I hope not!I recently had a great conversation with one of the managers at Microsoft. He was telling me that a certain company had been reaching out to him in regards to applying for some senior positions within their company. As all smart people do, he entertained the offers, seeing what they had to say (side note: I think everyone should always be looking for their next opportunity.  If anything, it’s good interview practice and always nice to see what your market value is).

Anyway, back to the story. So this manager went through the process, and then it came to the time where they asked him to fax over his transcript. He let them know that he did NOT meet the requirement for employment, as it was below a 3.0 (he said it was 2.9999, which I think is what everyone says). The company insisted that he fax a transcript, so he went to his parents house, dug through his old paperwork, and ended up faxing them his report card from 3rd grade instead. I thought that was a great story- the company did appreciate the humor in it as well.

This got me thinking- do the grades you earn in college really matter? I know that there were some classes I slept through in college (I’m talking about Principles of Accounting 210), and there were some I did great in.

Is it fair for this record to follow you all the way through your career? Should there be a cut-off point where it doesn’t matter anymore?

I know Microsoft employees who love to ask about GPA, but to me it doesn’t make an ounce of difference.

What are your thoughts? Do grades even matter?  Should they matter to potential employers as you progress in your career?

- Janelle
Microsoft Jobs Blogger
P.S. In case you were wondering, the manager didn’t take the job.