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Is GPA Important When Applying to Jobs?

You’re searching for a new job, and you’re not sure if you need to include your GPA on your resume. If you excelled academically in school, you might be eager to find a way to work this in, but if not, you’d prefer to keep this number to yourself.

The truth is, companies seeking hiring support in Las Vegas are typically only interested in a candidate’s GPA if it’s their first job out of school. This can serve as an indicator for the passion and drive you’ll bring to the position since there isn’t much else to work with.

However, if you have a few years of work experience under your belt, it’s unlikely employers will ask — or even care — about your GPA. If you are in a place right now where you might need to share this key academic metric, don’t fret if yours isn’t the best.

For starters, you can break your GPA up into two parts — overall and major — if your school required everyone to take required core classes that you didn’t excel in. You can also give a more well-rounded glimpse of what you have to offer by focusing on these other areas.

Beyond the GPA: Four Ways New Grads Can Boost Their Resume

Internship Experience

For a recent graduate, internships are akin to professional experience. Whether you were paid for your work or simply earned college credits is irrelevant, because employers are only interested in what you learned in the position. Share key responsibilities and accomplishments as you would with any standard job.

Extracurricular Activities

Everyone doesn’t take the initiative to get involved in their school, but you did. Whether you played a club sport or wrote for the school newspaper, employers want to know what recent grads were up to in school. Taking part in an activity can allow you to gain valuable soft skills like teamwork, communication and problem-solving. Employers understand this, so they value candidates who really did something.

Side Projects

You learned a lot in school, and you did something with that knowledge before you even graduated. Whether you created an app or led a successful fundraiser for a cause close to your heart, employers will be interested in side projects you completed as a student. This is a great way to showcase your job-related skills and motivation levels.