I made the mistake of passing similar information on to my son when he was 11 and stressing over his what they call GCSE exams here in the UK. They hit you with about 15 at once over three days. Even I wouldn’t know how to study for them. “Alex,” I finally said, “Relax. No one in your whole life, ever, ever ever EVER will ask you what you got on your geography test when you were 11. None of it matters!!” And Alex stopped studying and got kicked out of school at 16. Perfect Parenting Inc.
I had terrible grades at university, but being poor saved me. I worked three part time jobs to pay for my expenses and that’s all the potential employers cared about. During the interviews, not one asked about my grades.
I think learning to show up on time and work hard interests employers much more than any English Lit grade or exam result.
It only starts to *not* matter years later. It *might* matter during college (if you're eager and adventurous and apply for internships, etc, and they have minimum requirements), and slightly after, if you're applying for that first job and all you've got on your resume' is a degree, a GPA, and 2 years in the fry pit at Big Al's French Fries and Questionable Sliders Emporium.
Experience and connections matter, and being able to deliver when the time comes. Can't agree more than the grades then don't matter, but I'd rather drive on a bridge designed by an engineer with a 3.9 GPA than someone sporting a 2.9 GPA.
Are you in my living room or something? I’m literally telling my daughter that as she takes the SSAT to try to get into prep schools and my son as he is trying to get into college.
No! You * should * care about your grades. You are correct that nobody else will care, especially for old-guy you who already has a great resume. But you need to care about grades to put in the effort, and the effort *will* benefit you. Ideally, you should only care about the grades that are fair, that rate the quality of what you do. But, in fact, for this you also need to care about the unfair grades, by the liberal professors who grade you down for accuracy and orthodoxy. They need to sting you. But you musn't give up, either. It's hard. . .
I tell my students all the time that no one will ever ask them what grade they got in my 10th-grade American Literature class, and most, if not all, of them will not even remember my name. I follow that up with, "But, if you continue to hand in shoddy work, you might end up teaching 10th-grade American Lit, and you don't want that, do you?" Then I just stare at them, dead-eyed, in catatonic despair. They stare back, wondering what "shoddy" means. Then one of them will raise their hand and ask, "Can I go to the bathroom?"
I made the mistake of passing similar information on to my son when he was 11 and stressing over his what they call GCSE exams here in the UK. They hit you with about 15 at once over three days. Even I wouldn’t know how to study for them. “Alex,” I finally said, “Relax. No one in your whole life, ever, ever ever EVER will ask you what you got on your geography test when you were 11. None of it matters!!” And Alex stopped studying and got kicked out of school at 16. Perfect Parenting Inc.
I had terrible grades at university, but being poor saved me. I worked three part time jobs to pay for my expenses and that’s all the potential employers cared about. During the interviews, not one asked about my grades.
I think learning to show up on time and work hard interests employers much more than any English Lit grade or exam result.
It only starts to *not* matter years later. It *might* matter during college (if you're eager and adventurous and apply for internships, etc, and they have minimum requirements), and slightly after, if you're applying for that first job and all you've got on your resume' is a degree, a GPA, and 2 years in the fry pit at Big Al's French Fries and Questionable Sliders Emporium.
Experience and connections matter, and being able to deliver when the time comes. Can't agree more than the grades then don't matter, but I'd rather drive on a bridge designed by an engineer with a 3.9 GPA than someone sporting a 2.9 GPA.
True ... but this is one of the many life-lessons we all have to learn on our own in the School of Hard Knocks.
Besides, "Timing," as the saying goes, "is everything" -- if you knew back then what you know now, you might have gotten to where you are.
Of course that last line should have read "... you might NOT have gotten to where you are."
The fingers ... sometimes they outrun the brain -- especially at this point in life.
Are you in my living room or something? I’m literally telling my daughter that as she takes the SSAT to try to get into prep schools and my son as he is trying to get into college.
No! You * should * care about your grades. You are correct that nobody else will care, especially for old-guy you who already has a great resume. But you need to care about grades to put in the effort, and the effort *will* benefit you. Ideally, you should only care about the grades that are fair, that rate the quality of what you do. But, in fact, for this you also need to care about the unfair grades, by the liberal professors who grade you down for accuracy and orthodoxy. They need to sting you. But you musn't give up, either. It's hard. . .
Love it, Rob!
I tell my students all the time that no one will ever ask them what grade they got in my 10th-grade American Literature class, and most, if not all, of them will not even remember my name. I follow that up with, "But, if you continue to hand in shoddy work, you might end up teaching 10th-grade American Lit, and you don't want that, do you?" Then I just stare at them, dead-eyed, in catatonic despair. They stare back, wondering what "shoddy" means. Then one of them will raise their hand and ask, "Can I go to the bathroom?"