Include SAT score on Résumé?

[josphII]

private companies very rarely inquire about gpa (and certainly not sat scores) but if they do they most likely will want to know what your gpa in your major was and not your overal gpa. now government jobs (like the nuclear regulatory commision (NRC)) often have gpa requirements.

generally though, if your overall or in-major gpa is greater than or equal to 3.0 then put it on your resume. if you have a masters or higher then DO NOT list your gpa (high gpa and high intelligence is always assumed if you have a masters or phd)

 

[josphII]

<< Considering that the SATs are not a measure of your intelligence or capability, but rather they measure how good you are at taking standardized tests, I would definitely leave it off. It really makes it look like you're grasping at straws, trying way too hard to find SOMETHING good about you. And a high SAT score just isn't that good. sorry. >>



there is definetely a correlation between ones intelligence and their sat scores. sounds like your just bitter

 

[hans007]

<<

<< Considering that the SATs are not a measure of your intelligence or capability, but rather they measure how good you are at taking standardized tests, I would definitely leave it off. It really makes it look like you're grasping at straws, trying way too hard to find SOMETHING good about you. And a high SAT score just isn't that good. sorry. >>



there is definetely a correlation between ones intelligence and their sat scores. sounds like your just bitter >>



i tend to agree , to a limit.

it depends really. if you scored like a 800 or something . You really have no reasoning ability assuming you could read the english on the test well thus requiring a decent vocabulary which is usually more than the pathetic excuse for high schools we have in america right now are capable of soley giving. the reading and knowing vocabular can be a barrier to some new immigrants , people who dont like to read ,etc. Now , if i was hiring you at say an advertising company i wouldnt really care you could be very gifted artistically or sing really well so its not like you are worthless to all companies. If i owned microsoft then well it would matter much more since reasoning ability is so important for programming. Then again you probably wouldnt have been a compsci major if you did bad on your SATs since well you woulda probably failed out of it since you had bad reasoning ability.

Some people say that the multiple choiceness of these tests makes them very random in who gets high scores and that eliminating possibilites is not a viable job skill. It takes a lot of reasoning ability to cancel out what is wrong to get the right answer. If i were a programmer it would be important to me if a person could make a fairly good "guess" as to what was the problem so that they could fix it faster. I'd say troubleshooting and SATs probably have a lot in common. Also from what i've found people who did bad tend to be bitter , but some tend to be bitter much longer. I dunno when i was about to get out of highschool, people who didnt do so great on a couple occasions went off on me in a condescending way about how i am not really smarter than them out of some sort of insecurity. If i recall all of the people who did this strangely ended up going to uc berkeley.

 

[lizardboy]

for anyone who hasn't looked at ajayjuneja's resume go back & look, we'll wait

<waiting>

ok - what's the with the gay-ass personalized name...i've been in the 'real world' for quite a few years now and i've seen resumes like that...they usually get laughed at and tossed in the garbage...nothing personal but i would lose that before you get out of college

 

[cchen]

<< for anyone who hasn't looked at ajayjuneja's resume go back & look, we'll wait

<waiting>

ok - what's the with the gay-ass personalized name...i've been in the 'real world' for quite a few years now and i've seen resumes like that...they usually get laughed at and tossed in the garbage...nothing personal but i would lose that before you get out of college >>



i agree - his qualifications and experience are nice but he needs to make it more serious

 

[Antisocial Virge]

<< there is definetely a correlation between ones intelligence and their sat scores. sounds like your just bitter >>

 

[flot]

I also agree about ajayjuneja's resume. Don't do that. It takes a VERY unique person to be able to pull that off.

I interview for software engineering jobs occasionally (have probably interviewed 30-40 people in the last year) and if I got that resume across my desk, there's a 50/50 chance I would:

1) toss it in the trash
2) If I HAPPENED to have a lot of free time that week would consider interviewing the person, because they might be interesting - but a lack of professionalism is definitely a strike against him

Now, the obvious argument would be "Well, maybe I don't want to work for a company that would put so much emphasis on professionalism as opposed to "thinking outside the box" " - which is a valid argument. But again, you have to be in a position where you can afford to alienate some companies, and be confident enough in your skills and what you want to be able to do that.

Your resume is your #1 first impression and it can EASILY make or break your chances at a job with a particular company. If your resume looks bad, we chuck it in the trash and don't give you a second thought. If its good, you at least get to move onto step 2 and have a chance at a good impression in person.

jteef, I graduated from Tech with around a 2.4 overall and a 3.2 major GPA. (0.5 cumulative physics GPA ;-) I got offers from 1/3 of the companies I interviewed with, and pretty much did better than any of my friends in terms of my job and pay. You definitely graduated at a bad time - but your GPA doesn't have to hold you back... you just have to put the focus on more positive things. It helps a lot if you can say "well, I know, I'm not exactly proud of my GPA in school, but I was working 3 jobs to pay for tuition," or whatever.

