GPA Might Get You Noticed — But GitHub Gets You Hired
GPA Might Get You Noticed — But GitHub Gets You Hired : Students have been taught to chase grades for decades. The magic number, the mark of success, was 90% and higher. However, that attitude is changing in the quickly changing tech sector of today, particularly for developers and engineers.
Employers are more interested in what you’ve created, how you think, and whether you can translate knowledge into functional code than they are in what’s written down. Every freshmen should take heart from this true story.
A few years ago, I was recruiting for a junior developer position. I received two resumes on the same day — both from recent graduates.
- Candidate A: CGPA 9.2, top-tier engineering college, neat resume… but no projects listed.
- Candidate B: CGPA 6.8, modest background. But there was a GitHub link on the top corner.
I could’ve passed it over, like most recruiters do when they see low scores. But something made me curious — I clicked.
What I found impressed me.
Candidate B’s GitHub wasn’t flashy, but it was alive.
- ✅ A working REST API in Node.js
- ✅ A React-based weather app
- ✅ A basic e-commerce site
- ✅ Descriptive README files, clear commit messages, even project documentation
- ✅ A blog post explaining how he solved a tricky bug
It wasn’t just code. It was a story of curiosity, learning, and execution.
I wasn’t expecting a polished speaker when I called him in, and he wasn’t. He was hesitant in business formalities, uncertain of his English, and a little anxious. But his entire attitude changed when I brought up his projects.
His eyes glowed.
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He began guiding me through his REST API, sharing his struggles with error handling, the reasons behind his framework selections, and the lessons he learned from debugging asynchronous functions. He was speaking from experience rather than reciting definitions from books. I realized then that I wanted someone like this on my team He was hired by me.
3 Months Later…
This same developer was mentoring IIT interns in less than ninety days. He led the team, not just made it through.
Why?
Because he was able to do more than simply memorize. Not only could he write syntax, he could also debug. He was already capable of working independently, decomposing tasks, and producing outcomes.
What Freshers Must Understand
Too many freshers spend 4 years obsessing over grades, only to realize too late that real-world skills aren’t measured in percentages.
Here’s a simple truth:
A recruiter spends 10 seconds scanning your resume — and projects stand out more than marks.
If you can demonstrate:
- A side project that solves a real problem
- An app, API, or game you’ve built from scratch
- A GitHub repo that shows consistent commits, testing, documentation
- A blog post explaining your thought process or solution path
Then you’re already ahead of 90% of the crowd.
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The New Rules of Hiring (Especially for Freshers)
Here’s the modern reality of tech hiring:
| Old Mindset | New Mindset |
|---|---|
| GPA is everything | Projects show practical skill |
| Good college = good candidate | Good GitHub = capable coder |
| Learn theory first | Learn by doing first |
| Resume speaks for me | My code speaks louder |
Closing Thoughts
This isn’t just a story about hiring. It’s a message for every student who feels discouraged by their grades.
Your GPA might get you past an HR filter. But when I sit across from you, I care about something else:
- What have you built?
- What problems have you solved?
- How do you approach bugs, learning, feedback?
The world is changing. The hiring mindset is evolving.
