Confession: I can't tell you the GPA of a single person who ever worked for me. 🤯
Not at LinkedIn, not at Khan Academy, not at The Job Insiders.
But I CAN tell you the stories they told me in their interviews - about the awesome stuff they did on their own.
So does GPA matter for jobs? Less than almost every parent thinks. And with AI flattening resumes into look-alikes, the stuff your kid does outside the classroom matters more right now than it has in years.
I got to dig into all of this with the wonderful Dr. Joe Sebestyen on the SupportED Learning Podcast, and I want to unpack it here for every parent (and student!) who's still treating that GPA like it's the whole game.
Does GPA Matter for Jobs? Less Than You Were Taught
Here's the counterintuitive part. What got your kid INTO college was the grades. So it's natural to assume the grades are what get them OUT of college and into a great job.
But once they're in, grades start to matter a lot less. And it's not just me saying that.
In NACE's Job Outlook 2024 survey, only 38.3% of employers said they still use GPA as a hiring screen - way down from five years earlier. And when employers had to choose between two equally qualified candidates, the top deciding factor was internship experience.
In other words, the people doing the hiring are telling us exactly what they care about. It's what you've DONE.
What Hiring Managers Actually Remember
Think about it from the hiring manager's side of the table.
They've got a stack of candidates who all have solid grades from solid schools. On paper, a lot of them look the same - and in the age of AI-generated resumes, they look even MORE the same.
So what breaks the tie? The story.
When I ask "What have you done before?" in an internship interview, the worst answer is "nothing." The best answer sounds like this:
Here's everything I've already done on campus - imagine what I can do for you!
That's the candidate I remember a year later. Not their 3.7 vs. 3.8. The club they started, the event they ran, the thing they built because nobody told them they couldn't.
And there's a phrase all my hiring friends keep using right now: high agency. It means you think for yourself and go out and do stuff in the world. It's the one thing AI can't do for you, which is exactly why it's become the thing employers want most.
The Club Ladder: Join, Run, Start
So instead of asking your college kid "How are your grades?", here are the three questions I'd ask instead. Think of them as a ladder - each rung builds a better story than the last.
Rung 1: Are you JOINING clubs? This is the starting line. Pick one or two groups tied to something they actually care about - a professional club, a student newspaper, a volunteer group, a hackathon team. Showing up consistently is the first proof point.
Rung 2: Are you RUNNING clubs? Once they're in, the next step is responsibility. Treasurer, events lead, social media, recruiting new members. Now they have stories about leading people, hitting deadlines and solving real problems - the exact stuff interviewers dig for.
Rung 3: Are you STARTING clubs? This is the black-belt move. Starting something from scratch - a club, a nonprofit, a little business, a website - is the clearest possible signal of high agency. And it doesn't have to succeed! Some of it will fail, and that's GREAT, because they're learning by doing.
And here's the best part: a student can climb this ladder at ANY school. You don't need a fancy brand name to start a club. You just need the initiative.
Turn It Into Interview Stories (With a Little Help From AI)
Doing the stuff is step one. Being able to TALK about it is step two.
This is where AI is genuinely helpful - not for generating a generic resume (that's how you end up looking like everyone else), but for helping your kid find the stories in what they've already done. Here's a prompt they can paste into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini:
Here's everything I've done outside of class over the past year: [list clubs, jobs, projects, volunteering]. Turn each one into a short interview story with the situation, what I did and what happened as a result. Then tell me which story best shows that I take initiative, and what questions an interviewer might ask me about it.
Then have them practice telling those stories out loud. A tool like Yoodli can help them rehearse, so the first time they tell the story isn't in the actual interview.
(And if you want to see what happens to the resume side of things inside a company, check out my breakdown of who's really screening your resume.)
A Quick Note for Parents
I get it. I'm a parent too, and GPA is easy to measure. You can see it on a screen. You can compare it.
But what's easy to measure isn't always what matters most. So I'd love for us to start saying something different to our kids:
"I'm proud of you for your A's. And I'm ALSO proud of you if you took a B in that class because you used the time to start a nonprofit or run a fundraising campaign."
That's the combo that sets kids up for a great career - learning academically AND learning by doing. 🙌
The Bottom Line
The GPA gets them in the door of college. The stories get them in the door of a great job.
So this week, skip "How are your grades?" and ask: Are you joining clubs? Running clubs? Starting clubs?
And if your student wants to make sure their LinkedIn profile actually shows off all that awesome stuff, they can get a free LinkedIn profile makeover right here.
Parents, do you think GPA matters less than we were all taught? Let me know in the Comments! 👇