Getting Employment with Low-ish College GPA?

[nicksaiz65]

I'm 33, work at a company comparable to Apple or Google, management level, and make well into six figures.

When I graduated, my GPA was 2.28 and was a top 100 school, not an IVY or even top 50.

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I was in a similar situation as you when i graduated 10 years ago during "The Great Recession". I wanted to go into investment banking being a business major but you realize they only hire the best. 3.5 GPA and above pretty much and if you're lucky, then 3.2 to 3.5 gpa.

Then i decided maybe I can just work at one of the big banks not in the investment banking department and then hustle my way in. Then i realized they don't even take anyone below 3.0 gpa. Then I started looking at other companies with reputable names and they all had GPA requirements or good schools, etc.

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The above that you posted seems to be true. Highly unlikely you'll break into where you want to go short term but long term, anything is possible. Hustling and becoming a good programmer will probably take a while but it can definitely help. It's just hard to get recognized in the corporate world no matter how good you are. You also need to be good at playing the game. For me, I was always a top performer and i would get promoted and raises but never enough to get to where I wanted to go. I left corporate and went into a risky field and performed miracles for the startup. We got sold and all the competition came to try and poach me for what I did. That was way faster than trying to climb the corporate ladder.

Right, I see what you're saying. My goal is to be employed within 6 months of graduation as a developer. I think that if I go really hard at the grades, and I follow this success plan that's been laid out for me, that is pretty feasible.

I'm currently locking in my classes for this summer. With the amount of classes left that I need to take.... if I KNOCK IT OUT OF THE PARK both this summer and next semester, I just may be able to eke my way up to a 3.0. I do realize that "can I actually do this job" is more important, but I can't think of anyone that would write my off as lazy, unmotivated, or stupid with a 3.0 or higher. Combine that with an awesome portfolio, and I think I would honestly have a really good shot.

So if I fail at this, there's no one I can point the finger at but myself. Summer Term 1 starts on June 6th.

But I'm very glad to hear you were able to make it to the top, even with a rougher start.

 

[Papa_smu]

So if I fail at this, there's no one I can point the finger at but myself. Summer Term 1 starts on June 6th.

I wouldn't be so hard on yourself man. What happens if it doesn't work out? Are you going to not live that down?

Right, I see what you're saying. My goal is to be employed within 6 months of graduation as a developer. I think that if I go really hard at the grades, and I follow this success plan that's been laid out for me, that is pretty feasible

Again, grades are not going to make or break you after graduation. However what will determine your success is the value you deliver through the products you build. Focus on building your portfolio. Show the real world value behind that high GPA.

 

[switch7]

Another tip if not mentioned already - attend meet-ups. These meet-ups are almost always sponsored by tech companies and if they see you turning up time after time you will get their interest trust me. Also you get free beer and pizza and you will learn bits and pieces about the frameworks and technology you want to work in.

 

[nicksaiz65]

I wouldn't be so hard on yourself man. What happens if it doesn't work out? Are you going to not live that down?



Again, grades are not going to make or break you after graduation. However what will determine your success is the value you deliver through the products you build. Focus on building your portfolio. Show the real world value behind that high GPA.

Well reflecting on it I'd probably be mad at myself for a couple weeks after grades are released... but I think I'd get over it after that.

Truthfully my main reason for wanting to knock it out of the park would be bragging rights haha. I'd want the bragging rights for saying I graduated college 3.0+ and made a 4.0 at least one semester... it'd make me feel more like I'm making things right y'know.

But if not, I suppose that's fine too. I've been working on my portfolio as we come up on Summer Term 1.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Another tip if not mentioned already - attend meet-ups. These meet-ups are almost always sponsored by tech companies and if they see you turning up time after time you will get their interest trust me. Also you get free beer and pizza and you will learn bits and pieces about the frameworks and technology you want to work in.

Yes, that has been mentioned. Pre-corona, I went to a couple of dev conferences in my city downtown. I'd definitely say it was worth my time.

I believe they are all virtual now. Any virtual conferences you would recommend off the top of your head?

 

[AAAgent]

I wouldn't be so hard on yourself man. What happens if it doesn't work out? Are you going to not live that down?



Again, grades are not going to make or break you after graduation. However what will determine your success is the value you deliver through the products you build. Focus on building your portfolio. Show the real world value behind that high GPA.

Bad grades may not ruin your life, but they will close many doors and make things a lot more difficult.

Being hard on yourself has it's benefits and really depends on your own personal goals and ambitions. I've been extremely hard on myself to make up for all the mistakes I made early on similar to what OP is trying to do.

