Ultimate Career
Career Worth Living For!
Death by Cover-letter
Mar 5th
How have you been writing your job application letters (or “cover-letters” as most of us know it)?
A lot of job hunters do not think that a cover-letter is necessary unless it is specifically asked for in the job advertisement.
WRONG.
Even if the job advertisement asks only for your resume, it is a given that your resume will be accompanied by a cover-letter.
Well, of course, unless you are applying for a job that does not require a degree.
A cover-letter is an excellent platform to pitch and sell your value and why you are different. It also allows you to demonstrate your written communication skills.
(Now, if your writing and language skills need improvement, you better find professionals to help you write the cover-letter!)
Most of all, it shows that you are really interested in the job and would spare no effort to get in the door.
Look at it another way: 95% of job-hunters will not be writing cover-letters and so, if your application has a cover-letter, it will immediately stand out.
Now, auto generated cover-letters (like those generated by JobsDB.com) don’t count as cover-letters!! Don’t ever use them!!
Now, here’s the outdated way of structuring your cover-letter content:
Paragraph 1: How you heard about the job
Paragraph 2: Why you want the job
Paragraph 3: Your qualifications for the job
Paragraph 4: How you will follow up on the job
Hiring managers are busy people. Very busy, in fact, as with most executives. And your cover-letter and resumes will only get 3-5 seconds of initial attention.
Get this: If you can’t capture their attention within 3-5 seconds of them reading your application (i.e. your very first sentence!), you can say, “Bye Bye” to the company and “Hello” to the trash bin!
Who cares about how and where you heard about the job? And who cares about why you want the job?
As an employer, what I want to know is how you can help me solve problems, in what ways can you contribute and add value.
If you truly want the job, here’s how you must structure your cover-letter:
1. Gain and retain the reader’s Attention
You must draw the reader’s attention enough for them to continue reading your letter and resume.
This is the “hook,” if you like.
Try making a personal connection, start with how you got interested in the field, why you like the job or company, special skills or experience that you have, or a great opportunity you had which triggered your passion.
For example, applying for a teaching job, the first sentence can be,
“Inspired and motivated students. Would this be what you want to achieve for your school?”
2. Generate Interest in you
Go on to talk about the problems or issues you know of in the industry, company, or job. This will show that you have done your homework in researching the relevant information and that you know what you are in for.
Only people who are truly interested in the job will put in such effort and go the extra mile.
Guess what? It is never crowded on the extra mile.
Continuing from the example above,
“There are no lazy or incapable students. Only unmotivated ones. As such, the best thing that a school can do to encourage students to learn (and thus, towards better results and achievements) is to find ways to motivate them.”
3. Create Desire to meet you
This is where you show yourself as a solution to the problem. Here you present your features (qualifications, experience, attributes, passion and interest) and clearly outline how they will benefit the job and the company.
“With over 7 years of learner-centred learning experience couple with 5 years of education administration, I have an excellent grasp of the tertiary education sector and have mastered the art of motivating students.
“These are the reasons why I have been able to consistently achieve high levels of teaching evaluation as well as produce students who are high achievers.”
4. Call for the reader to take Action
As the reader goes on, you want him/her to do something, right?
So, get them to do it: Refer to specific highlights in your resume or your reference letters, read your blog, watch your video clip online, etc.
Remember to close strongly where you affirm your strong interest and ask for an interview. You can either ask them to call you or, more boldly, tell them you will call them to follow-up (if you have the number or email, of course!)
“I am anxious to tell you more about my qualifications and how, together, we can truly inspire students in your school towards greater heights. I plan to follow-up in a week’s time. In the mean time, feel free to contact me at 1234-5678 or abc@gmail.com
Are You Poisoned?
Feb 24th
I walked past the doctor’s clinic last week on the 4th day of Chinese New Year and saw its waiting room filled with people.
I wonder if you noticed such a phenomenon, the doctor’s business is always the best after major holidays like Christmas, New Year, and Chinese New Year.
This is interesting because aren’t people supposed to be well rested and relaxed during such holidays??
The problem with such holidays is that they always involve gatherings and lots of feasting with friends and relatives.
There is nothing wrong with gatherings and feasting except that we tend to overeat and thus overload our systems.
Other than this, we also poison ourselves.
Poison?
Nope, I don’t mean the obvious smoking or drugs.
I am talking about foodstuff that leaves acids in your body and reduces your body’s ability to function at an optimal rate.
