Re: GPA on Resume

[Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET>]

>In my reply to Tim Altom, I was using fecundity in reference to having
>children.  I'm sure you knew
>that and were just trying to make a point about misconstruing things, right?

>Anyway, in reference to your full plate analogy, I have two children, one
>on the way, and I am
>maintaining a 3.75 GPA in a TCOM Masters program at Southern Tech.  What's
>the big deal?

>I would want a prospective employer to focus on my GPA, not my
>reproductive success.

>Mr. Altom uses his sig to identify himself as a Vice President of his
>company.  If he were to find
>himself in the position of interviewing a prospective, litigious minded
>employee, that person might
>misconstrue Mr. Altom's questions as a violation of fair hiring practices
>and sue the snot out of
>him.


I haven't been following this thread for a few days, and I see my time away
has allowed my original message to become garbled.

I said nothing in the original message about interviewing a prospective
employee, litigious or otherwise. I am aware of the law in such matters.
However, there is nothing in the law to prevent an applicant from mentioning
marital or reproductive status in a resume, which is what the entire message
concerned itself with.

Let me restate my position, just for the record. The grind of our real-world
work quickly separates the tough from the feeble. Having a high GPA doesn't
have any positive correlation to toughness (and usually has no positive
correlation to skills, either). But having a high GPA despite a heavy
workload, children, senile parents or other burdens immediately marks out a
candidate as being, at the very least, extraordinarily committed to a goal
in the teeth of setbacks and frustrations. Almost all of our people have
direct and constant contact with frazzled and disorganized clients,
requiring patience, courage and resourcefulness. A thirty-year-old mother of
preschool children who was forced back to college after a messy divorce and
still maintained a high GPA over four hard years of jobs, classes and
preschool has already proven she's tough. I see nothing wrong with pointing
out those things on a resume, in the absence of other work that demonstrates
the same attributes.



Tim Altom
Vice President
Simply Written, Inc.
Technical Documentation and Training
Voice 317.899.5882
Fax 317.899.5987