Do your school grades reflect who you are today? (1 Viewer)

[Haris Ellahi]

I am 18 and in high school and was wondering if the grades you got in school reflect who you are today? Meaning, if you got good grades, you have a "good" job now? And if you got bad grades, do you have a "bad" job now?

 

[Clinton McClure]

I had mostly As with a few Bs, a GPA of 3.7 and I am struggling to find a job in today's poor economy.

 

[Leila Dougan]

I don't have a bad job now, but I'm on my way to having a great job. Gotta pay my dues first. In HS I graduated top of my class and in college I had mostly As and a few Bs. However, my work ethic is a reflection of my grades: I work very hard, am near a perfectionist, and maker sure everything is done accurately and efficiently.

 

[Alex Spindler]

Leila nailed it. If your grades are a reflection of your work ethic, than it will reflect how you are later in life. If you had achieved those grades through natural aptitude or by careful placement of classes, then you may not fare so well.

Of course, with the volatile job market today, anything goes. There are a ton of very talented and extremely hardworking people who are struggling to find and maintain employment.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I'm a serious under-achiever.

But I was remarkably consistent in getting the same GPA in high school, college, and grad school.

I even took the SAT twice and scored the exact same score. Weird, eh?

 

[SteveA]

Your grades are a reflection of your aptitude and work ethic at the time you earned them. Although a person's natural abilities are unlikely to evolve over time, their work ethic often does.

I graduated in the bottom half of my high school class back in 1990, yet I still managed to graduate from a respectable university and go on to a fulfilling career. My work ethic today at age 31 bears little resemblance to the work ethic of the teenage slacker that I used to be.

For all you people still in school - study hard! Although it is possible to overcome the poor grades you earn during your misspent youth, you will have to work twice as hard to do it. Poor grades will close some doors of opportunity for you.

 

[Jefferson]

You are going to get a wide range of answers, I see.
My grades are not reflected at all in my later work life...

 

[Scott Falkler]

I was third from the bottom of my class in high school and eventually got my GED.
I make more money now than anyone I know...

 

[D. Scott MacDonald]

My High School grades sucked (2.7/4.0) and reflected my work ethic at that time. I somehow managed to wake up in college and graduated with a 3.6/4.0, which reflected my new work ethic. I have had very good jobs ever since graduating college 14 years ago.

I had a co-worker, however, who graduated college with only a 3.2 but who has been a great achiever and has so far had a great career. He is a couple of years younger than me, but is already a CTO of a division of Texas Instruments.

 

[Jonas Pearson]

I had a 3.1/4.0 in high school with no effort. College: 3.5/4.0, cum laude, in the top 10% of my class with considerable effort and still partied my tail off. It's amazing how your perspective changes when you are footing the bill. Now I'd be considered very successful by most. So not a great correlation with high school grades, but maybe college grades.

 

[Mark Frank]

I think grades do generally give some indication of future job prowess, but definitely not always. I always found school pretty easy - didn't have to study much to make good grades, etc. It definitely opened some doors for me such as good college scholarships and the like.

"Good" job vs. "bad" job is kind of ambiguous, so I'm assuming you mean salary. My only advice is to find something you like and that you're good at and pursue it wholeheartedly.

A perfect example is one of my dad's friends from college. He goofed of all through college and never graduated. However, he was great interacting with people. He naturally went into sales and has made much more than I dad ever will teaching. But the key is that they're both doing what they like and so in that aspect they both have "good" jobs.

 

[Jared_B]

I think grades play a large part in the type of success you have down the road, but like others have stated, there is not hard and fast rule.

I graduated HS with 3.7, and went on to a 4yr college, where I struggled a little (I think I have a 2.9). After only 2 years, I stopped going full-time to start working full-time.

My HS grades were good because I just "got it" with little studying needed. I pretty much skated through. I think this hurt my work ethic though. In college I didn't always "get it", and I didn't really know how to study. Going into a professional career early on forced me into a good work ethic, and now I can apply that to my night classes, where my grades are much better.

I'm now 22 with 4 years of technical experience in my field, and I'm making more money than most recent college grads do (plus I actually have a job, which is very nice).

 

[Philip_G]

I'm with leila
decent grades show you can (in college at least) manage your time, meet deadlines, attention to detail etc.

 

[Scott Bourden]

I find I am finally kicking my work habits (or lack there-of) which I had in high school.

I breezed through my classes, didn't study or do any work, and always pulled off 80's and 90's.... Then the real world gave me a swift kick in the nuts, and around the end of grade 12, I realized that I wasn't particularly good at math, and without working at it, I would not even pass, let alone get a decent mark.... In the end I goofed off, and had to do that math again over the summer.

