-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Adults of Era, does your academic performance growing up correlate with level of professional success?
- Thread starter ToddBonzalez
- Start date
I was a shit student in college, but having had realized that, I've hustled hard as a working professional ever since.
Skidded by up until high school, got past my "I'm smart but lazy phase" (there's no such thing as meaningfully smart but lazy), did decently in college. The fact that I managed to survive in the industry past the five year mark without getting stuck at the associate developer level means I am doing pretty well for myself.
The thing about college (at least when it comes to programming), is that having a 4.0 just means you're really good at the bare minimum. If you want to be a game programmer, your undergrad degree should at most count for about 10% of your knowledge base.
The thing about college (at least when it comes to programming), is that having a 4.0 just means you're really good at the bare minimum. If you want to be a game programmer, your undergrad degree should at most count for about 10% of your knowledge base.
UK here, left school at 16 and went straight into a IT job at HSBC. 22 years later and I'm earning just over 6 figures.
Lots of self teaching and certificates earned along the way but no official further education.
Lots of self teaching and certificates earned along the way but no official further education.
Eh, I guess it depends on what part of academics you refer to and how you define professional success.
Up through high school I did pretty well (top quarter-ish, but not exceptional). Went into a good state school with scholarships and the like and preceded to fail out due to being unprepared for the rigors of college — American high school is a joke — and changing my major multiple times.
Worked for a bit, figured out what I wanted to, went back to uni, made good grades, got my degree, and now I make good money and fall in the upper tax brackets, but still just a cog in the machine. It's comfortable, but not cushy.
Happy and grateful with where I ended up, but I don't know about the correlation. I have zero interest in banging around the C-suite or anything and my professional aspirations skewed towards "Not hating my job, make decent money".
Up through high school I did pretty well (top quarter-ish, but not exceptional). Went into a good state school with scholarships and the like and preceded to fail out due to being unprepared for the rigors of college — American high school is a joke — and changing my major multiple times.
Worked for a bit, figured out what I wanted to, went back to uni, made good grades, got my degree, and now I make good money and fall in the upper tax brackets, but still just a cog in the machine. It's comfortable, but not cushy.
Happy and grateful with where I ended up, but I don't know about the correlation. I have zero interest in banging around the C-suite or anything and my professional aspirations skewed towards "Not hating my job, make decent money".
I dunno, I was a B average student in high school, dropped out of college, and now I make a livable wage at a fairly easy job that has a lot of downtime. Considering I coasted through school into a job I can coast through, seems about right to me.
Kind of. I was top 10% pre-college, 3.5 gpa in college. Now I'm 30 and have a tech job that pays 85k. So I think that's a reasonable correlation of grades to salary. However I got there in a roundabout way - for college I went to art school, and for years made under 15k per year, until I lucked into my current career path which I had zero experience for by randomly meeting an old friend who gave me a job rec.
No. Not really. I was a pretty smart kid I'm high school. More in college. I still do (I think?) good work and work hard. But I completely lack the a-type personality that I see do well in the work place and it basically means I'll never move up. I've... basically given up on it at this point. I just get steam rolled in meetings by guys mansplaining to me the same thing I just told them, and... I'm a guy. I spend my nights learning more hoping to just start my own business someday. It will probably never happen.
above average student, pisspoor professional life (like i'm good at my job but i'm enormously and blatantly overqualified for it, and i have a weirdly difficult time getting interviews in one of the fields i got a degree in)
Last edited:
Nope.
I graduated with a 4.0 from college and was valedictorian. I'm still working the lousy job I had before college. I've had no luck making a career change. I can't even get interviews, and I have no idea why.
I graduated with a 4.0 from college and was valedictorian. I'm still working the lousy job I had before college. I've had no luck making a career change. I can't even get interviews, and I have no idea why.
Selection bias, the thread.
All in my cohort have at least a four year degree, and a few have PhDs, we were all good students. There's no direct correlation of income with amount of education or academic standing, everyone is doing pretty well, except for one friend who developed severe mental issues. And income is not wealth, of course--divorce with kids will cut that income down pretty quickly.
All in my cohort have at least a four year degree, and a few have PhDs, we were all good students. There's no direct correlation of income with amount of education or academic standing, everyone is doing pretty well, except for one friend who developed severe mental issues. And income is not wealth, of course--divorce with kids will cut that income down pretty quickly.
