Am I a GPA snob? You bet. Later in life, it matters less, but when you're a 22 year old job applicant, it matters a lot.

A student from a "non-target" school with a high GPA is a better candidate than a person with a 3.2 from an Ivy. https://twitter.com/HairWeave/status/1293449678789517315

HR department isn't smart enough to figure this out because they have crap GPAs themselves and no idea the actual work that people do.

GPA reflects effort, not intelligence. If you are hiring for a job that is demanding, you need to hire people who give a damn to try.

The smart people who work in HR are the lawyers who protect the firm and you pray to God you're never on the other end of whatever it is they're looking into.

I talk to kids from state schools and "non-targets" all the time who have trouble getting a foot in. They'll have like 3.9 GPAs, a slew of extra curriculars, volunteer activities. And they're hungry and enthusiastic. They're losing out to a 3.2 who bought their way into Penn.

It's also why orgs are so bad at diversity. They're going after the same handful of "diversity" hires from the same handful of schools. Meanwhile these HBCUs and state schools--many of which are very competitive--are cranking out bright hard working kids that don't get a shot.

If your company does campus recruiting, ask how many people have been sent to recruit at these other schools and how many days they've been sent vs. the typical recruitment school.

So many organizations complain about how hard diversity recruiting and hiring is. It's not hard. It's right there. You're telling me there's not a single black kid with a good GPA majoring in acct/biz/econ/finance that wants to work at a big fancy Wall St. firm? I don't buy it.

There is something very wrong with your firm if black people don't want to work there. It's either you're some toxic Nazi place and everyone knows it, or you're bad at recruiting.

And if you're bad at recruiting you need to look at why. Does HR put together a plan and execute? Does HR get directive from a few of old senior guys and execute? Who else has input? Is there ever an audit to see who was passed over and who wasn't to see if the process is good?