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Guest Post By Ted Williams

GPA and test scores matter too much. But let’s look at it from a company or admissions office point of view.

Without a clear track record of results, a company and admission office should choose the smarter candidate. And they do and so would you.

There is not enough other comparable information to be used to make a sound judgment. You just can’t tell that much from a student’s resume or interview because they haven’t had the chance to do that much. It is completely different than evaluating somebody when they are 35. Candidates can look the same on paper and in interviews. Therefore, the company or admissions office has the choice: if both applicants seem to have the same soft skills on paper and in the interview, why would they ever choose the less intelligent candidate?

I had a couple friends from high school, Sam and Jeremy, who both applied for jobs at Nike. Sam had a 3.86 GPA and Jeremy had a 3.41. Sam got the job. Jeremy loves Nike. He has worn their shoes since he was seven and has wanted to work for them since high school. He did all his college business class projects on the company and as crazy as it sounds, he reads about the shoe industry daily. Sam applied on a whim. Sam got the job, Jeremy got rejected.

No doubt intelligence matters, but I believe passion, likability, enthusiasm for the company, people skills, the ability to get things done, energy, and originality matter more. The issue is the hiring systems don’t take into account these items because they just can’t be measured. Therefore, a student’s only way to get this across is by becoming creative in the application process – which shouldn’t be the point.

GPA and test scores win, and they should, until companies find a way to get a glimpse into a student’s intangibles. The companies that find a way to do this will get better people. Period.

All five people that interviewed me at Google asked the same first question, “What Google products do you use and what is your favorite?”
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Ted Williams runs GrouperEye.com