Did fairly terrible in high school due to class skipping, pot smoking and depression. Did 1 1/2 years of college for 3 years while working part time. Yes you read that right. Worked restaurant jobs for a few years. Working in IT now. Self taught. Worked on my own setting up point of sales systems in stores, doing data migration in offices when they upgrade to new systems, and small networking issues. I now work with my brother in law's IT company doing bigger scale projects like setting up/running network lines in new stores like Starbucks, managing dentist offices and general computer repair.
I think I more or less got lucky with the information and opportunities I was given. Mind you, I'm not doing amazing. Not even really doing that great, but I'm doing much better than I was working at dead end restaurant jobs. I can actually afford shit now. I can afford to lend people money which, while sounding annoying, feels pretty great. I know I can do better if I wasn't as lazy and more motivated for money.
I'm self taught in IT. There's a lot of resources out there to teach yourself but if anyone's reading this and has the opportunity, go to college. It's absolutely worth it with the right degree. I struggle even now because I don't have any real certification. I get by because my brother in law now vouches for me and he has a computer science degree.
I think I more or less got lucky with the information and opportunities I was given. Mind you, I'm not doing amazing. Not even really doing that great, but I'm doing much better than I was working at dead end restaurant jobs. I can actually afford shit now. I can afford to lend people money which, while sounding annoying, feels pretty great. I know I can do better if I wasn't as lazy and more motivated for money.
I'm self taught in IT. There's a lot of resources out there to teach yourself but if anyone's reading this and has the opportunity, go to college. It's absolutely worth it with the right degree. I struggle even now because I don't have any real certification. I get by because my brother in law now vouches for me and he has a computer science degree.
I was the kind of kind that goofed around in school and got mediocre to good results on average but from whom the teachers knew I could do a lot better. But untreated add made me see school as horrible institution. My last year teachers advised me not to go to university considering my grades but I went anyway and finished it. I got a degree in social sciences, which is interesting but not very specific in the job market, but I've always been able to land a job easily, albeit not the highest paying job, though I get by. I've set certain goals with what I wanted l, and until now, I've been able to realize them all.
I've come to realize though, that my strength lies in my creativity and that I don't work as well as I could in a normal working situation, so I am starting up my own company within now and a half year.
I've come to realize though, that my strength lies in my creativity and that I don't work as well as I could in a normal working situation, so I am starting up my own company within now and a half year.
Smart enough to get a degree in aerospace engineering. Not smart enough to get a job in engineering.
Gifted kid. Mostly top marks even among my class of other gifted kids. Got a little burned out by end of graduate school, mainly because of working part-time, family financial issues, and having to do co-op placements.
I just stock shelves now making average pay lol (part of this is autism/social anxiety issues).
Mostly doing fine! Own property, married, hoping to start family soon.
I just stock shelves now making average pay lol (part of this is autism/social anxiety issues).
Mostly doing fine! Own property, married, hoping to start family soon.
No. I did terrible in school through high school. I was friends with the nerdy kids and I liked learning, but I wasn't motivated. Went to a crappy college and worked for a year and decided to go to law school. Got into an ok law school based on my work experience but did terrible there as well because I was competing against much better students.
I ultimately ended up doing very well, but i worked my ass off in the real world and got some amazing experience. Partly luck and partly by learning how to sell myself.
So terrible in school, but I ultimately learned some tricks about the working world that was worth more than all my schooling.
I ultimately ended up doing very well, but i worked my ass off in the real world and got some amazing experience. Partly luck and partly by learning how to sell myself.
So terrible in school, but I ultimately learned some tricks about the working world that was worth more than all my schooling.
This thread generally says the worse at school you did, the better off you are.
I'm sure there's a really strong correlation between academic success and career success, but I don't think that is what really matters. Underlying that correlation is work ethic, and I think this is the most important thing that determines professional success. You can't get good grades without work ethic, but you could have work ethic and not get good grades. The differences there is interest and motivation.
