Chances of being hired for a job.

[king03]

I will go straight to the point, I have failed 9 subjects and I am in my third year in college. I am taking up information technology and right now I kind of feel down because I'm worried that no one's going to hire me, during my 2nd year in college I felt bored with my course so I became lazy which I totally regret right now. Are there still hopes for me? You know everyday I encourage myself to leave the past behind and start working hard again but for me I feel like it's the end of the world and sometimes this bothers me a little. What are your thoughts? Do I still have a chance to be hired in a certain IT field?

[Narue]

The question is binary in the majority of cases: you either have a degree or you don't. Your GPA and grades in the process of obtaining a degree are largely irrelevant after graduation.

[ChrisHunter]

Maybe you need to take a year out to figure out what you want to do, a couple of friends got bored with collage, took a year out and came back refreshed and excelled or are excelling at collage or university. As for the implacability you've not got a good chance of getting a good job. HOWEVER ! that doesn't mean you can't if your look hard enough and are determined, there are some places in the UK that offer apprenticeships with a good chance of a job at the end that may be a good idea to look into.

[king03]

I am enrolled in a school that is internationally recognized because it is ABET Accredited meaning the same as quality of education in the U.S. I'm in Mapua Institute of Technology and it is the leading school of I.T. here in the philippines. But still I wonder if this is going to save my butt.

[king03]

Maybe you need to take a year out to figure out what you want to do, a couple of friends got bored with collage, took a year out and came back refreshed and excelled or are excelling at collage or university. As for the implacability you've not got a good chance of getting a good job. HOWEVER ! that doesn't mean you can't if your look hard enough and are determined, there are some places in the UK that offer apprenticeships with a good chance of a job at the end that may be a good idea to look into.

Thanks friend, though I don't have thoughts of taking a year off in school because I think I'm all refreshed now. Though I am still bothered with the way I performed during my first and second year, I am striving again and right now my focus has increased a lot I can say. For me I'll just waste a year, whereas when I just continue then I'll be saving some time right?

[hericles]

I've never had my actual grades examined by an employer (it may be different in the states), the fact that I can show them a degree has been enough. You can always make yourself stand out from the crowd by doing your own projects and showing them to potential employers or join an open source project and be active in it. There are plenty of ways to show you know your stuff.

[king03]

I've never had my actual grades examined by an employer (it may be different in the states), the fact that I can show them a degree has been enough. You can always make yourself stand out from the crowd by doing your own projects and showing them to potential employers or join an open source project and be active in it. There are plenty of ways to show you know your stuff.

so you've said your "actual" grades weren't examined, then what did they examine instead? Sorry if I ask too much I just want to stop this paranoia I'm having right now...

[ChrisHunter]

I think herciles means their employers didn't want to know what classification of degree they had as long as they had a degree.

Try not to think about failing, just enjoy what your doing and try your best, otherwise you'll get bogged down by self doubt and it may affect your work.

[stultuske]

personally, I don't think any employer will go look at the exact grades.
sure, they might check on whether or not you had honours or not, but going over every exam, to check every grade for each candidate ... that would get a lot of overhead for their part.

for a lot of jobs, your degree will show that you are capable and willing to learn. it's impossible to see everything in college (or university) and your employer will be expecting you to keep up with the latest technologies.

a degree will prove to your (future)employer, that you have a solid foundation on which to build your carreer, it means you do have a good understanding of the basics and just that bit more. with some more years to achieve it, it might be a bit harder to find a job, but it sure won't be impossible.

if however you choose to continue college and don't end up with a degree, employers might consider that as a "sign" that you've been goofing off, without a real interest in doing some effort to getting the degree.

[jwenting]

I am enrolled in a school that is internationally recognized because it is ABET Accredited

noone outside your own country recognised that "international accrediting" scheme.
Just another "certification" that's given to a company by itself to make it appear more than it is I'm afraid.

[jwenting]

personally, I don't think any employer will go look at the exact grades.
sure, they might check on whether or not you had honours or not, but going over every exam, to check every grade for each candidate ... that would get a lot of overhead for their part.

it's also utterly irrelevant. Noone cares whether you got a 7 or a 9 (B or A) for music tuition or English literature when you're applying for a software development function.

The majority of junior jobs are created under the assumption that the candidate who gets the job knows nothing whatsoever except how to learn and learn quickly.
Having a degree from an established college or university (is supposed to) shows that, which is all that matters.

Walk into any group of programmers and the majority won't even have degrees in CS or SE. You'll find mostly physicists, biologists, the odd mathematician or economist, a few rare concert musicians (yes...), and chemists.

[king03]

I've never had my actual grades examined by an employer (it may be different in the states), the fact that I can show them a degree has been enough. You can always make yourself stand out from the crowd by doing your own projects and showing them to potential employers or join an open source project and be active in it. There are plenty of ways to show you know your stuff.

Ok sir, now what project do you think will be wise to do at this point, something that a lot of employers are looking for? Or if you can't exactly tell, can you at least give me like a category of that project, should it be business related, gaming related or something? I'm curious...

[jwenting]

what about actually doing your homework so you have a chance of fixing those failing grades and actually graduating?

[stultuske]

there is not something like 'a project that a lot of companies are looking for'.
every employer sets other restrictions, guidelines and expects you to use other techniques (sometimes even the kind of framework that is totally unfit to do the job, but hey, they paid for it ... )
just because a project has the same name and technical analysis, don't expect the coding in two companies for it to be identical.

jwenting is right. if you have time to take on a project that should be big enough to impress some recruiters, you have no doubt time enough to prepare yourself for your exams and actually pass, so you'll be able to convince those same recruiters you'll be able to learn the techniques and frameworks they'll allow you to use.