Skills vs. Grades? · 6:09pm Sep 17th, 2016
Yesterday, I made my first proper step to preparing to enter the world of work. I spoke to a careers advisor at college, and decided on a career path for myself -- library or archive work. Having done some volunteer work at my college library earlier this year, I can say that I found it a pleasant and genuinely enjoyable experience. I'm already pretty good at getting organised and keeping things organised, and should have no trouble searching through archives and databases. I know I have the skills... but do I have the grades?
At the moment, my college grades tend to fluctuate between Bs and high Cs. I know that's not exactly the sort of thing that will have the likes of Intel or Goldman Sachs chomping at the bit to hire me, but I'm not too fussed about that -- I knew I would never be getting a high-roller career like that, anyway. All the same, I've been wondering whether or not I should be concerned about it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I think I should just give up and stop trying, but I'm still wondering.
I've talked to my careers advisor, my parents, and people on the Internet about this, and I've gotten some seriously conflicting information from all sides. My careers advisor says that getting impressive grades is important, but experience and networking are just as important. My parents are adamant that I should be focusing on grades and going on to do my Master's. The Internet has told me everything from "grades mean everything" to "grades mean next to nothing, it's all about experience and skills". So basically, I don't know just how worried I should be about my grades.
Can you guys give me some straight advice here? At this point, all I really want is a plain and straight answer.
While experience and skills extremely important, I feel that Grades are just as important. They, your grades, represent YOU and play a part in showing whether your committed to something or not.
In the end, the admission to work is "did you graduate?" If you did, the question is merely how well you compare to other potential employees - and in this, having personality, wit and some grasp of what is that you`re actually supposed to do is far more important then grades.