Acids burn and whichever parts of your body is the weakest will fall apart first. If it is your stomach, you will get stomach trouble like gastric flu. If it is your throat, you will get sore throat. If it is your lungs or nose, you will get a flu.
Research has also shown that when cells are put in acidic environments and deprived of oxygen, they mutate and become cancerous. Acidic environments will also cause your immune system to be weakened.
One of the key poisons that we take in without thinking daily is sugar.
If you remember, eating too much sweets causes tooth decay. It is the acid that the sugar produces in your mouth that burns through your teeth.
Just imagine what several glasses of Coke everyday will do to your system. And how much more such sweet and acidic food you consume during gatherings and feasts?
Other acidic foods includes sugar, meat, corn, coffee, beer, plums, prunes, eggs, fish, liver, wine, yogurt, tobacco, softdrinks, vinegar, most fermented foods and aged cheeses. Just Google “acidic foods”and you will find a whole list of them.
What we eat everyday are mostly acidic. What you can do is to balance that off with alkaline foods.
Most green vegetables are alkaline and surprise, surprise, lemons, limes, oranges, and strawberries are actually alkaline.
Here’s what you can easily do to help balance your system: Squeeze some lemon into a glass of water and drink that throughout the day.
Here’s more. What is more poisonous is the acid you manufacture yourself.
Negative emotions, like stress, resentment, anger, depression, sadness causes your system to become acidic as well!
In fact, very acidic.
I’m not saying that you have to avoid all negative emotions. These emotions are built-in as a feedback and signaling mechanism for us so that we can function better.
The trick is to remember that when such emotions occur, they are a signal to you that something is not going according to what you want and so, it is time to do things differently.
Do not remain in such negative emotions for too long. Getting “addicted” to these poisonous emotions is the surest way to burn yourself out quickly.
Remember that health is wealth. And your life can only be meaningful if you have the health, energy and strength to do what you want to do.
China’s “Ant Tribe”
Feb 19th
News from Reuters.com
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61H01220100218
Some say these struggling college graduates who swarm out of their cramped accommodations and head to work in the urban sprawl each morning are reminiscent of worker insects in a colony. Not surprisingly, they are often referred to as China’s ant tribe.
The growing ranks of ‘worker ants’ poses a policy challenge for Beijing’s Communist Party leaders as high property prices and dim career prospects thwart the ambitions of many graduates for a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.
In Tangjialing, a dusty suburban Beijing village laced with dirt roads, college-educated software technician Kong Chao typifies the spartan existence of many such graduates.
“This is hard, but there’s no other way,” said Kong, 24, who is relatively fortunate as he has a toilet and cooking area in his cramped room and doesn’t have to share with other tenants.
Kong pays 550 yuan ($81) a month in rent, about 10 percent of his monthly wage. A similar room in a central area of Beijing would eat up most of his salary.
“You see what a crowded city Beijing is,” he said. “We younger people all come to seek work. But we can take it.”
The rising number of graduates living on the edge of poverty in China’s biggest cities could become a socio-economic challenge for the Chinese government, whose biggest fear is that economic stagnation could stoke discontent among educated urban classes, fuelling protests that challenge Communist Party rule.
Although Chinese officials have sought to create a broad urban tier of middle class families with “well-off characteristics” nationwide, a lack of concerted policy action to tackle the proliferating “ant” problem could unleash potential political risks for Beijing in the coming years.
“When they’re 26, 27 or 28, they’ll say ‘I need to buy a house’, because that means eligibility for marriage,” said Tom Doctoroff, a Shanghai-based consumer trends author. “If the time comes to get married and you can’t buy, that causes anxiety.”
The population of 20-something graduates struggling to live on the cheap has been estimated by the state-run China Daily newspaper to reach about a million, with 10 percent in Beijing.
PROPERTY CONUNDRUM
Surging property prices have been at the crux of the problem.
Over the past 12 months, cheap lending has ramped up real estate demand by families and speculators, causing prices to rise by around a third in some cities and turning the possibility of owning their own home into a distant dream for many young couples.
With China’s property sector crucial for the broader Chinese economy, accounting for nearly a quarter of fixed asset investment, authorities have been at pains to balance the needs of economic stability with those of ordinary citizens.
Provincial and municipal governments are being urged to provide more land for affordable housing, and recent indicators suggest China will tighten its monetary policies after opening the taps during the financial crisis, which could alleviate the country’s property market bubble.
