Getting Employment with Low-ish College GPA?

[AAAgent]

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.

OP is talking about post undergrad, not post grad.

 

[SW15]

OP is talking about post undergrad, not post grad.

For me, there was no difference in the post undergrad job search or post grad school job search in terms of GPA being a relevant consideration for employers.

I finished grad school in 2008 right when shyt was hitting the fan. That was bad.

 

[AAAgent]

For me, there was no difference in the post undergrad job search or post grad school job search in terms of GPA being a relevant consideration for employers.

I finished grad school in 2008 right when shyt was hitting the fan. That was bad.

Yeah, it really depends on the type of position and caliber you are looking for. OP was spot on with what he listed for GPA and opportunities for tech. It's similar to banking and consulting. The highest sought after jobs will be more difficult but overall, if you're just looking for a normal job at a normal company, they don't have those requirements. If they did, there'd be no one qualified to fill those positions.

All You Need to Know about Google Internship GPA Requirements | Low GPA

If you're thinking about applying for a Google internship GPA requirements are important. You need to learn to leverage your position even with a low GPA.

www.lowgpa.net

.

"Officially, there is no minimum requirement for GPA if you want to be considered for an internship or full-time position at Google. However, you'd be best advised to have a score of at least 3.0 to avoid any awkward questions that you might not be able to answer to their satisfaction."

Can I Get A Job At Google If I'm A Great Coder With A Low GPA?

Can I get a job at Google if my GPA is too low but I have awesome coding skills? This question was originally answered on Quora by Eric Jang.

www.forbes.com

Quora:

It’s possible to get a job at Google with awesome coding skills but a low GPA.

"Good coding skills but low GPA on a CS resume is kind of like having an unattractive Tinder profile*, but a really interesting and witty bio. You can still get in, but it will still come across as a bit of a red flag and inexperienced recruiters may just ignore you automatically. Nothing personal."

"Am I Screwed?” Applying For Internships With A Low GPA | Job and Internship Advice, Companies to Work for and More | WayUp Blog

You only have one internship under your belt and you’re afraid that your low GPA will stand in the way of your dream job or internship. What should you do?

www.wayup.com

"In a recent study, we discovered that 67 percent of employers think GPA is important in student recruiting. If you are interested in interning or working in fields like finance, law, engineering, or computer science, an exceptional GPA is usually required in obtaining a position. Often times hiring managers utilize the GPA to assess problem solving skills and predict applicant success. "

--
At my roommates gf's company, they only hire from ivy leagues. She graduated from Columbia University for engineering and mentioned the founders graduated from Berkely.

If you're looking for an CS engineering job that pays $150k - $300k+ at any of the major tech companies or reputable startups, they look at GPA and your school ranking/name. It's very elitist in these groups and they look for a certain type of hiree. Most of my engineer friends has CS graduate degrees and make $200k-$300k total package per year. A handful make about $120k-$200k, if they aren't as good but have good schooling.

My first job out of college was working for a data and finance company that competes with Bloomberg LP. The caliber of the employees there were a few notches below bloomberg (which is how I got the job), salaries were lower, but it helped me break into the field and see first hand elitism in corporate society as that company serviced investment banks, law firms, and consultancies. Engineer salaries were less than $100k/year as well. There is a spectrum of positions that are available based off your schooling and experience, but without experience, your schooling is heavily evaluated.

 

[mrgoodstuff]

Yeah, it really depends on the type of position and caliber you are looking for. OP was spot on with what he listed for GPA and opportunities for tech. It's similar to banking and consulting. The highest sought after jobs will be more difficult but overall, if you're just looking for a normal job at a normal company, they don't have those requirements. If they did, there'd be no one qualified to fill those positions.

All You Need to Know about Google Internship GPA Requirements | Low GPA

If you're thinking about applying for a Google internship GPA requirements are important. You need to learn to leverage your position even with a low GPA.

www.lowgpa.net

.

"Officially, there is no minimum requirement for GPA if you want to be considered for an internship or full-time position at Google. However, you'd be best advised to have a score of at least 3.0 to avoid any awkward questions that you might not be able to answer to their satisfaction."

Can I Get A Job At Google If I'm A Great Coder With A Low GPA?

Can I get a job at Google if my GPA is too low but I have awesome coding skills? This question was originally answered on Quora by Eric Jang.

www.forbes.com

Quora:

It’s possible to get a job at Google with awesome coding skills but a low GPA.

