Is a high G.P.A the only way to get hired?

As a freshman accounting major, one of my ultimate goals is to go into my senior year already have a confirmed job as a result of an internship from the summer of my junior year.  Now that I am actually a junior, it is time to turn my dream into reality.  If I want to land an internship for the summer of my junior year, resumes, recruitment, and interviews are three areas that will become repeated themes of my junior year.  With that being said, two of the readings really sparked my attention. 

The first was the New York Times article about the role one's G.P.A plays in the employment recruitment process.  In this article, Mr. Johnny C. Taylor, senior vice president of HR IAC/InterActiveCorp, claims that in his mind, a student's G.P.A. is the single-most important factor in evaluating job-seekers.  He also claims that an applicant's G.P.A will be the best indicator of that person's performance in his or her beginning stages with the organization.  Granted that not all companies are like this, the number of companies who are is steadily increasing as times passes on.  According to the article, among those in favor of Mr. Taylor's idea are public accounting firms.  As an accounting major, this immediately raised a red flag, and I gained an even deeper interest in what this article had to say.

To start off, I completely disagree with Mr. Taylor's belief that a student's G.P.A. is the most important factor when evaluating that individual for employment.  I also disagree with his claim that no factor will predict early job performance than one's G.P.A.  First off, while I do believe that G.P.A is important, it is not nearly as important as it is being made out to be in the beginning of this article.  A G.P.A., in my mind, tells very little about a person.  A person with a high G.P.A is thought-of as smart, which is not always the case.  The recruiter does not know how an individual's grade point average got that high.  For all the recruiter knows, the student could have cheated on his or her work to get their G.P.A. that high.  Also, while intelligence is a big part of employment, it is not everything.  This is especially true for the accounting industry.  This field is one where the accountants have to constantly interact with clients to perform their necessary duties.  In order to do so, a person needs to have social skills.  Also, the accounting profession requires top notch organizational and time management skills.  If an employer bases their decision solely on a student's G.P.A, they do not know how the student ranks in terms of communication, organization, and time management.  A brilliant individual who possesses no social skills will be useless in the world of public accounting.  Instead, if an employer took into account other factors such as campus involvement, previous work experience, and leadership, they will have a clearer picture of the employee they are hiring.  These areas will show employers who a person really is.  By looking at these areas, a recruiter could learn about a person's social skills based on campus involvement, or about one's leadership abilities based on leadership positions they held in college.  Also, I feel that if intelligence and grade point average were the main points in the recruitment process, why does every accounting firm send you to training for the first few weeks?  If a person has a high G.P.A, shouldn't they know how to do what they're supposed to?

For the reasons I just mentioned, I disagree with Mr. Taylor.  Instead, I feel as though a student's G.P.A is their way of "getting their foot in the door" with the company they are interested in, especially since it is near the top of a resume.  Regardless of what the G.P.A is, it should spark an interest with the recruiter.  If it is high, they will want to read on to see the other areas of your resume.  Also, if one has a low grade point average and chooses not to put it, an employer will be curious to discover why, just as the article says.  The latter part of that statement alone is evidence that G.P.A is not everything when it comes to recruitment.  If it was, and a resume had no G.P.A listed, why would the article mention individuals who got interviews without listing their G.P.A. because it was sub-par?

 Finally, the beginning of the second article I wread also supports my claim that G.P.A should not be the only factor a recruiter considers when evaluating potential employees.  This beginning of this article, entitled "Personality Plus," tells the story of Alexander Nininger, a member of the 57th Infantry of the United States Army in the Philippines during World War II.  He graduated at the top of his West Point Class (obviously a high G.P.A), and enjoyed sipping tea in front of a fireplace. The article then goes on to say that Alexander becomes a "Rambo" type figure on the battle field; killing many enemies while suffering from several different wounds.  The article then gives a hypothetical example about assembling a ferocious fighting team that I think is great support for my beliefs that I stated earlier in this post.  If a general wanted to have the best fighters together on a team, he would not be concerned about what their G.P.A was at West Point, which contradicts Mr. Taylor's beliefs.  Instead, he may consider Alexander's G.P.A, but ultimately he would look at his previous military experience.  Alex's G.P.A may get his recruiters attention, but it certainly does not say enough about him for the recruiting general to make a decision.

Now I realize the context of article two is completely different from the context of article 1, and the relationship I made between the two is kind of a stretch, but I feel that the concept is still the same.  G.P.A does not tell everything about a person that a recruiter needs to know.  Ergo, it is not the most important criteria in the recruitment process.

Ok, well that is it for this post.  I could ramble about this subject for hours, and occupy a portion of your life that you will never get back, but I'll be considerate and stop here (haha). This is my first blog ever, so I hope I nailed it.  More importantly, I hope you enjoyed reading it!