In January, property prices in 70 cities across China rose 9.5 percent from a year earlier. The eighth consecutive year-on-year rise added to worries of a real estate bubble.
GLUT OF STUDENTS
Since Chinese cities began booming in the 1990s and the workforce began to favor degree-holders over traditional state-run factory workers, people from poorer parts of China have migrated into cities for an education and then a job.
China began expanding university enrolment in 1996 to meet growing personnel demands, leading to a surge of graduates over the past decade. Some 6.1 million students graduated last year, about half a million more than in 2008.
“This is one of those areas where the government put in a package of policies that were well intentioned but didn’t go all the way,” said Bessie Lee, China chief executive officer with the media communications group GroupM.
“They didn’t look to see if there would be enough jobs.”
Due to the glut of job seekers and the financial crisis, companies in popular cities such as Beijing have slashed monthly wages from between 50 to 100 percent to below 2,000 yuan in some cases, workers say.
Some experts suggest the government should divert young professionals into second-tier cities such as Chengdu and Xiamen to take pressure off Beijing and Shanghai.
LIVING IN FARM HOUSES
For now, educated workers live in tiny rooms carved out of lean-to farm houses or in low-rise flats outside urban job centers because they cannot afford to rent a private flat.
In the evenings in Tangjialing, whose population has swelled to 50,000 from 3,000 before the rise of “ants” about two years ago, tenants hang laundry, socialize at greasy diners and use cheap Internet cafes.
“They’re mostly from other parts of China, so their parents aren’t at their side to help,” noted Mou Jianmin, who follows the trend as head of a cultural promotion firm in Beijing.
In Wuhan, home to a cluster of universities, recent graduates live eight to 10 in a flat in low-rise apartment buildings without heat or hot water, said Swedish-born Maria Troein, who studies and teaches in the central China city.
“I wouldn’t call it desperation, but there’s definitely some anxiety,” she said.
“There’s a dream. (But) the ant people really can’t afford to have it,” Troelin added, referring to the goal of middle-class prosperity many “ants” pursue amid the squalor.
With millions of migrant workers having been laid off from coastal manufacturing hubs during the financial crisis, Chinese authorities have been trying to create more jobs in China’s less developed interior to absorb this surplus labor, with increasing numbers of workers choosing to stay at home.
One pressure valve, however, may be to encourage graduates to move to cities in China’s hinterland where they would have a better chance of buying their own home and could contribute to the government’s efforts to stimulate these local economies.
For now, though, in Tangjialing, many residents such as high-tech company salesman Li Xingshen, want to stay and claw their way up. Li recently traded a 200-yuan room for a more comfortable 500-yuan one with a private toilet.
But this modest step up is all he can afford for now.
“If I lived in an actual flat, that would cost 1,000 yuan, then I’m out of money,” Li said.
(Additional reporting by James Pomfret; Editing by Megan Goldin)
Education in China: A Balanced Approach to Resource Allocation
Feb 10th
Original new fulltext at http://www.zaobao.com/zg/zg100209_001.shtml
教育资源过度向大中城市和重点中学集中，使农村中小学严重萎缩，也使众多农民及普通市民子女失去通过学习改变命运的机会。
于泽远 报 道
北京