 

[Papa_smu]

Bad grades may not ruin your life, but they will close many doors and make things a lot more difficult.

Information Technology, specifically software/web development is one of those exceptions. Most employers are going to be impressed enough if you've built a serious application on your own despite a lack luster academical performance. No matter what your transcript says, when you walk across that podium, be sure to have a portfolio of projects that solve real problems.

Microsoft, from what I heard, don't even look at GPA. They put you through a series of intense technical interviews. In fact, even Facebook, Airbnb, Netflix, and Google do the very same thing.

 

[AAAgent]

Information Technology, specifically software/web development is one of those exceptions. Most employers are going to be impressed enough if you've built a serious application on your own despite a lack luster academical performance. No matter what your transcript says, when you walk across that podium, be sure to have a portfolio of projects that solve real problems.

Microsoft, from what I heard, don't even look at GPA. They put you through a series of intense technical interviews. In fact, even Facebook, Airbnb, Netflix, and Google do the very same thing.

I work in tech and I can say no GPA requirement is not true. If you are a new grad, google, facebook, and top tech firms do require your transcript and a minimum GPA. My roommate works in Google in the bay area and mentioned the cutoff is 3.5 GPA.

Most of our friends of 20 engineers (mid 20's) from our startup we sold last year now work at google, facebook, coinbase, twitch, amazon, tencent, apple, dropbox, etc. They graduated summa *** laude, *** laude, from universities like columbia, oxford, berkely, UCLA, carnegie mellon, etc. Most have Masters Degrees so on top of stellar GPA's they also graduated from top tier schools with higher education degrees.

Once you get past new grad level, GPA matters less as I was hired without GPA requirements (i'm 33). I believe 5 years is the cutoff from what my roommate says.

Me, my roommate, and our friends built one of the worlds largest applications to compete with giants like amazon, microsoft, google, etc. People in our industry are wowed by what we built. However, when our friends interviewed at google, facebook, etc. they honestly never heard of what we built or cared. Our company name and accomplishments didn't help them secure interviews or wow their next employer, but their school names (top tier), and GPA did help. What our company did help with was the interview process after it started. Since they actually did a lot of work, they were able to provide real world scenarios to answer some of the technical questions.

Our website is top 3000 in the world with over 10m+ monthly active users, and more than half a million daily active users, which if you compare to this site, SoSuave receives about 6,000 daily active users. What we did with $10m in 2 years companies are still trying to do with $100m+ and are nowhere close and it still somehow means very little outside of our small specialized industry bubble.

As someone who has been in OP's shoes or worse and now is where he wants to be, I can confirm GPA is not the end all be all. However, if you don't have a good GPA it will be a massive hindrance. Anyone who is advocating to not worry about GPA or take it that seriously has not had to walk the path to fix the mistakes of a bad transcript to break into top tier companies.

 

[MatureDJ]

serious did anyone ehre find a job because they had good grade in college? they don't even ask, only how much time you take to finish and where, all else is more about how well you sell yourself and how good you look, plus ace-ing they strange ridiculous "tests" during interview give you better chances.

other then that show knowledge and good work ethics, if all else fails open you bussiness yourself

Oh, they figure it in. I had a 3.5 in graduate engineering, and I got lots of interviews, and had a few offers on the table for when I graduated. The GPA doesn't matter after a few years though.

 

[nicksaiz65]

I think that these are all really good points, even though everyone here has had different experiences. I think that for me, the best compromise would be to do as well as I possibly can this summer and the Fall to get my GPA up as high as I can. But if it doesn't go exactly as I plan, don't beat myself up over it. Keep grinding on the portfolio and connections, so by the time I graduate I am set to go. That's the best of both worlds.

I've been working in that open source code, and I've been going through HTML videos again so that I can set up my website from scratch.

For those curious about my GPA, I just went to my school's GPA calculator. If I do very well, then it turns out I can raise my GPA to a 2.86 by the end of this summer. That's actually higher than I expected. And that gives me a whole nother semester of working hard(Fall) to get it even higher than that. The plans laid out in here are most definitely realistic, and that makes me happy.

I'll be posting in here intermittently to update on what I've been doing regarding these success plans, plenty of time to work on it over the pandemic.

PS: The more people talk about technical coding interviews, the more scared I get of them lol. I've been reading Cracking the Coding Interview. I suppose that's at least a good start.

 

[switch7]

Yes, that has been mentioned. Pre-corona, I went to a couple of dev conferences in my city downtown. I'd definitely say it was worth my time.

I believe they are all virtual now. Any virtual conferences you would recommend off the top of your head?