"Good coding skills but low GPA on a CS resume is kind of like having an unattractive Tinder profile*, but a really interesting and witty bio. You can still get in, but it will still come across as a bit of a red flag and inexperienced recruiters may just ignore you automatically. Nothing personal."

"Am I Screwed?” Applying For Internships With A Low GPA | Job and Internship Advice, Companies to Work for and More | WayUp Blog

You only have one internship under your belt and you’re afraid that your low GPA will stand in the way of your dream job or internship. What should you do?

www.wayup.com

"In a recent study, we discovered that 67 percent of employers think GPA is important in student recruiting. If you are interested in interning or working in fields like finance, law, engineering, or computer science, an exceptional GPA is usually required in obtaining a position. Often times hiring managers utilize the GPA to assess problem solving skills and predict applicant success. "

--
At my roommates gf's company, they only hire from ivy leagues. She graduated from Columbia University for engineering and mentioned the founders graduated from Berkely.

If you're looking for an CS engineering job that pays $150k - $300k+ at any of the major tech companies or reputable startups, they look at GPA and your school ranking/name. It's very elitist in these groups and they look for a certain type of hiree. Most of my engineer friends has CS graduate degrees and make $200k-$300k total package per year. A handful make about $120k-$200k, if they aren't as good but have good schooling.

My first job out of college was working for a data and finance company that competes with Bloomberg LP. The caliber of the employees there were a few notches below bloomberg (which is how I got the job), salaries were lower, but it helped me break into the field and see first hand elitism in corporate society as that company serviced investment banks, law firms, and consultancies. Engineer salaries were less than $100k/year as well. There is a spectrum of positions that are available based off your schooling and experience, but without experience, your schooling is heavily evaluated.

What job position and company is making $200k-$300k a year?

 

[mrgoodstuff]

What job position and company is making $200k-$300k a year?

In my 26 yrs experience being more degreed doesn't necessarily equal more coin in IT. Unless your upper level management and have management education.

 

[SW15]

Yeah, it really depends on the type of position and caliber you are looking for.

At my roommates gf's company, they only hire from ivy leagues. She graduated from Columbia University for engineering and mentioned the founders graduated from Berkely.

I'm in Marketing. I had a Sales job in between undergrad and my MBA. Marketing doesn't care about your GPA, just that you got the degree. That's an upside. The downside is that Marketing is extremely layoff prone, regardless of economic conditions. Marketers often seem to be in one of the following situations. This is amplified if they are working on the downstream agency side of the business rather than as an internal corporate marketer.

1. Trying to survive a layoff cycle at their current company.
2. Newly laid off, looking for work
3. Newly re-hired following a layoff or newly hired escaping a company in layoffs

There's very little longevity in marketing positions. A 5 year stint at a company in a marketing role is considered impressive.

I've heard of companies that only hire from Ivies. That happens in some bigger corporate marketing positions too. UC-Berkeley is a Pac-12 (formerly Pac-10) college.

 

[AAAgent]

I'm in Marketing. I had a Sales job in between undergrad and my MBA. Marketing doesn't care about your GPA, just that you got the degree. That's an upside. The downside is that Marketing is extremely layoff prone, regardless of economic conditions. Marketers often seem to be in one of the following situations. This is amplified if they are working on the downstream agency side of the business rather than as an internal corporate marketer.

OP is talking about computer science and most likely some software engineering job....not marketing...but I get your point.

What job position and company is making $200k-$300k a year?

Software engineers.

FYI - IT is not an engineer, they don't have CS degrees, and typically can't put out the level of coding engineers can. IT is pretty much tech support for the business.

Salaries are anywhere from $100k/year to $200k/year depending on if you're senior or junior, then you have RSU's (stock package aka restricted stock units) which is normally $50-$100k/year. You also have bonus as well. Not sure what engineer bonus's are but as we all just sold our company and left to go to bigger, easier, and better paying jobs, we all know are salary packages. Granted my guys are top of the top for engineers so 95% of them got jobs quickly. One guy got offered a $300k/year offer from Tik Tok but he chose $250k/year from coinbase. He's getting $100k stock per year roughly but Coinbase has no plans to list soon so that's kinda worthless unless they IPO. You can check the article below which pretty much is in line with what i'm saying. Most of my guys are the next level above entry level (level 4), while some guys without top tier schooling and grades even after doing similar work as our other peers, only got entry level offers (sucks but such is life). This is all assuming you're like 0-5 years out of college. Senior level packages can go to the moon if you're really good and experienced.

