Perhaps you’ve encountered this quote going around about Bill Gates, “I failed in some subjects in exam, but my friend passed in all. Now he is an engineer in Microsoft and I am the owner of Microsoft.” This essentially teaches us, engineering students in particular, that those who top their engineeirng classes right now are not guaranteed of the most successful later on. It’s not all about the A+ grades.
This sentiment is not only by Bill Gates alone but a lot more who took to Reddit, sharing what they were after being Straight-A university students. Although some others commented impressive jobs they were in, there are notable others who regretted that they have not actually learned the career they want in college, but only got the best grades.
A certain user shared being a Straight-A university student but works at a coffee shop. There is one who told Redditors that he is unemployed at the time, ‘completely unsure what to do with his life.’ He shared that school really made him really good at remembering things for short periods of time, but didn’t really see how those applies to any sort of job or hobbies. That’s where he got stuck.
Others also shared their struggles from being the cream of the crop before entering college to average students. One user claims to have been sent to a great college after having good grades, only to get Bs despite his hard work and non-stop studying in the university. He was warned during orientation about it, that the odds are he will be an average student, but he brushed it off since he’s never been average. He felt like a total failure after the unexpected downfall.
This is not an insinuation that engineering students no longer need to work hard to get the good grades because they will fail in the future anyway. That is a logic of a loser who surely will not get any success in life later on. It is about how you manage to get those good grades and how you capitalize with them once you finish your engineering degree. It is about getting the best version of your engineer self regardless of your grades. You can choose to study intelligently now along with your commitment to your profession you really love, in order to be a successful engineer in the future