Either way, that was almost 4 years ago, and I'm finally starting to get fully into a "hard work" state of mind. I still love to goof off, and it's a battle to get my lazy ass out of bed every morning for class and then to work, but hey, at least I'm going to every class, finishing all my assignments, and working 30 hours or so a week.

Also a factor is that I actually enjoy my classes now, a startling change from high school

 

[Ryan Wright]

I was third from the bottom of my class in high school and eventually got my GED.
I make more money now than anyone I know...

Describes me perfectly. I left high school at the end of my sophomore year and began attending classes at the community college. I did just as poorly in those because I had all of these requirements to fulfill and none of them interested me. What's the point of taking environmental science if I'm interested in computers? I quit after about 45 credits and took a job as a Perl programmer, thus beginning my career that now pays for all sorts of fun HT equipment.

By contrast, a friend of mine studied his ass off in school. He was up until 10:00pm or later nearly every night doing homework. Myself, when the last bell rang, I was done. Didn't once open a textbook or prepare a bit of homework before or after school hours. It was especially nice not having to lug 50 pounds of books home every night - I just left it all in my locker. I spent my evenings with friends & family, running a small computer business out of my bedroom (300 users on a 7 line dial up bulletin board system - income paid my $150 phone bill every month and tossed another $50-$150 my way in spending money, depending on the month), and just enjoying life. The experience gained from running that business at such a young age (16) landed me my first real job at the age of 19. I was the youngest guy on the team by a wide margin: Most of my coworkers were old enough to be my parents, and we were making the same money.

But back to my friend - the homeworkaholic who had very high grades - he's working a part time job delivering milk to people. He makes about five hundred dollars a month and can't support his family.

So, grades really have nothing to do with where you'll go in the world.

 

[Holadem]

Ryan, yours is not a typical experience, neither is your milk delivering friend's.

I wholeheartedly agree with Leila and Alex regarding work ethincs. If you breezed through high school and college without over exerting yourself, you're in for a real bad surprise when you get out there.

--
Holadem

 

[KyleS]

Although I don't think that Ryan's experience was typical it does happen all of the time.

In high school I was like Ryan. Rarely would I do homework/study and I graduated with a 3.10 average. In college I averaged about a 3.75 but did study a lot harder and as Jonas states when you are footing the bill you seem to get more out of it.

Since High School I have never had someone ask me what my grades were for High School or College, only did I go, and did I graduate.

decent grades show you can (in college at least) manage your time, meet deadlines, attention to detail etc.

Yes it may show that you can work hard, meet deadlines, etc but still companies just don't ask. They look at if you graduated, what your past work experience is, how you do in the interview, & if available recommendations from previous work.

KyleS

 

[MarkHastings]

I think a lot of people have that attitude of "Why do I need to do all my homework?" or "Why do I need to learn geometry?". It's all dependant (most of the time) on how you'll turn out later in life.

I agree that scores have NO influence on how successful you'll become, but the thing that counts is HOW you got those grades. i.e. To say that 2 people with a "B" average will turn out fairly similar would be wrong.

One person might have struggled really hard...put in a LOT of time...and worked his tail off to get that "B"...This type of person might do well in life because he's a hard worker (which is very impressive to employers).

Whereas, the other person may have understood the material and, if he had applied himself, would have gotten an "A", but he was lazy and got a "B" instead...This person may not do so well in life because he won't apply himself and may miss out on an opportunity.

Also, to those who say "Why do I need to do geometry? I'll never use geomoetry again!"...Maybe so, but with any job, you have to do things you don't like! Learning to "Grin and Bear it" is something you have to learn at a young age so you'll do better later on in life. I was always a so-so student, but I worked hard! I now have a great job (well paid) and I still have to do things I don't like, but I do them because I learned this practice as a youngster.

Not that there are exceptions to the rules, but working hard (no matter what your grades are) IS the most important thing!

 

[Philip_G]

Yes it may show that you can work hard, meet deadlines, etc but still companies just don't ask. They look at if you graduated, what your past work experience is, how you do in the interview, & if available recommendations from previous work.

Depends, in my field they most certainly request a transcript before an interview, but this is usually for entry level positions. If good grades help you get a foot in the door, why not. Most the job postings at my school require a 3.0 or higher, which sucks because my cumulative is 2.9 and my institutional is a 3.7

 

[VinhT]

the homeworkaholic who had very high grades - he's working a part time job delivering milk to people

That statement absolutely terrifies me. I'll be graduating next year, already got some work experience, but I guess you never know what's going to happen. :frowning: