[quote=CDMA ENG][quote=briansd1][quote=sdduuuude]I’m going to hire the guy who learned how to be social, friendly, persuasive, tactful, creative, etc. [/quote]
You make a good point. But our world is becoming a lot more objective in the sense that we want to see certifiable results and hard numbers.
How do you know that a person is creative and a good manager just looking at the resume and talking to that person for 1/2 hour? What are the objective criteria for your decision? And how do you justify hiring a 3.5 GPA over a 4.0 GPA?
And how do truly creative students with bad math skills and low GPAs enter the best universities? They can’t.
That facts are that test scores and published results are what count most. That’s why the houses in neighborhoods with the highest API scores are worth more money.
You can argue that students can succeed going to Clairemont high school all you want (and I would agree with you), but nobody will listen to you.[/quote]
I call sheniganns on both accounts.
My uncle was a Plant Manager for Motorola. He ran 147 acre facility in Mesa Az that no longer exist. He made it a point of hiring 3.0 GPAs over 4.0 everytime and NEVER just interviewed someone for a half an hour. This doesn’t happen in our field. I have spent as many as 12 hours interviewing for a upper echlon position. Anyway, in his many years of experience he found the following and made damn sure I knew this before I graduated.
1. 3.0 worked at thier job and played with things rather than just sit around and theorized
2. 4.0 wanted more money because they believe better grades warranted such as opposed to a stronger work ethic outside of academics
3. The 3.0s usually had better social skills which was a VERY necessary part of the job due to the fact the engineer would have to interface with anyone from a line work with high school education to the VP of Engineering in for a plant visit
4. Race was of no concern but he made sure that every team was well balanced after they were hired. He did not allow racial cliques in his work enviorment this lead to better team work and social skills
Of course these were his theories but they were the result of many years of observation in a real world envoriment.
So in this particular case 3.0s met the requirements better than the 4.0s. This is probably not the same case for working at Bell Labs or JPL but at the end of the day who employees more workers?
Secondy you cite that students coming out of CHS couldn’t possilable be as succesful as some of thier stronger school counterparts. Again Sheniganns… I went to school with a unique set of guys. Basically… We were all high school fvck ups. Exception being two brothers that came from a poor nieghborhood as immigrants with superior secondary backgrounds. Many of my friends graduated in Tau Beta Pi or Eta Kappa Gnu. These same guys did not even have High School diplomas or GEDs. I barely graduated myself but they went on to become leaders in thier respected fields. Why? Because they had strong work ethic and good social skills. We also graduate from a Top 30 Engineerig school. How? We snuck in through the back door… Community College… But we got lucky there… We went to the 5th best CC for math in science in the nation.
So desire for something better trumps schooling and good neigborhoods everytime.
And have the ability to interact with people is key.
Now that I think of it our valdictorian, who was on my senior design team, was the last one to get a job because he had no socail skill… BTW he was a white dude.
CE[/quote]
I know what you meant…
but but but but… I hope Motorola isn’t the poster child of how U.S. companies will end up…
Me thinks Motorola was a prime example of what happens when you let non-techie folks try to run a techie company (into the ground)…That, and what happens when you let really nerdy techies leave……. They end up at Apple making the iPhone.
Hey now, I know. I like MOT too. Excuse me, I meant MMI and MSI now. And like everyone on else in the business, I paid my dues there some time too.. But, I think we’re all hoping Sanjay Jha turns this puppy around.