 

[reitz]

<< i dunno i personally would hire a smart guy who is lazy, than a dumb guy who like worked hard to do just as well as the lazy smart guy. more potential i guess, you can motivate the smart guy, the not so smart guy isnt ever gonna get any smarter and he's already working hard. >>

I'd hire the dumb guy every time. It's far easier to put a little more effort into training a slow learner than it is to try to motivate a slacker who's too smart for his own good.

<< it depends really. if you scored like a 800 or something . You really have no reasoning ability assuming you could read the english on the test well... >>

I'd have to disagree. My girlfriend scored an 870 on her SAT, and received an average score on the GMAT (don't remember exactly what it was). She graduated college with a 3.8, and is about to earn her master's with a 4.0. A low score might indicate a lack of reasoning ability, but the SAT is a better measure of a person's ability to take multiple choice tests.

 

[Triumph]

<< However, I did much better on the SATs than mine college GPA might indicate (for many reasons, mainly lack of motivation in college). >>


Well, you said it right there. A high SAT score next to a low GPA would tell me that you're unmotivated to work. Why should I hire you?

 

[MustPost]

I wouldn't put the SAT score on your resume.

I don't know if this is relavent, but isn't it illigal for an employer to ask you for your SAT scores?
I know in this case it is volentary, but can you confirm the above statement?

 

[josphII]

<<

<< I too have a really crumby gpa(2.3) and can't find a job to save my life. pretty annoying when companies schedule you an interview and then cancel it when they hear your gpa. there's always the military, or so I'm told...
>>



First, never ever list your SAT score on your resume. It's obnoxious, and gives the hiring manager no useful information.

Second, here's how to overcome that low GPA. I have a 3.3, and I've gotten every single interview I've wanted this school year, and no one ever asks me about my GPA. Right now, it looks like I'll probably be interning with IBM Extreme Blue Austin, or if I get lucky, the Bosch Research and Technology center in Palo Alto. I've even gotten Patent Law firms interested in me. Why? Because I have a lot of really cool projects to overshadow the GPA, and I talk about them. Note, I've also gotten 7 rejections this year so far too, so I have yet to master everything.

The key to interviewing well lies in the following:

1. Be confident about yourself.
2. Always walk into the interview with something to blow the interviewers away, be it an independent project, or whatever.
3. Always tell them how you can improve their business.
4. Be creative in your interviewing style. I chat with my IBM interviewer regularly over AIM to show that I'm interested, and he's a really cool guy.
Then there was this time in late January where I asked the office manager of a company (Bosch RTC-Pittsburgh) I applied for a job at out on a date (she was really nice.. and personality wise, we clicked, and she's the same age as me). This was after getting word that that company was invoking a hiring freeze as of the beginning of that month. Little did I know that AFTER I asked her out (she's engaged.. but we will still be going dancing) and tell her I will probably take the offer from IBM, she asks me if I had received an email from her that moning. Well, I hadn't checked email since like 11am that day, and I was at their office at 1:30pm. So I said, "What email?"

Turns out she talked to the vice president in San Fran. that week and got permission to hire 2-3 interns this summer... she told me that, and said, "Well, if you're going to work for IBM again..."

[me] "I didn't sign anything yet..."

We chatted for about 20 more min. She's a wonderful person. Anyway, so we socialize regularly now, and I'm meeting one of the engineers for lunch on friday to chat about a research project I've been working on, and I want to link them up to some things CMU is doing that they'd probably be interested in. So, while I won't be working for them this summer (though I may get something with the palo alto office), since the hiring freeze came back, I made some new friends there... and I'm offering them connections which are valuable to them. So in the future when Bosch may hire again, they'll already have known me a long time!

As for the asking her out thing? Well, we just laugh about it now

good luck!

PS. I also have a cooky-looking resume. you can see it here. It's a PDF file (acrobat 4+).
the HTML version (slightly older) is here. >>



some advice for your resume...

change the font of your name
two columns? change it to one column
featured coursework should be under education
re-title "nerd skills" to simply "skills" and list your matlab/cad experience in this section
rename "stayin alive" to "affiliations"
do not mention that "usaauction was sold because of a large security hole....."

my knee-jerk reaction when i first saw your resume was that it looked like a high school kid made it, i dont think thats what your goin for

[edit] the last line of your resume should be "References Available Upon Request" centered, in italics