@ehBeth,
Apparently my wife did ask an HR person she ran into in a local major hospital if she knew about a job placement office at my wife's university and that person told her that she had never heard of such a thing for my wife's major.
@Brandon9000,
success and failure all the same
@sunyata,
sunyata wrote:
success and failure all the same
Not sure what this means. They're certainly not the same to my wife or me.
@Brandon9000,
There was originally a reference to the years of her degree, but we removed that. She has only ever had a few jobs, none skilled, and no one could figure out her age from them.
[/quote]
Well, if no one can figure her age from her resume, how can you claim age discrimination?
Question for all.
If a person has a 4.0 average, what is the problem with saying that in a cover letter and or resume?
That would certainly get my attention in a positive way.
Am I missing something?
@chai2,
Quote:If a person has a 4.0 average, what is the problem with saying that in a cover letter and or resume?
I think it all depends on the work and the work environment. If I am not mistaken one of the prime requirements of an x-ray tech is dealing with people, because they need to be processed fast and they are often jittery about the procedure and thus need to be managed. I think for this job leading with " I am so book smart!" sends the signal that they are not a people person, that they are not a good fit for this job. A foreign sounding name reinforces this idea. If there is nothing on the resume to indicate a good people person then bye bye resume without a callback.
BTW this is the 7th or 8th idea we have come up with for what the problem might be. Without reading the documents it is hard to narrow it down more, plus I am not in the industry so I am to a point guessing.
@hawkeye10,
Well, that's why you tell them you have a 4.0 average, and also give them concrete examples in your resume of how you communicate well and get on with people.
Obviously you're not going to put one and not the other.
@chai2,
Quote:Obviously you're not going to put one and not the other.
having not seen the resume and CL I am not so sure this is obvious, and in any case even for a position where book smarts at University matters (lawyer, scientist and so on) I dont think the pitch "you should hire me because I was a 4.0 at University) is going to be a very good pitch. A person as smart as all that should be able to figure out a better one. Too many hiring managers think like this
Quote:Your college GPA is a combination of several factors but isn’t really the best indicator of how you’ll perform in the working world. We all know that person with perfect grades who struggles socially or that person who couldn’t care less about school but seems to have no trouble making great things happen in their life. Book smarts and street smarts are very different things.
Take your classes seriously. Do the work. Show up and learn something. Meet your professors. But I’m here to tell you, the GPA you achieve in college doesn’t matter.
Here’s what does:
.
.
.
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/The_9_things_that_matter_more_to_employers_than_gr_8143.aspx#
So why do students and their parents care what kind of grades they get?
So I worked very hard and did something few people do, and I'm not supposed to talk about it?
I'm not talking about this womans specific resume, and if I'd been out in the work place a long time I'm not going to bother with listing my GPA.
If you're new in the field, the resume is the place to show your accomplishments including creativity, ability to communicate, intelligence and that you can apply it and much more.
It's that way for a person whose been around a while too.
If I had a 4.0, that's something I would be proud of, as proud as I would about letting a potential employer know about my many other talents by giving examples.
I like looking at resumes that talk about accomplishments, not just what they did on previous jobs (i.e. duties) A 4.0 GPA is quite an accomplishment.
@chai2,
I was just reading a recommendation to include your GPA is you are a recent grad, for like the first couple of years after graduation (hopefully you'll have a first job that will last that long, so I'm thinking put it on for the first job after graduation), especially if your GPA was high, like 3.8 or above.
After that, leave it off.
That goes along with what I was saying.
It's not the be all and end all, but if you're just starting out, and it's high, it's bragging rights.
@chai2,
Quote:It's not the be all and end all, but if you're just starting out, and it's high, it's bragging rights.
unless you dont have stuff on the resume that shows that you do more than hitting the books, because in that case it just makes you look not well rounded and proud of it.
@hawkeye10,
I would also like to point out that the advise to put a good GPA on your resume under "education" is not at all the same thing as putting your GPA in your cover letter. Your cover letter is your best pitch on why they should hire you, putting your GPA there comes off as proud and stuck up. If I then look at your resume and decided that it does not make you look like a well rounded person I am not likely to look at you further, I am going to conclude that you are a book worm who does not live in the real world.
First impressions matter. Your choice of sales pitches matters.
@hawkeye10,
Ok...I hate to say this...but, sometimes they're not looking for the best candidate...particularly the healthcare field. Sometimes they sort through the candidates that may be the most inexpensive to employ. I still want to know what her major is. I worked in Human Resources for a while a long time ago.
@Germlat,
Quote:but, sometimes they're not looking for the best candidate.
I have not used those words but I have talked about the importance of fitting in socially with the team. We have not mentioned it but being judged "over qualified" is one of the biggies for getting ignored in the hiring process, something to consider before telling a perspective employer how smart you think you are.
Quote:Sometimes they sort through the candidates that may be the most inexpensive to employ.
and sometimes they are looking for " good enough to do the job ok, and not so full of themselves that they are likely to be problems".
@hawkeye10,
That's not at all what I mean. Sometimes they literally want some b's and c"s rather than a's. Nothing to do with sociAl skills or personality.
@Germlat,
Germlat wrote:
That's not at all what I mean. Sometimes they literally want some b's and c"s rather than a's. Nothing to do with sociAl skills or personality.
right, sometimes they are looking for a lack of drive to move up, they want someone who will stick around for awile. Someone advertising how smart they are is not likely to stay put in a boring tech job.
Jesus, I never said put your GPA in your cover letter. Pay attention.
I also never said anything about putting in your GPA to the exclusion of all else, by not bringing up your social, organizanal and other skills, etc etc.
It doesn't matter if someone has worked one job, at a mcdonalds. They can find something to put in their resume that will show they did their best on that job, and went the extra mile.
Did they have perfect attendance, win an award, contribute their opinion with fresh ideas, come up with and implement a better way to do things?
It's not an all or nothing thing. You can be smart and socially skilled, the 2 aren't mutally exclusive.
And yeah, it's nice if someone is able to talk to and calm a patient with the jitters, but they also want someone who can understand, work with, trouble shoot and operate the necessary equipment. There's a lot more to it than just putting someone in front of a machine and pressing the go button.
Germlet, I understand what you're saying. You have to find the right person for the right job. However you also want people who can cross train, and learn new skills. There's no job anymore that you learn something, and it stays that way forever and ever amen.
@hawkeye10,
I hate to tell you...but sometimes the best qualified candidates are not employed .
@chai2,
chai2 wrote:If a person has a 4.0 average, what is the problem with saying that in a cover letter and or resume?
around here the thinking is that the actual marks don't matter - and that includes for academic positions
if someone won an award that reflected a high mark or class placement, that might go on a resume for an entry-level job
marks aren't what h.r. is told to look for. they are given lists of skills/abilities/traits and those are the words they screen for. that's why I suggested a few pages back to identify specific words used in ads for the particular role Mrs B is looking for.
h.r. is looking for ways to get rid of resumes. providing marks/gpa is an easy target. especially if the key words aren't in the resume.
@chai2,
chai2 wrote:
So why do students and their parents care what kind of grades they get?
no good reason I can identify
I can recall teachers back in high school telling us that no one would ever ask us what our marks were once we left. They were right.
edit: of course that doesn't mean I believed them and didn't try to get straight A's through university
