#36: Do Grades Really Matter For Getting A Job?
Will grades become irrelevant one day?
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How much do grades matter for getting hired?
This is a question that frequently confounds many university students when it comes to deciding on a career path after graduation.
Since young, we’ve been constantly told that good grades will lead us to a good school, career, and life. Bad grades, on the other hand, will be the end of the world.
With that, the thought of failing to secure a job because of mediocre grades can be daunting, especially when employers dictate a minimum grade requirement. It’s as if our grades were the only determining factor of success in life.
But mindsets are shifting.
When we polled readers on Instagram to find out if they think grades matter for jobs, 64% said “it depends”, while 14% and 21% said “yes” and “no” respectively.
This is quite intriguing, given that Southeast Asian students generally worry about how failure could affect their plans for the future. A 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study revealed that about 63-78% of students in Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand believed so.
So, how much exactly do university grades affect employment today?
We spoke to four fresh graduates from Indonesia and Singapore to find out.
Varying experiences
Rizky*, 23, has been searching for a full-time job in the sports and graphic design industries since graduating from university early this year.
Many Indonesian companies require fresh graduates to meet a minimum grade point average (GPA) requirement of 3.0, and his grades were sufficient to qualify him for interviews.
But this has not been enough.
“Some jobs require a bachelor's degree from a reputable university, and my university is not one of them.” He attributed this situation as a key reason why he hasn’t been able to secure a full-time job.
Vladimir Augustian Simbolon feels similarly.
The 24-year-old believes this is because most Indonesians tend to respect graduates from reputable universities who do well academically.
“I guess that it’s ingrained in our culture,” he says.
This is quite ironic, given the mismatch between qualifications and skills required by the job market, which has led to 10 million graduates being unable to find a job.
However, Vladimir’s experience securing his current account executive job at one of Indonesia’s largest media companies might highlight how hiring attitudes are shifting.
“While grades were vital, [the recruiters] also looked at my interview performance and ensured that my academic background fits the job requirements,” he said.
Meanwhile, when Singaporean banker Joyce* applied for her current job, she had to take 11 finance papers to demonstrate her ability during the recruitment process. The 23-year-old graduated from university in December 2023.
“The hiring manager then took note of my grades because she felt that I’ll be able to pass [the papers] quickly and learn on the job subsequently,” she shared.
Joyce further revealed that investment banking firms only look at resumes with top grades or vast internship experiences. The industry is known to be super competitive, with university students aiming for a perfect grade on top of stacking internships to secure their spot.
Darice Wong, 24, a programs executive at a Singaporean university, also noticed that competitive industries are known to eliminate those without a top grade during the screening process.
“Grades would also matter for specific professions like being a doctor, because who would trust a doctor who doesn’t know their basics?” she quipped.
However, when asked how she secured her current job, Darice revealed that a referral and her connections with current colleagues did the magic. But she felt “awkward” whenever recruiters questioned how her university major was relevant throughout her job-hunting process.
“My major in Economics and past experiences had no direct linkage to the jobs in design and product that I was trying to apply to,” she said.
Darice is part of a growing trend of graduates who are working in fields that are unrelated to their major. A 2019 survey found that only 47% of Singaporean graduates would work in jobs related to their degrees. The same is seen in Indonesia, where close to half of graduates are not working in fields relevant to their majors.
What explains this trend?
A Shift to Skills-Based Hiring?
According to a 2024 LinkedIn report, 67% of recruiters in Southeast Asia are beginning to assess a candidate’s skills and talent, thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence.
Another 2024 survey found that 45% of people believed that their organizations would face a skills shortage in the next 12 months, reflecting how the job market is increasingly valuing skill sets.
However, the fresh graduates that we spoke to felt that it was not so straightforward.
For one, Joyce felt that good grades would convince hiring managers that potential hires are willing to put in the effort to excel, while Vladimir believes that grades can demonstrate if the candidate possesses critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
“But employers should still assess a candidate based on their acquired skills, which should be more important than their grades,” Vladimir adds.
Meanwhile, Darice thinks that grades are still a useful indicator for employers in competitive industries to assess a graduate’s knowledge level. “Ideally there needs to be a certain bar or criteria, as it will not be wise to hire someone who has zero knowledge,” she said.
She adds that graduates who lack relevant knowledge of the job they’re applying for may not be hired even if they have internship experience. However, in fields like product design, grades shouldn’t matter that much as portfolios, experiences, and skill sets are more important.
“At the end of the day, it really depends on which career [or industry] you’re looking at,” she says.
On the other hand, Rizky feels that grades are important, but they shouldn’t be seen as the only dealbreaker during recruitment. University students may have struggled with challenges during their time in school, which could affect their academic performance upon graduation.
“Better grades don’t necessarily guarantee that someone would perform well or badly at work,” he says.
The Future of Careers
With graduates working in fields unrelated to their major, and employers open to hiring those with relevant skill sets over grades and qualifications, what does this mean for university students?
It’s probably a sign to rethink what we mean by having a career and what we can do to kickstart our journey.
Instead of stressing yourself out to secure full-time employment immediately after graduation, why not take up temporary or freelance jobs that would help us gain new skill sets and explore our interests?
In fact, such jobs are growing in popularity in Singapore and Indonesia. A 60% increase in temporary job offerings was reported in Singapore, while about 94% of Indonesian youths aged 21-26 are reported to have a freelancing gig.
On the other hand, if skills-based hiring is the way to go, can we be open-minded enough and pick up new skills that might be different from our university major?
If you’re feeling lost, why not take a discovery trip to another city and be inspired by what the locals are doing for a fresh perspective?
And if you have identified a problem or passion but can’t find the right place to work on it, perhaps starting a side gig that could turn into something meaningful would be the way to go.
At the end of the day, grades and even skills are not the only factors that define our lives. The question of whether grades or skills matter for jobs might even become irrelevant one day.
Industry trends will shift, technologies will evolve, and our society will continue to move forward.
What will matter is our ability to adapt to changes, be curious and innovative, and chart our paths that are distinct from our peers.
And that’s the future of having a career.
*Names changed for anonymity.
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