<p>Jmmom, we have an online application process but we don’t use pure GPA as a weed out factor. A real live human being will see the resume. Our criteria aren’t quite so rigid as other companies. Yes, all things being equal, if you have a degree in a liberal arts subject we are less forgiving on the GPA than for engineering or physics. If you are from a school we’ve never heard of (and we’ve heard of most) you had better be Phi Beta Kappa to even get a second read. Personally I am less forgiving of students who excuse a low GPA by explaining that they double or triple majored… I prefer a student who picks something, does it well, and then rounded out their academic program with a lot of other interesting things rather than tracking themselves into three majors if it means sub-par performance all around… but that’s a personal quirk. I am EXTREMELY forgiving of GPA when it appears that a student worked 10+ hours a week at a job that paid, since it suggests financial need and I think maintaining top grades is hard enough if you’ve got financial pressures without employers penalizing you for it.</p>
<p>However, at the end of the day, your typical sub-par GPA is a result of nothing more exotic than poor lifestyle choices or bad time management skills or a preference for partying vs. library. All of this is well and good… but I don’t need those people working for me. It’s not a moral judgement- most kids admitted to a particular college have the ability to be B students without killing themselves. I’m a sucker for a good exception… and usually give the kid the benefit of the doubt… but fact remains that kids with a 1.5 or a 1.8 probably could have shown up for class a little more frequently and raised that average substantially.</p>
<p>We like employees who show up for work most days… not just when they feel like it or when it’s not beach weather.</p>
<p>However, as I said, we don’t weed out on the basis of GPA. I’ve had extraordinary candidates who had terrible Freshman grades who went on to academic success; I’ve hired kids who admitted that one or two subjects proved quite challenging but they stuck with tough courses rather than pad their schedules with guts-- so their GPA’s are below what they might have been, but the kids demonstrate the “right stuff” in all the other ways, and so forth. And of course by mid-career, although we still ask (not for senior hires but for mid level hires) the GPA sort of fades into the woodwork given all the other things a person has done to distinguish themselves.</p>
<p>A 3.3 from most engineering programs is quite respectable. However-- when I hire engineers it is typically for analytical roles that are NOT engineering. What a Boeing or a UTC or another engineering intensive employer looks for would be completely different… but certainly worth asking the question.</p>