Graduating soon but with poor GPA... 8

[ShiftF4]

Hi,

I want to get some honest opinions about my chances in getting a decent job with a sub 3.0 GPA. I'm having a great deal of difficulty finishing my last 400 level courses. Although I did great in my 200 level courses, I'm having difficulty grasping the higher-level concepts and am scraping by with a string of C's. 300 Level courses were B's. When I graduate, I expect to have an overall GPA of about 2.7-2.8. Part of the reason why my GPA is so low is that I haven't done very well in my non-engineering courses either.

All that being said, during my two internships I was noted as being a very hard worker and learned quickly on the job (processes, use of software, but not technical material).

I'm hoping to get some ideas/strategies on how to improve my job outlook. Thanks for any help!!!

 

[ziggi]

Senseless a star for that truly accurate statement at the end of your post. Laziness leads to a better, quicker, cheaper way to do something, but only if you HAVE to do it.

 

[qcme]

flch95:

IMHO, it depends on what the GPA is measuring and what the courses taken are and who the students holding the GPA are. I don't know how true this is but some schools use certain courses for grad work while others use the same courses for undergrad work.

If GPA measures how well one understands the basic concepts of engineering, tell me why is it that a (engineering) classmate of mine with a 3.5 GPA had a hard time trying to explain the basic concept of engineering to me? Her answer was "I don't know why the solution is that, it just is". Either I've been asking way too complicated questions or she just had no idea what I was talking about.

I have a low GPA, how hard of a question would it be asked by someone like me?

 

[TDAA]

What the GPA does not take into count is the social aspect of school. I believe my GPA in Beer and Parties was higher than in the academic portions. That being said, my GPA was held down by things such as a 5 credit D in Chem.. I did not want to take that again, so I left it.

The social aspect is definitely key in many ways, and likely means more than the GPA. You have graduated, so you have shown competence. When you get to the interview, you need to show you are socially competent to be able to work among the rest of us.

I was flown out to an interview, with my 2.? GPA, and following the interview was told, “You seem normal.” Three weeks later, I was moving to start my new job.

 

[jen4950]

I've found that who you know is far more important that what you know.

 

[flch95]

jen4950,

i think that's more cliche..the times i've actually known someone, it never really made a difference. i've gotten more interviews and interest from jobs advertised (even on monster) than any other source..of course the pool of applicants was incredibly huge though.

 

[bvanhiel]

jen4950,

I've had 4 jobs. The first I found via a campus interview. The rest all came from networking.

Somewhere there's a statistic on how many people had to turn down a job before it ended up in the want ads. It certainly encouraged me to find the inside track.

-b