Please help -How much do A-level grades affect employment

pinkshoes

No one will give a flying ****about her a level grades.

She might find her lack of belief in her own ability will let her down though.

Voyager2002

Her 'A' level grades might be a problem if she were daft enough to train as a chartered accountant. But for anything related to her degree and MSc, no-one will have the slightest interest in them.

A more serious issue could be that she is doing her PhD part-time while apparently working in a shop. Unless she can do her PhD full-time (thus attending conferences and probably getting teaching experience and working on other projects in her Uni) she needs to get a day job related to Bio-Medical Science: even with a PhD, lack of appropriate professional experience could become a real problem.

[Deleted User]

Tell her to not worry, people won't give a damn when she's got an MSc. With a PHd people really, really won't care. And i've got a 2:2 (Genetics), an MSc and also got C's at A Level. It's not hindered my career at all.

BristolBob

duchy wrote: »

Why on earth would she bother ?
The problem isn't her qualifications -it's her self esteem

Within certain professions, graduate level (professional) jobs with the big players go through an automatic filtering system. Not having the correct A level grades (UCAS points) would lead to an automatic rejection, regardless of what you had subsequently done.

paulineb_2

I didnt do A levels, I did Highers, got a mix of Bs and Cs, but Ive gone on to do a degree and two post grads, no employer ever asked me anything about my Higher grades. And as someone said earlier, Cs at A level isnt scraping a pass, in Scotland the pass is a C at Higher and everything else is a fail, but different for A levels.

Also, I got my degree at a poly and one of my postgrads at a university that was previously a poly, however it was a subject that only that university in scotland do at that level and the department are very very highly regarded.

I also agree, self worth is also a massive issue.

saker75

It really depends on her career ideas. Unfortunately about 95% of the large graduate recruiters are prescriptive on A Level grades. You can have a PhD but if you don't have the A levels you won't get an interview. Realistically though there are ways around this. Also note that many of these employers do not accept retakes not exams completed in different periods.

JenIttels

It may affect her chances with some employers but not with others. That's what I've found but I'm in a slightly different industry. Either retake the A-levels or apply for jobs with companies who don't care about these things.

Also please don't let her give herself a hard time for getting Cs.

They're not anywhere near as bad grades as she thinks despite knowing that she could have done better. I know I could have done better at A-levels but I didn't and there's no point in giving myself a hard time - life is full of regrets but you need to not let them get you down!

In my experience, once shes a few years into her actual career A-levels will matter even less since she'll have real work experience and that matters much more as you pull away from education.

Paully232000

I wouldn't worry about the A-levels grades either. I am not sure which field your friend is looking at or her PhD is in but the most recent academic jobs I have applied for (both research and lecturing) have only asked for higher education awards to be given (so degree, masters, postgrad degrees, PhD) and never have i had to write my A-level results or GCSE results or been asked about them. I am sure it is just assumed that a degree, MSc, PhD is proof enough and getting a whatever grade in an A-level adds nothing to the application/applicant other than a route to higher degrees.

Denning.

Don't put A level grades down. I would be tempted to not even put down the subjects if you have BSc Msc and PHD to put ahead of it.

People spend too much time on education with there CVs. Education is used to tick a few boxes then it won't be looked at again, very very few people will care about your modules. So keep education brief and expand on the internships.

marybelle01

Denning. wrote: »

Don't put A level grades down. I would be tempted to not even put down the subjects if you have BSc Msc and PHD to put ahead of it.

People spend too much time on education with there CVs. Education is used to tick a few boxes then it won't be looked at again, very very few people will care about your modules. So keep education brief and expand on the internships.

I completely agree. I am a lot older and would be hard pressed to remember my A level grades! But honestly, in health / social care, nobody will be looking. In fact, with her background, that awful personal experience could be a positive asset in some fields of employment. If she gets past it. Which I agree with others here, is actually the problem. She has done astonishingly well to overcome her disadvantages, but she still feels a need to find faults with herself since nobody is now doing it for her. I would suggest that her university will have confidential counselling facilities and it may be a good idea to avail herself of them whilst she still can. They are often quicker to respond than standard NHS services, and the sooner she is in therapy, the sooner she can deal with her feelings. There is nothing wrong with admitting that ones background was less than ideal and that one has difficulty dealing with that. And, as I said, one day it may turn to her advantage, because she speaks from experience that is less than perfect, and could help others achieve what she has.