3 ms·

One might argue that the perceived value (by employers or universities, if seeking a PhD) difference between 2.x and 3.x is greater than 30x

by wanderr 17y ago

Groxx 17y ago
Potentially, though as I say at the link below, if an employer is selecting on my GPA instead of my skills ( / learning / intelligence), I'm not interested in working for them, so it's exclusively to my gain to not be employed there. If I can't demonstrate why I would be an asset, I've failed far more severely than a low GPA would imply. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1074501 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1074501
- wanderr 17y ago
  That's well and good if you can afford to be choosy about your first place of employ when you leave college. Not everyone has that luxury. My GPA and/or degree definitely helped me get my first jobs which then gave me the opportunity to build up enough experience for grades to no longer matter. Being able to demonstrate why you would be an asset doesn't do you much good if HR won't pass your application along.
  - Groxx 17y ago
    I'll be choosy or I'll take a lame, more temporary job elsewhere, while I build up a codebase to improve my chances in a later application. "afford" is a pretty vague word. It depends on your priorities. Money is pretty low on my list. Happiness is near the top. I'll be more happy in a medium-bad job that I can easily change from, than stuck for longer in a medium job that I "had" to take. What cost are you measuring? Money? Free time? Ability to travel? Proximity to Wisconsin? (good cheese is important, dammit!) Also, I'd like to point out that if they're not hinting to HR that they're interested in skills, not GPA, they're probably nearly a place I wouldn't want to work with. And / or HR is doing a crappy job, and they're allowing HR to continue to do so, which also puts them in that category. People are important, and any business that devalues people so far makes their employee satisfaction very questionable. I am in CS because I like it. If I really need to, I'll pick something else up and do that. What matters to me is my life, my wife, and living happily, not making as much money as I can.
    - wanderr 17y ago
      Yeah I had the same ideas when I was in school, but life consistently gets in the way. I took a year off to be with my GF who was going to school on the other side of the country. The job market was an utter wasteland. Nobody was hiring. At one point I resorted to going through the phone book. After 3 months of job hunting, I had two options: stock boy at Meijers (if you're not familiar, it's like Walmart) or software engineer at a small software company with a crappy boss working on software that didn't matter to anyone. By that point I had to choose one of those jobs, I could not afford (literally, monetarily) to be picky. I took the programming job, and although it sucked, I got a lot of experience out of that job and am a better programmer today because of it. As horrible as it was, it probably sucked less than stocking shelves at Meijer would have, and I certainly got a lot more value out of it.

One might argue that the perceived value (by employers or universities, if seeking a PhD) difference between 2.x and 3.x is greater than 30x

by wanderr 17y ago

One might argue that the perceived value (by employers or universities, if seeking a PhD) difference between 2.x and 3.x is greater than 30x

Groxx 17y ago

Potentially, though as I say at the link below, if an employer is selecting on my GPA instead of my skills ( / learning / intelligence), I'm not interested in working for them, so it's exclusively to my gain to not be employed there. If I can't demonstrate why I would be an asset, I've failed far more severely than a low GPA would imply. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1074501 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1074501

wanderr 17y ago
That's well and good if you can afford to be choosy about your first place of employ when you leave college. Not everyone has that luxury. My GPA and/or degree definitely helped me get my first jobs which then gave me the opportunity to build up enough experience for grades to no longer matter. Being able to demonstrate why you would be an asset doesn't do you much good if HR won't pass your application along.
- Groxx 17y ago
  I'll be choosy or I'll take a lame, more temporary job elsewhere, while I build up a codebase to improve my chances in a later application. "afford" is a pretty vague word. It depends on your priorities. Money is pretty low on my list. Happiness is near the top. I'll be more happy in a medium-bad job that I can easily change from, than stuck for longer in a medium job that I "had" to take. What cost are you measuring? Money? Free time? Ability to travel? Proximity to Wisconsin? (good cheese is important, dammit!) Also, I'd like to point out that if they're not hinting to HR that they're interested in skills, not GPA, they're probably nearly a place I wouldn't want to work with. And / or HR is doing a crappy job, and they're allowing HR to continue to do so, which also puts them in that category. People are important, and any business that devalues people so far makes their employee satisfaction very questionable. I am in CS because I like it. If I really need to, I'll pick something else up and do that. What matters to me is my life, my wife, and living happily, not making as much money as I can.
  - wanderr 17y ago
    Yeah I had the same ideas when I was in school, but life consistently gets in the way. I took a year off to be with my GF who was going to school on the other side of the country. The job market was an utter wasteland. Nobody was hiring. At one point I resorted to going through the phone book. After 3 months of job hunting, I had two options: stock boy at Meijers (if you're not familiar, it's like Walmart) or software engineer at a small software company with a crappy boss working on software that didn't matter to anyone. By that point I had to choose one of those jobs, I could not afford (literally, monetarily) to be picky. I took the programming job, and although it sucked, I got a lot of experience out of that job and am a better programmer today because of it. As horrible as it was, it probably sucked less than stocking shelves at Meijer would have, and I certainly got a lot more value out of it.