Do employers care about GPA?
Question:
Do employers care about GPA?
Answer:
The short answer is no. The long answer is no, but there are exceptions.
Explanation:
Let’s talk about the exceptions first. Employers likely will care about your GPA in the following circumstances:
- You are in a technical field applying to an elite company. These fields typically include medicine, biotech, law, engineering, investment finance, and tech. In fact, some companies in these industries have GPA cutoffs to help them filter applicants.
- You’re applying for an internship while still in college. In cases like these, employers often have to use GPA as a proxy to screen applicants because most probably lack a work history.
In these cases, your GPA is expected to be included on your resume.
A high GPA could also help boost your odds if you’re early in your career, even if employers don’t require it or usually give it a ton of thought. This is especially true if your school and/or major is known for its rigor. The benefit goes up if your degree is highly relevant to the job you’re applying for. If you’re a recent grad (out of college less than 5 years) and you don’t have much relevant work experience, I recommend including your GPA on your resume with your degree if it’s a 3.5 or higher.
In all other scenarios, employers are not likely to care about your college or grad school GPA, so there’s no need to include it on your resume. This is especially true once you’ve gotten relevant work experience, which will always carry more weight with employers than anything education related.
If you’re currently in college, that’s not permission to slack off. Know your field, know your career goals. If you’re planning to go into one of the fields where GPA will matter, then studying isn’t optional. But even if you’re not, if that 3.5 is within reach, push hard for it. Any advantage is one worth pursuing and getting out of the gate early when it comes to your work experience will pay serious compound interest over time.
