Graduate Hiring - Why good marks are not the only thing that matters?

Almost all organizations recruiting engineering graduates require minimum aggregate of 60% or more throughout the student’s academic years. Are marks a holistic criterion to judge a student’s caliber? I seriously doubt.

• I am not discounting the capabilities of a high scorer. Marks do reflect one important quality that every organization values – being result oriented.  But, organizations also need employees to possess analytical and critical thinking skills, communication and teamwork skills, and understanding of engineering and business practice.

• Organizations do not expect their employees’ to rote-learn their manuals and give a discourse. They need them to get down, get their hands dirty, think creatively and solve problems for their customers. That is where the MONEY is! Time and again, I have worked with students who have had backlogs or repeated a year but are brilliant when you give them a problem and a basket of tools.  How can organizations afford to miss such gems?

• Organizations have different profiles which demand different skill sets.  A sales engineer requires strong people skills while an R&D engineer must have critical problem solving skills. So, why should we evaluate them using a standard yardstick?

Go beyond marks. Conduct a project interview. Huddle 50 students in a class, make groups of three, give them a real world engineering problem and ask them to solve. The real test would be how the candidates rise up to the challenge and brainstorm multiple solutions, build models and communicate solutions persuasively.

Wouldn’t it be effective if we assess them on what they do instead of how well they rote! More on experiential evaluation in the next post . . .