From a young age, I was taught that good grades matter. The harder you study, the better your grade. Up until my undergraduate career, it seemed that all that mattered was grades. However, I was first exposed to the idea that your GPA does not matter or is not an accurate representation of your ability when I first applied to my internship in my junior year. A mentor that was reviewing my resume stated that although it is important to put your GPA for your first internship, afterwards, it will no longer be relevant. Experience is what matters. How can I gain experience for an entry level position? As it turns out, while grades decrease in importance, the importance of extracurricular, academic research, and leadership positions gained importance. The most successful people I met at my company were the ones with wisdom, unique personalities, and high intellect. I believe that grades are important, but not as important as other qualifications when working in the industry. At the same time, a person who is not knowledgable of the field, presumably has poor grades, yet has the people skills of being a team leader, do they get the job or not? This is a question that requires human resource departments then to use GPA for internships or entry level positions.
Grades and GPA do matter to an extent-- if you are applying to graduate school, you need to have the grades to be accepted into a program. That academic experience is also a requirement for some jobs. I do think that it is reasonable for some companies to have a gpa cut off- to some extent, your gpa reflects your study habits, adaptability, punctuality, etc. If your gpa is very poor, it could indicate deficiencies in any of these things, and obviously it is important that you have these skills, in addition to practical skills like CAD, programming, etc.
Grades and GPA matter to an extent, but not as much as the skills you have, and if you can apply those skills to real-world applications. With that being said, in undergrad, when looking for an internship or job, most companies require at least a 3.0 cumulative GPA, and they don't really require you to have any previous experience. If you take relevant courses where you can learn skills to apply to an internship, focusing on learning those skills is more important than getting a good grade in those classes. However, when in undergrad and planning to apply to graduate school, having above a 3.0 GPA is ideal.
In graduate school, GPA doesn’t really matter, what matters is the projects you do and experience you gain whether it be from research, internships, or co-ops. Having that experience and those skills will set you apart from other students with perfect grades and no prior experience.
For me, personally, I believe that having above a 3.0 GPA, being involved in a few extracurriculars, having some work experience and projects done is the ideal balance to get into industry.