中国总理温家宝近日提出，中国力争用10年左右的时间，基本完成义务教育均衡发展，使教育资源更多向农村地区、边 远贫困地区和民族地区倾斜，确保每个适龄儿童少年不因家庭经济困难等原因而失学。
中国教育界的乱象由来已久，主要包括教育资源分配严重 不公、中小学教育完全依附于高考指挥棒、大学学术腐败、各级学校管理官僚化等等。其中，教育资源过度向大中城市和重点中学集中、使农村中小学严重萎缩，也 使众多农民以及普通市民的子女失去通过学习改变命运的机会，因此有学者指出，中国最大的不公其实就是教育不公。
2008年8月底，中国 开始制定面向2020年的《国家中长期教育改革和发展规划纲要》，并成立了由温家宝任组长的领导小组。一年多来，官方通过调研、专设网络讨论区、组织网民 座谈会、发动媒体参与等形式，数十次易稿，形成了纲要初稿。温家宝近日也连续举行五次教育座谈会，听取社会各界人士、尤其是教育界人士对纲要初稿的意见。
温家宝说，教育公平是最基本、最重要的社会公平。中国教育要解决的主要问题，一是教育公平，二是教育体制改革。
教育部高官日前也公开 表示，将力争区域内义务教育在2012年实现初步均衡，到2020年实现基本均衡。
有关学者并不乐观
不过，有关学者对10年内实现义务教育均衡发展的目标并不乐观，因为地方政府在教育投入上向来重城市轻农村，最多会把“教育均衡发展”理解为在现有 格局上 的均衡，不大可能将更多的教育资源投向农村和边远贫穷地区。实际上，很多地方政府一直把全面免费义务教育制度当作一种“施舍”，农村地区的义务教育经费时 常被挤占挪用，造成城乡学校之间、重点学校和普通学校之间的财政投入差别巨大。
同时，城市中小学择校之风盛行，一些重点学校由于高升学率不仅享 有更多的教育投入，那些有权、有钱或有门路的家长也纷纷把子女送往这些学校，拉大了重点学校与普通学校之间的差距，加重了教育不公。
近 年来，舆论对于各级学校的官僚化、学术腐败、权学交易等现象也多有批评。中国科技大学原校长朱清时在座谈会上向温家宝建议，高校必须以教授为主导，改变当 前依靠行政权力治校的局面。
温家宝说，官方今后将扩大学校的办学自主权，要以教学为中心，发挥教师的主导作用和学生的主体作用，改变教 育的行政化倾向。同时，大力倡导教育家办学，发挥教育家的办学才能和特长，让那些有终身办学志向的人不受任何名利干扰诱惑，把自己完全献身于教育事业。
温家宝还强调，要实现教育的科学发展，必须进一步解放思想，敢于冲破传统观念和体制机制的束缚，树立现代办学理念，在人才培养、考试招生、办学体 制、管 理体制等方面进行大胆创新，允许实验和探索。
北京有关学者指出，要改变学校的官僚化倾向必须取消各级学校的行政级别，改变由党政部门自 上而下的校长任命制，实现学生为本、教师治校，校长由教师选举等多种形式产生。这不仅要涉及党政如何掌控学校这一核心问题，还要调整一大批现有制度受益者 的利益，可谓困难重重，绝非短期能做到的事情。
这名学者说，以大学引入教师和行政岗位竞争机制为例，很多大学已经喊了好些年，但目前中 国内地还没有一所大学真正引入能上能下的岗位竞争机制。原因说起来并不复杂：这些大学都是有行政级别的单位，“能上不能下”这一官场规则在大学里同样适 用。
Monday Blues
Feb 8th
Is it Monday already? How did the weekend fly by so quickly?
Well, they say that “time flies when you are having fun” and this, according to nuclear scientists, is actually a literal phenomenon.
Whether you are a working professional or studying student, you would have felt that a typical weekday can be such a drag while the weekend, especially when you are enjoying yourself, just zips past in a blink.
And you would have heard of the term “Monday blues” which is commonly used amongst working adults to describe their lousy mood on Mondays. It is a kind of sadness, lethargy, and even slight depression. In fact, “Monday blues” often starts building on Sunday afternoons when the thought of the next day being a workday after a good weekend creeps into one’s consciousness. In fact, there are people who start to feel a sickness coming on on Sundays and by Monday morning, they’ll feel a strong urge to see a doctor. Ask any doctor who runs a clinic and they’ll tell you that Mondays are their busiest day of each week.
And ask any retail business and they’ll tell you that Mondays (and Tuesdays, for some) are the days of the week with the lowest sales. People are simply not in the mood.
How about this: Across the globe, more people die on Mondays than any other days of the week!
So, what’s the problem with Mondays?
Or does the problem really lie with our interpretation of what Monday means?
I think the answer is obvious. You see, if the problem is with Mondays, than animals and other living things would be affected in a similar way.
In other words, time does not exist except in our minds. And our minds play tricks on us if we are not conscious of them.
Here’s further evidence: Research has shown that there exists a strong link between heart disease (one of the major killers in modern society) with, get this, JOB SATISFACTION and SELF HAPPINESS (i.e they rate themselves as happy people).
More specifically, the most interesting finding from this research is that:
1. People with who displays all the risk factors of heart disease such as being over-weight, having high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels AND low job satisfaction and low happiness will usually develop a heart attack sooner and later.
