Do You Hire GPAs Or Talent?
by Miki Saxon
I have a post today at Leadership Turn that focuses on college student’s grade expectations for “trying really hard.” It’s worth clicking over to read because these are the same people you will be hiring over the next few years. Scary thought.
I said at the end that hiring managers might find it of more value to look at grades a bit differently.
Historically, managers and corporations have considered overall GPAs to be a significant factor when recruiting.
But based on current attitudes towards grade inflation, combined with federal, state and local governments’ focus on funding numbers as opposed to learning, perhaps there is a more useful use of grades.
Let me give you a real world example, I’ll call him Sam.
Sam has a 2.7 GPA, but if you look closer you see a different story.
Sam said that when he started college he not only didn’t bother studying he didn’t really know how. He said his grades in high school were mostly Bs and a few As, but that he never really put out much effort. His first semester was totally in the toilet and he almost flunked out when his GPA hit 1.8.
That was a wake-up call.
Sam buckled down. He started by learning how to study and how to learn and really applied himself.
Third semester his GPA was 2.5; junior year GPA was 3.1; senior year isn’t over. Additionally, the GPA for his major is a solid 3.5.
Sam isn’t getting a lot of interviews; he believes it’s because of that 2.7 GPA and he’s probably right.
But for a manager with an entry level position, Sam is solid gold.
Think about it,
- he knows that he doesn’t know it all;
- he enjoys learning and understands the value of hard work;
- he knows that showing up every day isn’t enough; and
- he realizes that he needs to perform at a high level to have value.
Sure sounds like a valuable employee to me—and one with a lot of potential loyalty to those who can see past the trappings to the real value.
Are you smart enough and confident enough of our interviewing skills to find the Sam hiding in that stack of resumes?
Image credit: flickr
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March 5th, 2009 at 5:35 am
[...] On a practical note, hiring managers might find it of more value to look at grades a bit differently as I explain here. [...]
March 6th, 2009 at 6:25 am
Hi Miki. Great post. Two quick thoughts:
First, I think you’re really right. I think the hiring process has evolved to make things like GPA top importance, not the underlying behaviors, work ethic, etc of the employee in question. In other words, it feels like the hiring proces can often be based on artificial things… things that often look great on paper but don’t transfer to, you know, real work/ideas.
Secondly, I think the question begs asking: where is that importance for surface level things being founded? This certainly isn’t the end all be all statement, but: many parts of college grades are terribly artificial. Plenty of the courses I took in college that I got A’s and B’s in, I knew I hadn’t really learned much. Some of the courses I got C’s in I felt had really taught me a lot and were valuable. And, honestly, many of the best lessons learned can’t be quantified within a GPA or test score. I think as long as GPA and scores are what employers reward, that’s what college students will do – they’ll get good grades, even if that doesn’t always mean being as well-rounded or learning as much outside the classroom. And that’s what employers will get. I guess it just comes down to the fact that there’s a lot more to a person than a number.
March 6th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Yes, there is a lot more than a number, but none of this is new. Business has always look at the past to predict the future. For example, people are hired based their experience and what they accomplished at their previous job, but if they had a manager who took credit for everything then how could they prove it was their accomplishment?
Moreover, you assume that professors have wide choice in what/how they teach and grade, whereas many are coming under the same pressure to pass students that has done so much to destroy K-12 education.
Most all form of judging are artificial, in as much as they are subjective and based on the MAP of those judging.
The answer to ‘are you a good student’ isn’t anymore objective than ‘are you a good Christian’ and I’m sure I don’t have to spell out how subjective that answer is!
Of course ‘well-rounded’ graduates are a plus, but, again, well-rounded carries a strongly subjective definition.
Companies often prefer people who were involved in outside activities for no other reason than that they play well with others.