6 ms·

A C+ is a reasonable thing to ask about.

axbytg 7y ago
I disagree, unless you are hiring straight out of college and the C+ is in an immediately relevant or "red flag" class. I can't imagine being asked this. I studied philosophy, I'm interviewing to write software, who cares about my grades?
- droithomme 7y ago
  You submitted your transcripts. I am going to ask about your C+. It's a reasonable thing for me to ask you about, don't you agree?
  - pmiller2 7y ago
    No, I do not. When someone has 2 or more years of work experience, one slightly low grade stops having meaning. Ask about projects they’ve worked on instead.
  - seattle_spring 7y ago
    I only submitted them because the recruiter required I submit them, which was dumb in the first place.
pretendscholar 7y ago
Maybe im just mediocre but it doesnt seem like a big deal. Sometimes you get a shit teacher and check out. The kind of ass kissing and begging that I saw among my peers that got all A's is real alarming
- droithomme 7y ago
  The grade may or may not be a "big deal" as you mention, but it is certainly and with total absolution, a reasonable thing to ask about. Do you agree?
  - dougmwne 7y ago
    I don't agree. Interview time is limited and valuable. Sure, you could ask the candidate about anything thats not illegal to ask. But why waste time on irrelevancies? Asking about a single low grade when the candidate has an otherwise respectable GPA is just wasting a chance to ask a better question. If I saw a junior interviewer do it, I would be tempted to share some ideas of stronger questions to ask in the future. Experience: hundreds of interviews.
    - droithomme 7y ago
      It's not irrelevant to ask about this, it's a very legitimate point to bring up and can be quite productive to do so. Sorry you don't see how that is but clearly you're a bit dense and your company will be failing if it hasn't already done so assuming someone who thinks like you is actually in charge of all hiring as you claim. Do me a favor and pm me your stock ticker so I can short it. As far as interviews and economic value I'm sure I beat you on both metrics by a vast margin. Also pointless and silly, but you try to bring up your "hundreds" of interviews, LOL, sonny boy.
  - Bahamut 7y ago
    If it were something worth asking to figure out who is a good hire, maybe - however, it's viewed as irrelevant at most jobs, so why waste precious interviewing time asking about irrelevant grades? It's a waste of time, and thus unreasonable thing to ask about, wasting a candidate's time and the interviewer's time in revealing how little the interviewer knows about effective interviewing.
  - pretendscholar 7y ago
    Depends on the relevance of the course to the job.
- WalterBright 7y ago
  > The kind of ass kissing and begging that I saw among my peers that got all A's My technique was to learn the material :-)
  - pretendscholar 7y ago
    I just saw a lot of premed folks that weren't too bright or too dumb that put in a lot of time but would end up close to the grade line and would do anything they could to get up over the top even though they probably deserved a b or a c based on their understanding of the material.
  - seattle_spring 7y ago
    If it was like the other students I knew who got 4.0s, the time it took them to go from 3.6 to 4.0 was at the expense of other much more enriching opportunities in life. There's hugely diminishing returns in perfecting ones report card, with regard to actual personal educational growth.
    - WalterBright 7y ago
      I decided early on that my goal was to graduate with honors. I knew how much work that entailed, did that, got the grades, and graduated with honors. I made the right decision, it worked for me. I didn't do any begging or ass kissing, and still had time to enjoy the other pursuits being in college afforded.
  - TheCoelacanth 7y ago
    That probably works better at Caltech than at most schools.
- goatinaboat 7y ago
  The kind of ass kissing and begging that I saw among my peers that got all A's is real alarming I see the same from some new graduates, begging their managers to sign off on something, they don’t seem to understand the difference between an academic grade and work being of a standard to show a customer.
bsder 7y ago
If you have a general GPA of 3.7, why? Was it a bad teacher? A bad class? Someone in the family died? Bad breakup with girlfriend? What business is it of yours? And, even worse, if I lie to you about why, can you verify it? And, even worse, I'm probably expecting you to ask me about it, so I'm completely prepared to snow you on that subject. Not only is asking me about it useless, it's a negative amount of information since you could have asked me about something else. I'll go further, we had one professor at my alma mater that was well known to be a jerk. If your interviewer was from that school, passing this class was considered godly and failing it was considered a rite of passage.
nfoz 7y ago
What useful information do you gain from asking about it?