I'm not an engineer and my package is relatively similar. I have a base, stock, and bonus. The only difference is i'm management on the business side of a tech company which does take some time to get to, so i'd say i'm roughly where the top guys in business are supposed to be at 33 years compared to 26 years. Not the best, but pretty good.

Here's how big tech companies like Google and Facebook set salaries for software engineers

Software engineers straight out of college often make six-figure salaries, not counting equity compensation.

www.cnbc.com

"Salaries start over $150,000"

"Levels.fyi estimates that a Level 3 at Google, or an entry-level engineer who likely just graduated from college, should make $189,000 in total compensation, or about $124,000 in salary and $43,000 in stock compensation. At Facebook, an E3 — an entry-level “software engineer 3” — should make $166,000 per year total, according to the levels.fyi estimate."

“You’re probably making six figures if you’re a software engineer,” Musa said. “But there are senior engineers making crazy amounts in the millions. It’s eye opening, and that’s why we built this.”

I know a senior engineer who was level 8 at Google making $750k+. He left to lead another engineering team at another tech company probably making better.

Google Software Engineer Salaries in the United States

Google Software Engineer in the United States makes about $134,677 per year. What do you think? Indeed.com estimated this salary based on data from 7 employees, users and past and present job ads. Tons of great salary information on Indeed.com

www.indeed.com

Google Software Engineer Salaries | Paysa

The average salary for Google Software Engineer is $202,008 per year, ranging from $169,139 to $229,296. Compare more salaries for Google Software Engineer at Paysa.com.

www.paysa.com

"A Software Engineer at Google earns an average of $202,818, ranging from $169,138 at the 25th percentile to $229,295 at the 75th percentile, with top earners (the top 10%) earning more than $265,056. Compensation is derived from 9K profiles, including base salary, equity and bonus."

Google Senior Software Engineer Salary: No Limit... for a Few

How much do senior software engineers earn at Google? To figure that out, we crunched data from levels.fyi, which crowdsources salary data from the

insights.dice.com

---

For high quality engineers, there's always salary, stock, and bonus. Once again, i'll re-emphasize that the top new undergraduate engineers fit one of these profiles if not better. Somewhere around top 5% of CS degrees.

Very High GPA - school doesn't matter too much
Decent GPA - Top tier schooling

There's plenty of other software engineering jobs that will pay decent that won't require GPA's.

--

For OP:

If you want to break into one of those positions, fastest and easiest way is to get into a top 20 graduate school. Take the GRE, ace it, and get a masters in computer science from a good school. GPA won't matter much for masters and you'll be able to start as a lvl 3 pretty easily at any of the top tech companies.

The harder route, build your portfolio and experience with something meaningful. Typically you won't be able to break into these companies without pretty creating a killer app. Your app should make headlines from all the users and or you would have sold said app/business. To do this, you'll probably not only need phenomenal coding skills (wide range of specialized back end, front end, and design) but you'll need to understand part of the business side as well. Find a good partner, come up with a simple app that people will want to use, build it, get some users, and then apply for an incubator like Y-combinator or Techstars. If you get funded, it will open doors to very well connected people and they may be able to refer you to get a position at one of those companies.

 

[SW15]

OP is talking about computer science and most likely some software engineering job....not marketing...but I get your point.

I get that marketing and computer science/software engineering are different disciplines. There's actually more intersection between them than what would be initially thought of on the surface. This might be a little off topic, but the quantitative side of marketing in data/market analytics is very CS oriented with use of R, Python, SAS, and SQL. You almost need a CS background to do some of that stuff.

True computer science and software engineering is even more complicated than that.

 

[nicksaiz65]

OP is talking about computer science and most likely some software engineering job....not marketing...but I get your point.



Software engineers.

FYI - IT is not an engineer, they don't have CS degrees, and typically can't put out the level of coding engineers can. IT is pretty much tech support for the business.