However…
2. People with the same risk factors and HIGH job satisfaction and HIGH happiness will usually NOT have any heart attack nor other forms of heart disease.
Of course, this is understandable. A full-time job takes up at least 1/3 of our lives and if you spend 40 hours every week in a job that you dislike and see no future in, then that translate into mood issues (read “Monday blues”), low productivity, poor health and falling ill often, poor relationships, slow income growth, and eventually, premature death.
It’s time to make an informed choice on what an ideal career and life should be for you. Don’t wait till it’s too late.
Why Did They Teach That In School?
Jan 28th
Did you ever have this thought in mind while going through school:
WHY ARE THEY TEACHING THIS?
Well, perhaps at that moment, you didn’t think of this question since school is *supposed to be* a place where you do what you are told. Well, at least in primary school. Then, in high school, you were taught more complex and advanced stuff that it made your head spin. From this point on, you would have started to realize that much of the stuff taught in school will never ever be used in your entire life.
For me, those “stuff” will be calculus (yes, simultaneous equations, differentiation, integration, and the like), technical work (as in, metal work, wood work, handling tools, etc.), and chemistry.
Schools want to be sure that they covered all grounds (but according to who?). This type of education is “just-in-case” education.
What a grand waste of youth!
Now, on hindsight, I’d have preferred lessons on:
- Relationships (how to find my life partner, how to deal with people)
- Finance (i.e. how to earn, manage, and grow my money)
- Making good decisions and choices (i.e. how to think)
- Health and Fitness (living with energy and free from illnesses)
- Career and jobs (finding them and doing well in them)
- Emotions (how to manage them)
- How to care for and bring up children (yes, most people do want to be parents eventually)
- Sex (what to do and how to do them)
Aren’t these what we need on a daily basis as human beings?
Aren’t these more important than mathematics, history and chemistry?
Yet, why is it that school don’t teach such things at all?? And they simply leave us to figure them out ourselves by trial and error. They assume that because you have completed secondary education or tertiary education, you’d have no problems with these areas in life. Why is it that such vital life issues are treated as trivial matters by our society?
Stop at Nothing
Jan 26th
I read this little piece of news last week on The Standard in Hong Kong.
Another one of the myriad, innovative ways people, students included, are cheating in mainland China. It sure seems like they are very determined and will stop at nothing to get what is perceived to be ”must-haves” for them. How nice if such focused determination were used for more productive and progressive things.
Having taught in China now for one full year, I know that cheating is part of the culture and landscape. You simply can’t avoid it and it is widely accepted. Everybody knows it but nobody does anything about it. Some will just lament about it. Others will say, “Everyone’s doing it. Am I going to be stupid and get left behind??”
Universities have to put up posters that say, “Cheating is illegal. Don’t cheat.”
Sure, that’ll work.
Since living in Hong Kong, I have seen faked soy sauce, fake eggs, fake milk powder, fake iPhone, fake Rolex, fake LV bags, pirated DVDs… in fact, whatever it is in the world that can make money, there is always a replica made in China. This proves that “reverse engineering” is a gift and talent here which do not need much development.
How about this: The best cheating I have come across is this: Student paying Teaching Assistants to do their project for them. That’s personal outsourcing taken to the limit!
But it is not the cheating that is the root of the problem. All these cheating and copying are merely a means towards an end. Faster, that is. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. A short-cut, if you will. You will notice this often with people jumping the queue. Frowned upon in developed nations but, hey, if you don’t do it in China, you just have to wait… and wait.
I believe, the root of the problem is the need for speed. The need to earn money faster, to get qualified faster, to get promoted faster. Of course, all these with little or no effort. Is this the price to pay for rapid industrialization? For developing “too fast”?
I do think that it is a conscious collective choice that is being made. Nothing else can be or should be blamed.
I often think about this: How much better and faster China will progress if such creativity, ingenuity and energies are channeled to really and properly improve lives and the standard of living? How much more learning (and thus development and progress) will occur if such innovativeness and resourcefulness are used in the learning process? How much better they will be liked and welcomed as friends?
Post-80 saga
Jan 26th
We hear and read so much about the post-80’s generation these days. Other than the high profile “activists” in the recent rail saga, here’s one of those reports by The Standard on the psyche of Generation Y:
http://tinyurl.com/yg5wqzv
http://tinyurl.com/yhsyd23
I am Gen-X and have 2 brothers who are Gen-Y and can see clearly how we are quite different in our outlook. But should differences in outlook, emotional make-up, environmental conditioning and perspective outweigh sensibility and responsibility?
