What’s Your GPA?
Overheard on 18th Street in Philadelphia last night: “I don’t think that success in law school is any predictor of how a person will do in the firm.”
That was from a group of attorneys walking toward me in custom suits. Partners and managing partners. That type. Which got me thinking.
Do you still ask candidates about their GPA (grade point average)? I mean, seriously. John McCain graduated almost at the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy; now he’s the Republican candidate for POTUS. Edison. Einstein. Etc. All bad students. But I wouldn’t mind having their type in my company.
What’s GPA got to do with it? Smart people have great GPAs. But so do people who are expert at giving teachers what they want. What do you want when you ask about GPA? Compliance or innovation?
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12 Responses to “What’s Your GPA?”
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Frank - good stuff… With so many surveys and studies out there showing a pitifully low correlation between measures of intelligence such as IQ and GPA and success in a job it makes me wonder why these measures still play such a prominent role in the selection process.
This is one of the reasons that there are so many hiring mistakes mad every day… we become enamored by the honors and accolades achieved in one’s education and look past the obvious reasons why a candidate is not a good fit for the job.
Personally I am much more interested in a candidate’s behavioral tendencies, what motivates them, and their ability to communicate effectively and perceive the emotions of others and act accordingly.
Chris, I’m with you. I want to know what a person does. I want to know if they’re intellectually curious. Give me enthusiasm and willingness to learn anyday. I’ll build a great team from that. I like talent, that’s for sure. But it doesn’t only come from grades. Curiosity. That’s it.
I don’t disagree with the points made above; however, I do view GPA as an indicator (how good of an indicator, who knows) not as a measure of intelligence but as a measure of how capable someone is at doing things. For instance, if someone has a 2.3 GPA, I want to find out if that GPA is a result of not working hard enough, or if they were working three jobs to pay for school, or what. GPA may not be a measure of intelligence, but in general I don’t think it’s that hard to get a good GPA - if they don’t have a good one, I at least want to find out the reasons.
Whenever I was reviewing resumes for new hires/interns and a GPA was on it (unless this was to be the first or second job applied for), I’d put it aside and look at the ones without GPAs listed first.
The dudes in the suits are correct!!! Job success is ultimately determined by many factors - in addition to GPA and overall mental ability. We can turn to football to see analogies of this. Joe Montana did not have a lot of natural athleticism. He did not have a particularly strong arm, nor was he fleet of foot. However, he used other abilities to help him in being one of the best QB’s in NFL history.
Politics would be another good example. Ronnie Reagan was a strong president, but he was hardly the sharpest tack in the drawer.
IQ is still a very strong predictor of job success, especially in higher level positions requiring critical thinking abilities. Other things are critical - e.g., creativity, EQ, etc.
robert edward cenek
Cenek Report
A couple of related points:
- In some situations GPA actually does predict job performance, albeit not particularly strongly. See http://www.ipmaac.org/acn/aug98/techaff.html
- Several years ago I did a study looking at how well quality of law school and years of experience predicting performance ratings among attorneys. The only significant relationships were between experience and job knowledge, and between law school and getting along with others–but in the opposite direction (i.e., the better the law school, the worse they got along with others)
Three points to the many excellent ones made before:
Know your culture - is it a smart “kids are cool”? Is it smart kids are cool if they are in the basement of the science building? Most places that is not the culture - its “relationship people run!” or “working like a dog rules” or “numbers people are the new black”. Hire for your culture not for management theories.
When I graduated from law school (I don’t actually recall my GPA) I recall a very bright partner at a big law firm telling me it didn’t matter because no one graduating from law school knew anything about the world anyway. It was all preamble.
Old joke: People who get “A”s in law school become law professors; people who get “B”s in law school become law professors; people who get “C”s in law school become millionaires. Bada BING - No YOU try the veal.
Here is an interesting study that specifically targets the GPA/Lawyer debate.
http://www.elsblog.org/the_empirical_legal_studi/2007/06/new_evidence_on.html
Again….at the end of the day…. overall smarts are important. Not perfectly predictive - but important. Exceptions abound.
robert edward cenek
http://www.cenekreport.com
Uncommon Commentary on the World of Work
Exceptions to the success-in-school/success-in-life correlation occur throughout history.
Maybe the success-in-school/success-in-life rule of thumb works for 90% of the population. If it can’t be reliably applied to individuals at either end of that bell curve, what’s the value in applying an minimum GPA absolute requirement? Applying the rule of thumb, you’re guaranteed that a certain percentage of the very best candidates will never get a job with your firm.
There are many reasons why someone might fail to do well in school. Sometimes the reason is related to a lack of intelligence or drive. However… perhaps what drives the individual occurs outside the academics continuum. Perhaps a psychological condition or events of great importance have affected their priorities, and they have a set of values that varies from the culturally-expected “norm”. Perhaps they are haunted by memories of abuse and feelings of self-loathing. Maybe they just don’t take tests well.
A GPA score clues you in on none of this - it’s like trying to judge the speed of a car from a photograph. Certain professions will always require certified skills, but don’t look at “general performance” scores as an indicator of whether a person will “be successful”.
Patrick:
Good point!
Can’t agree more that this is a complex analysis. That’s why very good companies will go beyond the school - and the GPA. However, most firms are in the business of minimizing risk with a selection, especially for those roles that will require a significant amount of training. Under those situations, a solid selection process will look at some (and many of the following):
GPA
SAT/ACT
School attended
Academic load (4 year or 5-6 year plan)
Extracurricular activities
Outside Employment (filters slackers)
Community/Charity activities (filters slackers)
Results from robust behavioral interview
Results from selection batteries
Quality of interview
robert edward cenek
http://www.cenekreport.com
I, too, agree with the premise of your argument. Where can I review studies, journal articles, etc on the subject of relationship between GPA (and other academic success factors) and employement success? Thanks, Jodey
Hi Jodey…I’ll look up some of the studies and pop you an email.