Subj : Re: Academic grades should be USELESS
To   : comp.programming
From : Christopher Barber
Date : Mon Jul 25 2005 02:54 pm

James wrote:
> I don't know why these software companies put a lot of stress on the
> academic grades. The academic grades have nothing to do with the
> technical know-how of a person. I have a just an average academic
> grades and because of this I was not able to sit in the interviews of
> most of the companies, which visited my university, inspite of the fact
> that my technical know-how is the among the best in the
> university.What's more the toppers of my class who doesn't even know
> the fundamentals of programming, were eligible to sit in the company
> interviews.

Companies care about grades because (a) they are often the only independently 
verifiable piece of information they have on entry-level applicants, and (b) 
good grades from a good University generally indicate that the applicant is 
likely to have decent communication skills, good work habits and is reasonably 
intelligent.  You are correct that this misses those people who have talent 
but for some reason or another do not thrive in the University setting. 
However, what is a company to do?  Unless they have other evidence to go on, 
such as coding samples, work experience and so on, they are obviously going to 
want to go for the applicants with the best grades.

You should realize that working in the software industry is not all about 
technical skills.  Communication skills, responsibility, organizational 
skills, being able to take direction and work with others, and the ability to 
learn are all really important to doing real work.

- Christopher

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