Does GPA really matter for management/marketing graduates?

[LOLyourFace]

I constantly hear people saying GPA matters only little for graduating business majors. What matters is the work experience + degree + interview competence.

My friend is working for Pfizer making $50K and they didn't even bother to check his transcript. My other friend is now working for IBM making $55K and he was failing classes at BC.

I'm not too confident with my GPA (barely making 3.0) and wondering how the 'real world' works.

 

[Albis]

at umich, to get an interview with a top firm they require a min. gpa of around 3.2 i notice

after that, i don't think the gpa matters alot

and this is business school as well

 

[minendo]

Some companies base employment on GPA, smart companies do not.

 

[RichieZ]

helps you get the interview, after that its all up to you. Min 3.0 for most interviews, top firms that recruited at my school asked for 3.4 or 3.5 min.

BTW: i now work for Deloitte Consulting LLP

 

[royaldank]

Your GPA makes a difference if you are going through the school's career center and getting interviews that way.

If your GPA is going to matter, it will be for your first job. Otherwise, people don't really care.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

it matters if you are being recruited, or trying to get interviews before you graduate on campus.

once you graduate, and the further you get from graduation, the less the gpa matters. its a good metric for companies to use to compare people from the same school, but it doesnt scale well outside that environment

 

[Babbles]

In the science field I have never seen GPA matter unless it was something like an internship, but again not for a 'real' job. Usually you should not cite your GPA however some people do put cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude in their education portion of their resume, if it is applicable, and that is it.

I have never had my transcript checked to see if I had a degree, but I suppose luckily in the science field it is pretty easy to pick up if somebody graduated or not. Then again if they failed at taking a PE class and didn't graduate that may be hard to pick up on!

Anyhow, I am not sure how the business major world works but I would worry about having a lower GPA. If it comes up during an interview you can try to explain it away - just don't make a sob story out of it - but also cite your strengths and personality.

 

[ShOcKwAvE827]

I have heard that a lot of marketing or other business interviews count for as much as 80% of your file. I think it boils down to work experience, decent looks, and speaking ability to land a decent job in business. I don't really think GPA means anything except getting past some companies' intial screens.

 

[RaDragon]

You already have a lot of good answers above. I also agree with some of the posts that say GPA doesn't matter for marketing and management positions, unless you plan to interview through the school, or with the "top" companies out there. GPA is not a good measure of how "good" you'll perform in the job, though.

 

[marcello]

Obligatory asshole comment:

Don't worry about your grades. You're a management/marketing major. Just practice asking, "Would you like fries with that?"

 

[Modeps]

The only thing people care about is if you're Magna or Summa Cum Laude, after that it's really just "you got your degree, good."

 

[dr150]

Depends on the school.

It's unfair, I know, but grads from hyped-up schools rarely have their grades checked.

IMHO, experience should count way more than anything else. I've known great workers from many programs--most coming from lower ranked schools. FWIW, it's an unfair system--and that's coming from a guy who went to a top 3.

 

[Feldenak]

It depends. My GPA sucks and I got drilled for it. For one of the big 4, I made it past the pre-screening, nailed the interview, and had an office visit set up...and the partners cancelled the visit because my GPA was too low.