GPA Vs. Experiance 5

[Gymmeh]

We all know that better grades lead to better jobs.

I am one of those that has managed to, I feel, excel at jobs, however I am one of those less then 3.0/4.0 people.

Now with two internships and a year and 5 months of work experience I have set out to get into a more comfortable job position.

So I had, what I thought were two excellent interviews for a company for a design engineer position which was presented as a position which calculations were rare and basically design falls under “fair judgment” on industrial equipment, and working with drafters to bring the design together for the Project engineer. They had me do a couple aptitude tests which I breezed through, one question I even answer just looking at the paper while it was in the interviewer’s hand.

My current position requires calculations or a reference to back up anything I do -so people don't get hurt-, inspections, and almost total authority over designs.
Basically the new job seems one step back from the math intense/extreme details, and I thought this new job was a done deal!

Today I got an email saying they had some concern about my GPA (which is a 2.4/4.0), which was just quickly asked during the interview and never brought up again.

I laughed when I read it! you have got to be kidding me?

I wrote up a Email saying, What course work do you consider relevant to this position? I will gladly send you my transcript showing A and B in all classes which seam relevant to this position.

I also wrote about getting B's in two grad level engineering classes, and the fact that I was involved in Rugby, multiple intramural sports, battle bot team, An engineering fraternity, a job, and I also applied for a Patent, etc. (e.i. my grades are not low because of partying!)

I didn’t email them because I thought it best to run this by the Best Qualified judges of all things engineering... the Eng-tips Crowd.

I have to assume they interviewed someone with an amazing GPA. How do I tell them that the job presented is not worthy of a High GPA person, and my experience should trump my GPA?

Should I ask if I could stop in and talk to them about my GPA, and that it does not reflect my potential?

Just destroyed my weekend...

Thanks & have a good weekend

 

[Gymmeh]

I did well as Scrum half but due to social/political reasons I was moved to wing toward the end of my rugby years. ( i.e. I started to spend Sun,Mon,Tu,Wed and, some Tr nights studying...)

I was one of the faster/ nimble people so I was good offensively at wing but, I was not even good cannon fodder on defense...

 

[Kinsrow]

For the past 8 years I've been working with different type of engineers. Some had 4.0, phd, ms, 2.0, etc. Some of the best engineers that I know had low GPA less than 2.7. I call them good engineers because they can always back up their reasoning and find its root in physics, math, and engineering classes. Not only they understood it well, they can explain them in very simple term. They also have the ability to balance between cost, performance, and speed. They are passionate about what they do and they can communicate very well. Some of these qualities you gain from work experience, by the way

GPA tend to be the measure of how hard you work and you ability to learn, but it doesn't make you a good engineer. It is good for motivating your kid to study hard at school

 

[HgTX]

High GPA doesn't make you a good engineer. Neither does low GPA. There are some low-GPA people around here whom I would not hire were I in the position to do so.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[Lion06]

There seems to be a lot of anectdotal evidence that engineers with low(er) GPA's make better engineers and a lot of generalizations about low GPA engineers vs high GPA engineers.
I would just like to offer this up - GPA (and IMO where you went to school) matter very little 8, 10, 15 years after you graduate. Here is my reasoning: I don't believe for a second that there is a single engineering program that will prepare you to step into any firm and hit the ground running. I am not saying that I don't think some people can do that, but I am saying that I don't believe it is a function of the school but more a function of the person. That being said, as a general rule it is safe to assume that fresh grads can not hit the ground running. With that premise in mind, I also don't believe there are many (if any) engineers with a PE that couldn't breeze through any undergrad engineering program in the country. If that is true, the experiece seems to be much more of a player (at least to me). When you are coming out of school, however, this is obviously something people base their decisions on.

As for the GPA, this is the same thing. 10 years after graduation virtually any PE can go through virtually any engineering program (at least undergrad) and probably breeze through with a 4.0 (or at least pretty close to it). This leads me to believe that GPA is irrelevant after years of experience, but again, this is one of the things that we are judged by when graduating.

 

[HgTX]

Exactly. GPA is handy for evaluating a new engineer when there's nothing else to go by. It's rather inappropriate to ask about GPA when someone has several years and a couple of jobs under their belt.

Hg

Eng-Tips policies: faq731-376

 

[Atomic25]

StructuralEIT, I think that's entirely dependant upon the type of experience you get over the 10 yrs of working. You seem to be at a firm where you actually learn. I think the vast majority are places where engineers easily rot technically.

With that said, I dont think there's any definite way to go about it, but when I hire I at least want to know GPA to try and see how the person progressed (or recessed) since graduation.

As for a masters, I think it still makes quite a bit of difference even 10 yrs down the road unless that person has had some great mentors.