Well you want to go to the conferences and meetups that are relevant to you. The ones i used to go to were A in my area and B sponsored by companies in my city. If you like react, go to anything react, like .net got to anything .net. Remember the priority is networking, anything else gained is just a bonus.

Virtual conferences though I dunno, you arent gonna be able to network fully in that environment.

 

[switch7]

I work in tech and I can say no GPA requirement is not true. If you are a new grad, google, facebook, and top tech firms do require your transcript and a minimum GPA. My roommate works in Google in the bay area and mentioned the cutoff is 3.5 GPA.

Most of our friends of 20 engineers (mid 20's) from our startup we sold last year now work at google, facebook, coinbase, twitch, amazon, tencent, apple, dropbox, etc. They graduated summa *** laude, *** laude, from universities like columbia, oxford, berkely, UCLA, carnegie mellon, etc. Most have Masters Degrees so on top of stellar GPA's they also graduated from top tier schools with higher education degrees.

Once you get past new grad level, GPA matters less as I was hired without GPA requirements (i'm 33). I believe 5 years is the cutoff from what my roommate says.

Me, my roommate, and our friends built one of the worlds largest applications to compete with giants like amazon, microsoft, google, etc. People in our industry are wowed by what we built. However, when our friends interviewed at google, facebook, etc. they honestly never heard of what we built or cared. Our company name and accomplishments didn't help them secure interviews or wow their next employer, but their school names (top tier), and GPA did help. What our company did help with was the interview process after it started. Since they actually did a lot of work, they were able to provide real world scenarios to answer some of the technical questions.

Our website is top 3000 in the world with over 10m+ monthly active users, and more than half a million daily active users, which if you compare to this site, SoSuave receives about 6,000 daily active users. What we did with $10m in 2 years companies are still trying to do with $100m+ and are nowhere close and it still somehow means very little outside of our small specialized industry bubble.

As someone who has been in OP's shoes or worse and now is where he wants to be, I can confirm GPA is not the end all be all. However, if you don't have a good GPA it will be a massive hindrance. Anyone who is advocating to not worry about GPA or take it that seriously has not had to walk the path to fix the mistakes of a bad transcript to break into top tier companies.

What’s the name of the application you built?

 

[Stephen89]

Yeah go for it, which I hope it works out well for you and you can work in computer programming, you can do this through the self taught route. There is a lot of demand and it pays well. Quite a lot in my opinion, which I could be wrong are self taught. I know here in the UK, the majority of developer jobs do not ask for a degree.

Learn a language or a programming languages. such as java, java script and build a portfolio of solid projects.

 

[AAAgent]

What’s the name of the application you built?

My face and name are still on the site so i'm going to hold off on saying but there are community members from SS who know what it is. It's one of the biggest utilizing blockchain.

 

[nicksaiz65]

Yeah go for it, which I hope it works out well for you and you can work in computer programming, you can do this through the self taught route. There is a lot of demand and it pays well. Quite a lot in my opinion, which I could be wrong are self taught. I know here in the UK, the majority of developer jobs do not ask for a degree.

Learn a language or a programming languages. such as java, java script and build a portfolio of solid projects.

I suppose it's the same thing as trying to be an artist. You wouldn't dare try to be an artist without a good portfolio, so it's the same for programming.

 

[glass half full]

Your GPA doesnt matter, finding a job is about who u know not what you know.

Work on your networking skills

Take up Golf. It's amazing what you can connect to with a bag of clubs w/cold drinks inside.

 

[GeeMale]

For the job search we use hours a day every day. Id use at least an hr a day in your case on indeed, career builder, dice, and various companies job sites.

Career builder is BS too many staffing agencies and fake employers

 

[mrgoodstuff]

Career builder is BS too many staffing agencies and fake employers

They need to screen better then, I've gotten plenty of gigs on careerbuilder over the years. So if they have fakes, great. I advise a "broad" search which means 30-60 submissions per day, every day. If 10-20% are fakes, great.

 

[GeeMale]

Lot of staffing a

They need to screen better then, I've gotten plenty of gigs on careerbuilder over the years. So if they have fakes, great. I advise a "broad" search which means 30-60 submissions per day, every day. If 10-20% are fakes, great.

I don't like staffing agencies tho

 

[SW15]

First, @nicksaiz65, congrats on getting a degree in Computer Science! That's not an easy field.

I have a BA degree in a liberal arts field and an MBA from a non top 25 school.

If you consider my job searches immediately following each of those graduations, very few potential employers asked about my GPA. I tend to think GPA isn't as much of a factor as students are led to believe.