When you’re a high school student, your academic responsibilities should certainly fall at or near the very top of your list of priorities. There’s a simple reason for this. You’re young, and no matter how much you’ve done or experienced, your slate is still comparatively blank. Anyone who wants to review your potential before offering you a job or college admission will turn to your GPA, and he or she will use this number to make educated guesses about your work ethic and intelligence. But a GPA provides a very narrow picture of a complex human being. Wise evaluators know this, and you should too.
Throughout high school and college and into the working world, your potential as a candidate will be judged by many other factors beyond just your GPA. In fact, in most professions, the weight of your GPA will recede steadily with every year that passes after your graduation. So what other metrics will take its place? How will you be measured by those who need to make quick decisions about your potential using very limited criteria?
1. Recognizable accomplishments
If you played Carnegie Hall as a teenager, no matter how this event came to pass, your track record will always show at least one highly recognizable accomplishment. Everyone knows this theater and everyone associates its name with success. When you showcase your accomplishments, try to monetize, quantify, or make them relatable. If you have a talent for winning people over, state this in a recognizable way, as in “generated 15 percent increase in new client business during 2011.”
2. Respect for the enterprise
The best way to gain respect is to give respect. Dress professionally for interviews. Show interest in the things that others care about. If you find it difficult to fake interest in something in order to win over an evaluator, you’re on the wrong path. Stop and change course.
3. Engagement and passion
Tune in. Demonstrate concern for your future and for the world in which you live. It’s hard to respect those who don’t seem to know or care what will become of them, and it’s hard to trust someone who seems glazed over or disinterested.
If you love volcanos, or the history of France, or miniature schnauzers, let your love shine. Personal passions and a willingness to pursue them show a sense of direction, curiosity, intelligence, and backbone. Everyone respects these things, and for good reason. Defend what you love. Your passion will elevate you and everyone around you.
4. Vital signs
Keep moving. Do things. Even if you make mistakes, bark up wrong trees, chase the wrong job, love the wrong person, or heaven forbid, fail, every one of these adventures will add to the list of things you know and things you have to offer. And, like it or not, you will be judged by the length of this list. Be proud of your list. And learn how to explain it to others in ways they’ll understand.