Salaries are anywhere from $100k/year to $200k/year depending on if you're senior or junior, then you have RSU's (stock package aka restricted stock units) which is normally $50-$100k/year. You also have bonus as well. Not sure what engineer bonus's are but as we all just sold our company and left to go to bigger, easier, and better paying jobs, we all know are salary packages. Granted my guys are top of the top for engineers so 95% of them got jobs quickly. One guy got offered a $300k/year offer from Tik Tok but he chose $250k/year from coinbase. He's getting $100k stock per year roughly but Coinbase has no plans to list soon so that's kinda worthless unless they IPO. You can check the article below which pretty much is in line with what i'm saying. Most of my guys are the next level above entry level (level 4), while some guys without top tier schooling and grades even after doing similar work as our other peers, only got entry level offers (sucks but such is life). This is all assuming you're like 0-5 years out of college. Senior level packages can go to the moon if you're really good and experienced.

I'm not an engineer and my package is relatively similar. I have a base, stock, and bonus. The only difference is i'm management on the business side of a tech company which does take some time to get to, so i'd say i'm roughly where the top guys in business are supposed to be at 33 years compared to 26 years. Not the best, but pretty good.

Here's how big tech companies like Google and Facebook set salaries for software engineers

Software engineers straight out of college often make six-figure salaries, not counting equity compensation.

www.cnbc.com

"Salaries start over $150,000"

"Levels.fyi estimates that a Level 3 at Google, or an entry-level engineer who likely just graduated from college, should make $189,000 in total compensation, or about $124,000 in salary and $43,000 in stock compensation. At Facebook, an E3 — an entry-level “software engineer 3” — should make $166,000 per year total, according to the levels.fyi estimate."

“You’re probably making six figures if you’re a software engineer,” Musa said. “But there are senior engineers making crazy amounts in the millions. It’s eye opening, and that’s why we built this.”

I know a senior engineer who was level 8 at Google making $750k+. He left to lead another engineering team at another tech company probably making better.

Google Software Engineer Salaries in the United States

Google Software Engineer in the United States makes about $134,677 per year. What do you think? Indeed.com estimated this salary based on data from 7 employees, users and past and present job ads. Tons of great salary information on Indeed.com

www.indeed.com

Google Software Engineer Salaries | Paysa

The average salary for Google Software Engineer is $202,008 per year, ranging from $169,139 to $229,296. Compare more salaries for Google Software Engineer at Paysa.com.

www.paysa.com

"A Software Engineer at Google earns an average of $202,818, ranging from $169,138 at the 25th percentile to $229,295 at the 75th percentile, with top earners (the top 10%) earning more than $265,056. Compensation is derived from 9K profiles, including base salary, equity and bonus."

Google Senior Software Engineer Salary: No Limit... for a Few

How much do senior software engineers earn at Google? To figure that out, we crunched data from levels.fyi, which crowdsources salary data from the

insights.dice.com

---

For high quality engineers, there's always salary, stock, and bonus. Once again, i'll re-emphasize that the top new undergraduate engineers fit one of these profiles if not better. Somewhere around top 5% of CS degrees.

Very High GPA - school doesn't matter too much
Decent GPA - Top tier schooling

There's plenty of other software engineering jobs that will pay decent that won't require GPA's.

--

For OP:

If you want to break into one of those positions, fastest and easiest way is to get into a top 20 graduate school. Take the GRE, ace it, and get a masters in computer science from a good school. GPA won't matter much for masters and you'll be able to start as a lvl 3 pretty easily at any of the top tech companies.

The harder route, build your portfolio and experience with something meaningful. Typically you won't be able to break into these companies without pretty creating a killer app. Your app should make headlines from all the users and or you would have sold said app/business. To do this, you'll probably not only need phenomenal coding skills (wide range of specialized back end, front end, and design) but you'll need to understand part of the business side as well. Find a good partner, come up with a simple app that people will want to use, build it, get some users, and then apply for an incubator like Y-combinator or Techstars. If you get funded, it will open doors to very well connected people and they may be able to refer you to get a position at one of those companies.

Thanks for the links. I read all of the articles. The way they broke it down makes a lot of sense.

I do have good news though. I was on the phone with my academic advisor the other day, and she said that "As long as you do well in your current and future courses, there is absolutely no reason that you can't have a 3.0 or higher." We calculated a hypothetical GPA and it came up a lot higher than I originally thought it would.

COMBINE that with an awesome portfolio, and I'll feel really good about myself when applying for jobs.

