HBSWK readers respond: Should More Transparency Extend to Education for Management?

The whole idea of grades relating to recruitment is a non-issue from the Indian management student's perspective. From time immemorial we have been taught to excel in education and that meant transferring hard work and intelligence into grades, marks, or percentages, whatever evaluation system we may use. When most of the grading systems are relative, it becomes all the more necessary for recruiters to know the grades of prospective candidates. Organizations recruit for a particular job profile rather than for a particular grade. If an organization has a preference for grades and you prefer otherwise, than you will never gel with the organizational culture: You are simply not the one for that particular job profile, nothing more, nothing less. Students who feel that revealing grades to recruiters may hamper their chance of selection can follow one of two options. First, get in the groove and align with the system and score. Second, be yourself, understand yourself, and try to be the "best fit" to the dream organization. Mark Twain wrote, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." I would add "schooling or grades." It does not matter really what grades you get. Personally, I believe grades do not always reflect intelligence. My MBA experience tells me to have a resume reflecting the "true you." Your potential, both achieved and latent, is more than any one aspect.