Based on the people I grew up with and went to school with, it's a mixed bag. For me personally, I almost failed out of high school. I think I was more focused on social success and having fun, I did have a lot of fun so no regrets there. However, now I do extremely well for myself and work in a profession that nobody in school would have thought I'd be able to get into and excel at. I got very lucky in the way certain events turn out in my life and I eventually grew up and got my act together, but some of my friends who had similar prospects in high school ended up where you would expect them to be; dead, in jail, or struggling to earn a decent living. Others got really good grades and went to really good colleges, but more than a handful of people who seemed to be on the right course later turned to drugs in college. It seemed like their lives were going in the wrong direction when I last knew them. I don't know what happened to most of these people because I lost touch with them a long time ago but I imagine some of them straightened out and others fell further down the hole. I do know that a few of my other high school friends, who also didn't have good prospects, are making a good living now.
Based on the people I grew up with and went to school with, it's a mixed bag. For me personally, I almost failed out of high school. I think I was more focused on social success and having fun, I did have a lot of fun so no regrets there. However, now I do extremely well for myself and work in a profession that nobody in school would have thought I'd be able to get into and excel at. I got very lucky in the way certain events turn out in my life and I eventually grew up and got my act together, but some of my friends who had similar prospects in high school ended up where you would expect them to be; dead, in jail, or struggling to earn a decent living. Others got really good grades and went to really good colleges, but more than a handful of people who seemed to be on the right course later turned to drugs in college. It seemed like their lives were going in the wrong direction when I last knew them. I don't know what happened to most of these people because I lost touch with them a long time ago but I imagine some of them straightened out and others fell further down the hole. I do know that a few of my other high school friends, who also didn't have good prospects, are making a good living now.
Last edited:
I don't really buy that "work ethic" has much effect on success in career. It might make a difference between someone who bounces between lots of low paying jobs and someone who holds a steady one.... that's sorta the definition of work ethic. But actually being successful in a career, i.e. getting into senior management, having lots of impact, those things the confluence of a thousands factors.
Everywhere I've ever worked, the "Just work hard and you'll make it" sales pitch really really quickly turns into "You can't just do a great job and expect to be promoted" when performance reviews roll around.
Yeah, that's fair. I agree, getting ahead in a career is much more than just work ethic. And maybe personality and luck play a bigger role. And maybe work ethic is the wrong word. Maybe it's motivation or resilience; it's that something that keeps driving you forward to achieve your goals. Whatever that is, that's probably the most important thing.
I was an average student, and now I'm coasting by without any sense of direction. I could be doing a lot worse things than working 5 days a week, so I'm thankful for where I'm at.
Every aspect of my childhood showed how shitty of an adult I would become.
I hoped all through junior high and high school that I would be different as an adult and my depression and anxiety tell me otherwise
I hoped all through junior high and high school that I would be different as an adult and my depression and anxiety tell me otherwise
Yea. Absolutely.
My success in high school got me a fully paid scholarship for undergrad. I graduated top of my class and that got me in to my grad school of choice with a fully paid tuition and a more than livable stipend. My doctoral research led to interviews at the companies I liked and eventually the exact job I always wanted.
My success in high school got me a fully paid scholarship for undergrad. I graduated top of my class and that got me in to my grad school of choice with a fully paid tuition and a more than livable stipend. My doctoral research led to interviews at the companies I liked and eventually the exact job I always wanted.
Yeah. I'll agree with you there. I've been talking to my wife about that a bit lately. If I work hard on a project and then at the end someone says "nah I don't think we want to do that" it just kinda destroys me. I lose motivation to ever do it again. "Why try if they're just going to not care". If the same happens to her it invigorates her. She's either "I'll show you how great X is and then you'll regret not doing it" or "I'll do even better on the next project so that I win next time!".
So.... basically despite working hard on shit, and someone probably being kinda impressed that I did something neat, I still manage to fuck myself over in the end. I don't usually really call that work ethic, but maybe it is, and maybe I suck at it.
It depends a lot of the field of work you pursue, there are fields that are really structured and good academics will help you land great job opportunities and continue to help you develop further. Then there are many new fields that are a much more open and there you find much more variance between how well you did academically and the job you have.
I feel for IT-related jobs it almost does not matter what you did in university it is all about what you can deliver now so you have tons of people who did not deliver at University but now are thriving at the professional level.
I feel for IT-related jobs it almost does not matter what you did in university it is all about what you can deliver now so you have tons of people who did not deliver at University but now are thriving at the professional level.