I had thought about going to grad school. Only thing I'm worried about is that I was a really bad student for a couple years, and I had to re-do a ton of courses to get myself right. I'm a bit worried that they may look at my transcript and say "Dang! Why did this guy have to retake Data Structures, Discrete Math, Calculus 2, AND Assembly?" He must be a bad student even though he has a decent GPA."

Im sure I'll be absolutely fine finding employment, but that's just a worry that passed through my head.

 

[mrgoodstuff]

What job position and company is making $200k-$300k a year?

Thanks for reminding me. Google, amazon and facebook do pay $150k and up and higher paying on avg

 

[nicksaiz65]

Thanks for reminding me. Google, amazon and facebook do pay $150k and up and higher paying on avg

That is a looooooot of money

 

[AAAgent]

Thanks for the links. I read all of the articles. The way they broke it down makes a lot of sense.

I do have good news though. I was on the phone with my academic advisor the other day, and she said that "As long as you do well in your current and future courses, there is absolutely no reason that you can't have a 3.0 or higher." We calculated a hypothetical GPA and it came up a lot higher than I originally thought it would.

COMBINE that with an awesome portfolio, and I'll feel really good about myself when applying for jobs.

I had thought about going to grad school. Only thing I'm worried about is that I was a really bad student for a couple years, and I had to re-do a ton of courses to get myself right. I'm a bit worried that they may look at my transcript and say "Dang! Why did this guy have to retake Data Structures, Discrete Math, Calculus 2, AND Assembly?" He must be a bad student even though he has a decent GPA."

Im sure I'll be absolutely fine finding employment, but that's just a worry that passed through my head.

Yeah, no problem. Happy to help.

I know how hard its like to climb the ladder, especially if you're a starting behind the starting line.

 

[AAAgent]

That is a looooooot of money

That's chump change bro. Once you're in this tech space, you'll meet wealthy ppl. I've been driving around in porsche's and R8's for a couple of years (all co workers cars). I know a bunch of rich and wealthy people. Some born into it, some who made it themselves, some a combination of both.

Whole new world to get exposed to.

 

[metalwater]

That is a looooooot of money

when you start getting that money, immediately save and invest, the first year. be the lion chasing a gazelle because it is starving. the world and especially the tech space changes really fast some times one day your life changes and you no longer feel like working 60+ hours a week. those are common hours for high pressure software engineer positions. MUCH better to have 3m+ in wealth than 300k+ in salary with nothing in wealth or even negative.

 

[nicksaiz65]

That's chump change bro. Once you're in this tech space, you'll meet wealthy ppl. I've been driving around in porsche's and R8's for a couple of years (all co workers cars). I know a bunch of rich and wealthy people. Some born into it, some who made it themselves, some a combination of both.

Whole new world to get exposed to.

Jeez. I knew tech paid well but I didn't know it paid THAT well haha

 

[nicksaiz65]

when you start getting that money, immediately save and invest, the first year. be the lion chasing a gazelle because it is starving. the world and especially the tech space changes really fast some times one day your life changes and you no longer feel like working 60+ hours a week. those are common hours for high pressure software engineer positions. MUCH better to have 3m+ in wealth than 300k+ in salary with nothing in wealth or even negative.

Yes, I am very interested in investing. Saving is critical too lest you blow your whole paycheck. Dave Ramsey is good for that

 

[nicksaiz65]

Thanks for reminding me. Google, amazon and facebook do pay $150k and up and higher paying on avg

Yeah, in the long run you wanna get a job at one of the Big 5 right? Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple

 

[nicksaiz65]

Maybe someone in here can tell me if this is true... But for Google internships my friend was telling me how they had about 4 rounds. You have to solve a problem, and it has to hit some Big O value. If it's slower than that, you're OUT. Disqualified.

You really really have to know your stuff in these technical interviews I suppose lol.

 

[mrgoodstuff]

Jeez. I knew tech paid well but I didn't know it paid THAT well haha

Alot of .com, CEO, officers and high paid contractors.

 

[metalwater]

Maybe someone in here can tell me if this is true... But for Google internships my friend was telling me how they had about 4 rounds. You have to solve a problem, and it has to hit some Big O value. If it's slower than that, you're OUT. Disqualified.

You really really have to know your stuff in these technical interviews I suppose lol.

the interview proc for the big ones is intense. you might fail the first time... often times they will TELL you what you failed about. usually you can fix that.