Relevance of grades on job market

[TheWaves]

Hello everyone!

I have always been a lingerer on this forum (even through the application process!), but I now have a question I want to explicitly ask. I'm curious about how much you all think grades matter during a PhD program/once one is on the job market. Obviously, it is ideal to have a transcript that has mainly A grades (or perhaps some A- grades), but does it make a difference at all if a person has, e.g., one B+. In other words, if a person has a transcript made up of A grades, but has one B+, does this matter at all? I was always under the impression that grades do not matter that much once in a PhD program (They matter for scholarship applications and maintaining good standing in the department, but more important are one's dissertation, conference presentations, publications, etc). However, I was speaking with a colleague about this topic the other day, and he was under the impression that grades in your PhD program DO matter on the job market, and grades below an A- can raise red flags. 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts! 

[fuzzylogician]

The philosophy job market could be very different from what I know .. but I never needed to submit a transcript, not even once. In interviews and campus visits, no one brought up my coursework and no one asked about my grades. Ever. The only time when I needed to submit transcripts was for a couple of postdoctoral fellowships. This is for the North American market. Things are likely different in Europe and Asia. 

[trisha90]

In (continental) Europe I've got many times the "you are learning for credits, not for grades" advice, and when discussing university studies online (for political purposes, like the living conditions for students, combination university + part time job), I often have to explain that grades actually do matter in some situations.

 

(leave out the fact that the idea "let's publicly fund universities, but ignore the fact that students are skipping classes to earn 10% of that" is just stupid)

[Apogeee]

1 hour ago, TheWaves said:

Hello everyone!

I have always been a lingerer on this forum (even through the application process!), but I now have a question I want to explicitly ask. I'm curious about how much you all think grades matter during a PhD program/once one is on the job market. Obviously, it is ideal to have a transcript that has mainly A grades (or perhaps some A- grades), but does it make a difference at all if a person has, e.g., one B+. In other words, if a person has a transcript made up of A grades, but has one B+, does this matter at all? I was always under the impression that grades do not matter that much once in a PhD program (They matter for scholarship applications and maintaining good standing in the department, but more important are one's dissertation, conference presentations, publications, etc). However, I was speaking with a colleague about this topic the other day, and he was under the impression that grades in your PhD program DO matter on the job market, and grades below an A- can raise red flags. 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts! 

It's possible that Philosophy is different from my experience, but I have only had to provide transcripts for academic jobs, such as Kaplan, and work in schools and colleges. And even so, a B here and there doesn't matter. Just do your best in all of your classes. What did your advisor say when you asked them? And this is a very interesting question, so I am going to be watching to see what other answers you get. Let's say the A- does raise red flags: what would you do about it? Is there anything you could do? I would guess all you could do is make the most of the rest of your portfolio. 

[rising_star]

One B+ isn't going to matter. I honestly don't know why academic jobs even bother asking for your transcript but that's a separate issue...

See also: 

 

[maxhgns]

7 hours ago, fuzzylogician said:

The philosophy job market could be very different from what I know .. but I never needed to submit a transcript, not even once. In interviews and campus visits, no one brought up my coursework and no one asked about my grades. Ever. The only time when I needed to submit transcripts was for a couple of postdoctoral fellowships. This is for the North American market. Things are likely different in Europe and Asia. 

Having actually been on the philosophy job market (in North America, the UK, continental Europe, and elsewhere) this past year, I can definitively say that quite a few jobs want to see your transcripts (often including UG). The extent to which they matter is unclear, however. I don't think they matter much unless they're notably bad.

The exception is for grants and other competitive fellowships (e.g. SSHRC). At that level, your doctoral grades play into the committee's assessment of your capabilities, and they're usually pretty upfront about that in their descriptions of the evaluation process.