Good grades = good future???

Julius Gacgacao

Julius Gacgacao

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Do you think grades in school will affect your future?

Ok so my parents think that if you have good grades you will have a good future. Here are my Dad's exact words "If you have the good grades the job will come right away."

But I tried explaining to them that my dream is to be a filmmaker. And in film you can have the best grades 4.0 gpa, or lsow grades and like 1.0 gpa. But none of that matter in my opinion, because if you can't produce good films then no one will notice you. So that is why I try to work more on film career now, that way I can learn from my mistakes as an amateur. And hopefully be professional someday.

Im gonna end this with a quote.

"Test us with tests but the finals are never final. For they never prepare us for the final test which is survival.
-Suli Breaks

Thanks for reading!
 
Alright, I came out of college with the top grades you can attain and I've spent 6 months trying to find a job and an apprenticeship with no luck. However saying that I think jobs are mostly to do with the country, since finding jobs is really hard any ways in the UK because of job depression. A lot of Uni graduates right now are working in maccies and KFC because they can't find a job, it's ridiculous. In the UK employers care a lot more about your experience, since I want to do IT all they care about is themselves even if you apply for an apprenticeship who are meant to teach you so you can get a shiny certificate. To me it seems all business's want is to benefit themselves then actually help someone (which kinda makes sense if you think like a cold hearted robot). I think education is there to teach you necessary life skills and get you set up to go into wherever you want to go into later in life. That's what good colleges should be doing which many of them forget what education is really about and just focus on getting a certificate. You end up not getting any life skills. They don't teach you how to deal with an interview, how to write good cv's and how to become a leader or a confident person. Nowadays it seems if you want to survive you have to become a very independent individual which I think is bs because no two person are the same and our education ministers and PM's don't see that.
 
Good grades do not equal a good future. From my experience it's all about your connections. When I was in college I was doing great and there were a lot of people in my class who were barely passing, but they all had friends and family in our profession. Guess who got all of the internships? Guess who got all of the jobs I applied for? Them. One girl I know even never went to college or anything and she got a job I wanted that I have a degree for, but her husband works for the company. If no one applies who has connections, then it's still not about grades it's about where you went and your experience. If you are up against someone who graduated from the same college, you had a 4.0 and they graduated with a 1.5, but they had a year of experience and you had nothing, they will get the job. As far as they know they are better than you, since you went to same school and have same degree. Work does NOT check your GPA at all. GPA in high school will get you into better colleges, but that's it. GPA in college does nothing for you, unless you want to go to graduate school. As far as work though, GPA matters to no one. You want it to be good because if it's good you probably learned more and are better qualified than someone with a lower one, it's just when you get a job that will mean nothing to them.
 
Good grades mean that its not either filmmaker or McDonalds. No offence to anyone who flips burgers for a living.

There may come a time where you meet a girl, or whatever, and want a family, suddenly those grades will come in handy when you need money to be a provider - filmmaking is one of those thing that is hard to get into, you need the talent and the connections and luck. Stick in at school though dude, life is long and it has many turns.[DOUBLEPOST=1455122772,1455122565][/DOUBLEPOST]I mean like plan ahead and make room for a cushion career to fallback on, its what my film teacher told all of us.
 
I always got good grades but I am still unemployed, so definitely good grades does not guarantee better future. But I have seen some companies ask for 3GPA in order to join the higher status jobs. So there is a deep relationship between good grades and good future, you just need to be in contact with those people who are currently working in the industry of your interest. I am glad that you are learning film making as amateur. Hopefully you will become a PROFESSIONAL film maker soon.
 
I didn't try particularly hard in high school and it cost me the chance to go to a university for all 4 years, but other than that I can't say i'm really ahead or behind anyone who DID really put the work in.

Your grades won't dictate anything about your potential as a filmmaker.
 
Disclaimer up front: My job experience has been in medical research and I'm in medical school now so grades mattered quite a bit for me.
Assuming you're in high school now then yes, they matter for colleges (if you're planning to go).
If you're past high school (doubtful with the way you're talking about your parents) and you won't ever be going into an advanced degree program then keeping a super high GPA might not be the most important thing in the world but keeping decent grades is probably a good idea.
Will good grades guarantee a good job/future? No. Will they help? Absolutely. What others have said about having connections and knowing people is 100% true BUT these things only go so far and you don't want to shut any doors for yourself down the road by the decisions you make now.
 
It is partially important to have good grades, but it is more about who you know and how well known/ experienced you are. No business wants to hire a noob in the environment they are going to apply for, and at the same time it is difficult as hell to get any experience when you are first starting off. That's the big reason why making connections is going to give you that in.

I'm in a position to hire someone. Some random guy on the internet has a nice 4.0, but Bob from accounting is hilarious and I see him on an everyday basis. If Bob is decent at his job then I'm more likely to go off of his reference rather than a blank profile from some nobody.

If you are wanting to get into film, start interning at different places, or try to find people to shadow. Just try to find that in. If you make high quality work and show that you are capable, you will become successful.

It's rare to have an uncle that works in pixar. It's not rare to have an intern that has been working there for a year or two, eventually work their way up the ladder from where ever they are at, then get picked up due to talent.
 
Depends what you want to do.

I was lazy at school. I got AA BBBB CCCC at GCSE level (main high school exams at 16yo for those not from the UK).

I then did Sixth Form (16-18 years old) and got even lazier. I got a B, C and D.

Scraped into university, where I got a degree at 2:1 classification. Became less lazy.

Did a Masters degree. Passed with distinction. Not lazy anymore.

About to complete a PhD. Definitely not lazy.

Still searching for my first break into my career, but having an education helps immensely. Don't throw your toys out of the pram now because you're getting pressure to do well in education. It's better to have great grades and not need them, than get bad grades and need them in the future. Nobody can be too overeducated, but it's very easy to be undereducated.
 
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