others where it is nearly a requirement.