In my case no. I was just pushed through the system. I never took grade 7 and only spent 3 months in grade 8 (my math and english skills were not upto high school standards when I started grade 9).
And yea skipping two grades had bad after effects later on. I ended up teaching myself calculus, advance functions (university level grade 12 math in Canada) and then I taught myself coding.
Now I make good money as a software dev, but yea it was a rough road.
And yea skipping two grades had bad after effects later on. I ended up teaching myself calculus, advance functions (university level grade 12 math in Canada) and then I taught myself coding.
Now I make good money as a software dev, but yea it was a rough road.
A friend of mine had an abysmal GPA in high school, but took college seriously with average grades and is doing really well. He flunked a basic programming course and is now a software engineer. The guy had a good work ethic, though, which was evident during the time we worked together in retail, but he also made a lot of connections over time which is what got him his first job.
I took my entire school career seriously and did above average (consistent 3.0-4.0 GPA), and am doing really well with my career. I graduated college with a good paying IT job (no connections for help), and have been moving up pretty quickly in just five years.
I took my entire school career seriously and did above average (consistent 3.0-4.0 GPA), and am doing really well with my career. I graduated college with a good paying IT job (no connections for help), and have been moving up pretty quickly in just five years.
The shit I learned in school was worthless, so no.
I just don't learn well in the traditional way.
I just don't learn well in the traditional way.
This is basically the story of me and a few close friends from high school.
Basically everyone assumed we wouldn't be shit
Now we are all the shit.
I flunked out of college twice btw op
6 figure earner now, money is a hell of a motivator.
Not really. Busted my ass in grade school to get into a top tier public school. Senioritis was already burning me out those last few quarters in high school due to taking all AP classes.
When I got to college I had too much freedom and got lazy and distracted too easily. The internet was also too good so played too many fpses lol Switched majors half way through and took 5 years to graduate. I sort of lucked out and leveraged my student job into a full time it support position.
I make ok money and have job stability and no student loans but i kind of feel less successful than a lot of my peers who had worse grades, went to less prestigious colleges, etc. Know a lot of doctors and people in the tech industry. I'm lucky my parents aren't you typical Asian parents otherwise I'd probably feel shame 😂
When I got to college I had too much freedom and got lazy and distracted too easily. The internet was also too good so played too many fpses lol Switched majors half way through and took 5 years to graduate. I sort of lucked out and leveraged my student job into a full time it support position.
I make ok money and have job stability and no student loans but i kind of feel less successful than a lot of my peers who had worse grades, went to less prestigious colleges, etc. Know a lot of doctors and people in the tech industry. I'm lucky my parents aren't you typical Asian parents otherwise I'd probably feel shame 😂
Got kicked out of middle school because all I did was smoke weed and skip classes, and now i'm a licensed physician, graduated with honors. So uh, take from that what you will.
Absolutely not. I mean I did well at every job I had so far, but so far a successful life this ain't
mine probably does. I graduated with just a relatively average GPA and have a very solid job but it isn't anywhere near the top. I'm being paid exactly what I should be based off the average salary in my industry and years of experience essentially.
not in the slightest. the secret of college for most people (a few exceptions in very, very, very specific fields) is its (1) getting that mental discipline to do shit you really don't want to, do it in the time you are supposed to, and learn how to work with others to get that stuff done (2) networking and building social connections plus the techniques to participate in all that society kinda stuff.
Thats really it, the guys who go to Harvard don't really learn anything better than the person who goes to a local community college, they just make friends with people who will go on to lead industries and governments and its extremely useful making those friendships. Thats really the big reason why you want to get into a top school, cuz all the people around you will be great for future networking.
Thats really it, the guys who go to Harvard don't really learn anything better than the person who goes to a local community college, they just make friends with people who will go on to lead industries and governments and its extremely useful making those friendships. Thats really the big reason why you want to get into a top school, cuz all the people around you will be great for future networking.
I performed exceptionally well in academia. This has not correlated with professional success. However, that was due to severe mental health issues.
I barely made it out of high school, struggled to get by with average marks in undergrad, and now still struggling in medical school. If I eventually make it out then I'll be doing great but it's been a tough ride. I think my severe social anxiety has played a small part but I try not to use that as a reason.