Post-grad planning

Hey duders,

I'm a 21 year old currently going to Virginia Tech (Go, Hokies!). I have a year and half, maybe two years left before I get a degree in Business Information Technology. I have NO student loans, at all. My degree makes me a business technology consultant, I would work for a company like KPMG (a company that my father and grand-father both worked at), or in a variety of fields. The minimum starting salary is 70k (I have quite a few older friends who have gotten 90k out the gate). I doing well, not spectacular, but well. I'm a 3.2 gpa student and am on the school triathlon team. I have a current plan to help set me apart from the pack as far as recruiting is concerned so that I can get that sweet starting salary. This where I'd like some input.

the business school hosts two large and several small business fairs a year. companies visit weekly and I notice several things. Everyone competes on the same three things: gpa, internships, and other experience. My dad and grand-father told me that recruiters like these three things in a candidate, in general. But if you really want to set yourself apart, show your about it. Meaning that you're not just learning this but you can put your own spin on it and have the ability to look forward. I make a joke at these recruiting things where I go, "Is this the part where I tell you I'm an enthusiastic, hard-working, team-player?", after the hand shake and names. It kills without fail so I know that on some level, they know the clique and on some level know that everyone is running the same gammit. My plan is simple, start the rat race on a horse and ten steps ahead.

I took the time to make a trademarked document where I enumerate the path that consultancy positions should take up. I posit that companies in the very near future will have to come to grips with environmental and societal that they are wholly unprepared for. They will have to air so much dirty laundry that if they are caught with their pants down they will stand to lose money hand over fist. I go further by saying that if corporations can be held in legal regards as people, than they can be analyzed on a psychological level and have conscious and sub-conscious motivations. I go on to cover a means to effectively psychoanalyze a business and find hidden biases that wouldn't pass the scrutiny of an unrelenting public when it comes to social justice. I also have gone the extra step and have begun drafting equations to take social and environmental consciounability into account, letting you mathmatically prove that a project would be imperically harmful to undertake. Again all this is copy-written and you better bet your bottom dollar a recruiter will know that.

I hope that this will show, "Hey, this guy might have a 4.0 but I have vision and knowledge that surpasses his by leaps and bounds. Who's more valuable?". What do you guys think? Will this strategy work out in my favor? Will I at least get noticed and stand out if I have trademarked materials? Thanks for time duders, and have a great holiday.

TLDR: Would a recruiter think more of me if I had decent/good grades and trade marked material that was relevant to my industry?

This probably doesn't answer your questions, but when it comes to getting a job, not an internship or applying for college or anything like that, the most important thing is answering "What can you do?" Experience, abilities, and how you communicate and present who you are will land you a job more than do you having a 3.2 or a 4.0.

If somebody is looking for a programmer, they want somebody who knows how to program. If somebody is trying to hire a business analyst, they want somebody with a background in business. If you have what they are looking for, then all you need to sell yourself. Your interactions with who you're talking to will matter more than what your GPA is, especially since your GPA is still above a 3.0.

I say this both as somebody who has gone through the interview process multiple times and can point and say "That's the conversation that earned me this job", and also think back on my first couple of interviews out of college and reflect on how disastrous they were.

Have you ever seen the movie Big starring Tom Hanks? A fresh approach to any industry can make a huge difference in some recruiters' eyes. I think if you concentrate on simple ideas, you'll go a long way.

I also think that recruiters are looking for the 25-year recruit, not the '5 and done' one. You need to demonstrate your own personal character, how you handle hardships in your life, and give testimony about your care for other people. Of course you have your own accomplishments, like GPA and trade marked material, and that does matter because you need training in order to do your job well. So in answer to your question, recruiters will notice these items you have mentioned, but I would hope they also consider virtues like humility and compassion. If you want to stand out from the rest, my advice is to be humble in your approach and care about your neighbor. A recruiter who does not care about the character of the recruit is not doing their company any good.

From my experience GPA is something only on-campus recruiters care about. I'm a 2012 grad and has been in the software industry since graduation. My GPA is omit from my resume, I've talked to quite a few recruiters, not even one of them asked me what my GPA was, the 2 companies I've worked for never asked what my GPA was, the about a dozen companies I've interviewed at never asked what my GPA was.

If you're right out of school, recruiters want to see your GPA, period. Tech and management cconsulting companies will want to see a 3.5 or 3.8 since you don't have experience and that's one of the big things they can tell their clients. For companies outside of consulting, a "three and change" GPA is fine.

- 2011 industrial engineering grad

Having relevant work related to your field will always put you ahead of someone who is coming out of school with just a degree. People like seeing that you at least put in effort to show that you know something. And as far as GPA's go I am with @spitz1000, it seems to be a thing on-campus recruiters focus on. I majored in Comp Sci, got an internship and was hired right after graduation and I was never asked my GPA during the interview process. Before getting that job I talked with recruiters from other companies and none asked about it. Don't take this as a norm though. It's very possible they didn't ask because I had a lot of experience from my internship.