I disagree, unless you are hiring straight out of college and the C+ is in an immediately relevant or "red flag" class. I can't imagine being asked this. I studied philosophy, I'm interviewing to write software, who cares about my grades?

droithomme 7y ago
You submitted your transcripts. I am going to ask about your C+. It's a reasonable thing for me to ask you about, don't you agree?
- pmiller2 7y ago
  No, I do not. When someone has 2 or more years of work experience, one slightly low grade stops having meaning. Ask about projects they’ve worked on instead.
- seattle_spring 7y ago
  I only submitted them because the recruiter required I submit them, which was dumb in the first place.

pretendscholar 7y ago

Maybe im just mediocre but it doesnt seem like a big deal. Sometimes you get a shit teacher and check out. The kind of ass kissing and begging that I saw among my peers that got all A's is real alarming

droithomme 7y ago
The grade may or may not be a "big deal" as you mention, but it is certainly and with total absolution, a reasonable thing to ask about. Do you agree?
- dougmwne 7y ago
  I don't agree. Interview time is limited and valuable. Sure, you could ask the candidate about anything thats not illegal to ask. But why waste time on irrelevancies? Asking about a single low grade when the candidate has an otherwise respectable GPA is just wasting a chance to ask a better question. If I saw a junior interviewer do it, I would be tempted to share some ideas of stronger questions to ask in the future. Experience: hundreds of interviews.
  - droithomme 7y ago
    It's not irrelevant to ask about this, it's a very legitimate point to bring up and can be quite productive to do so. Sorry you don't see how that is but clearly you're a bit dense and your company will be failing if it hasn't already done so assuming someone who thinks like you is actually in charge of all hiring as you claim. Do me a favor and pm me your stock ticker so I can short it. As far as interviews and economic value I'm sure I beat you on both metrics by a vast margin. Also pointless and silly, but you try to bring up your "hundreds" of interviews, LOL, sonny boy.
- Bahamut 7y ago
  If it were something worth asking to figure out who is a good hire, maybe - however, it's viewed as irrelevant at most jobs, so why waste precious interviewing time asking about irrelevant grades? It's a waste of time, and thus unreasonable thing to ask about, wasting a candidate's time and the interviewer's time in revealing how little the interviewer knows about effective interviewing.
- pretendscholar 7y ago
  Depends on the relevance of the course to the job.
WalterBright 7y ago
> The kind of ass kissing and begging that I saw among my peers that got all A's My technique was to learn the material :-)
- pretendscholar 7y ago
  I just saw a lot of premed folks that weren't too bright or too dumb that put in a lot of time but would end up close to the grade line and would do anything they could to get up over the top even though they probably deserved a b or a c based on their understanding of the material.
- seattle_spring 7y ago
  If it was like the other students I knew who got 4.0s, the time it took them to go from 3.6 to 4.0 was at the expense of other much more enriching opportunities in life. There's hugely diminishing returns in perfecting ones report card, with regard to actual personal educational growth.
  - WalterBright 7y ago
    I decided early on that my goal was to graduate with honors. I knew how much work that entailed, did that, got the grades, and graduated with honors. I made the right decision, it worked for me. I didn't do any begging or ass kissing, and still had time to enjoy the other pursuits being in college afforded.
- TheCoelacanth 7y ago
  That probably works better at Caltech than at most schools.
goatinaboat 7y ago
The kind of ass kissing and begging that I saw among my peers that got all A's is real alarming I see the same from some new graduates, begging their managers to sign off on something, they don’t seem to understand the difference between an academic grade and work being of a standard to show a customer.

bsder 7y ago

If you have a general GPA of 3.7, why? Was it a bad teacher? A bad class? Someone in the family died? Bad breakup with girlfriend? What business is it of yours? And, even worse, if I lie to you about why, can you verify it? And, even worse, I'm probably expecting you to ask me about it, so I'm completely prepared to snow you on that subject. Not only is asking me about it useless, it's a negative amount of information since you could have asked me about something else. I'll go further, we had one professor at my alma mater that was well known to be a jerk. If your interviewer was from that school, passing this class was considered godly and failing it was considered a rite of passage.

nfoz 7y ago

What useful information do you gain from asking about it?