From the behaviour of the handful of Gen-Y youths with respect to the rail saga in Hong Kong, it certainly makes the community around them think so. As much as them thinking that the government is forcing their way through the village affected by the proposed express rail link construction, they have exhibited the same behaviour in their rally and protest. How could you ever end a “war” using another war? How could you end violence by using violence?
I do hope the people involved this time have realized that real power doesn’t come by force. They should be working on INFLUENCE and such an ability does not need numbers. Quite obviously, they didn’t have any clout to present much influence on the decision-making process.
Is it possible to work their way into the Legco process? Surely, this will not happen overnight but the chances of getting their ideals pushed through is way much higher that way. And that is when they’ll really be doing something for people in need.
Market Prospects 2010
Jan 25th
I often get questions such as:
“What are the employment prospects these days?”
“What are the hot industries?”
“Who is hiring?”
Employment (or unemployment) statistics are just good conversational topics but they are not worth following for your career planning.
The only employment statistic you should care about is either 0% or 100% – that is, are you employed or not.
The next question to ask is, “Are you in the job you want or not?”
So regarding market prospects for 2010, the answer is, “Why should you care?”
What you should be focusing on is your individual career. Yes, all things being equal, I would go after growing industries instead of shrinking ones.
But all things are not equal.
It is more important to know your values, skills and interests and match them with the right industry, job function and company instead of picking employers from a hat and force-fitting yourself into them.
Two tips to think about:
1. Let the market respond to your actions.
The market is invaluable in providing guidance on what your skills and qualifications are worth and how you are perceived by it.
If you are aiming for certain jobs or titles or salary levels and are not getting interviews, you need to find out if you are targeting wrongly or simply not positioning yourself properly for what you want.
Rather than reading market news and trying to incorporate that into your planning, craft your best plans and take action from there.
Then, collect market feedback specific to your actions and adjust accordingly.
Remember, if you continue to do the same thing again and again expecting a different result, you are an idiot. And believe me, a lot of people fall into this category.
2. Go for the ideal, not the available or popular.
The reality is that a career is always made up of what you bring to the table (i.e. value) and what the market will take. Don’t get me wrong, I am not dismissing the importance of what is available in the market.
But you must always keep in mind that markets change, expand and new markets emerge. So, when you look only at what’s available currently, you are not seeing the complete possibilities.
When you aim instead for what is ideal for you and look for a way to bring that to market, you include market expansion and creation in your potential outcomes.
In other words, going for the ideal gives you more opportunities.
So, if you must know what the market prospect is for 2010, you have the perfect answer – it depends on how far you are willing to go.
How’s Your GPA?
Jan 18th
Most university students I know are very concerned with their GPA. In fact, ultra concerned. To the motivated student, and especially for those who plan to further their education, the Grade Point Average is the holy grail which needs to be upheld at all costs.
However, does the GPA really say anything about a student’s academic abilities?
Let’s take a look.
In the tertiary education world, there are general 2 types of universities. One type grades students based on their academic performance according to a well defined set of performance criteria. For example, “a student will be granted an ‘A’ if the student demonstrates outstanding understanding and application of the concepts within this course. The student’s score should typically fall within the range of 85 and above.”
In simple terms, here are the standards for this course, and your grades depends on your achieving the standards. Your grades are criterion-referenced, so to speak.
The other type of university grades students based on their relative performance within the cohort. This means that there are no standards drawn out for the grading but an arbitrary bell-curve (i.e. statistical normal distribution) percentage is used.
In simple terms, a certain percentage of the cohort of students taking a course is allocated for each grade. Example, the top 10% will be given an “A”, the next 40% a “B”, the next 20% a “C”, the next 20% a “D”, and the remaining will be given an “F”.
With such a relative grading scheme, you may still get an “A” even if you scored 60/100 overall as long as your score is within the top 10% of your class. This means that your grade is given to you IN COMPARISON to your classmates. It effectively does not care about what you are really capable of since there is no independent standard drawn out. In other words, your grades are curve-referenced.
In the current tertiary education world, there are VERY FEW universities progressive enough to be criterion-referenced. Most universities are curve-referenced.
What does this mean, then?
It means that the GPA you scored in a curve-referenced university has no bearing whatsoever on your actual performance as it indicates only how you performed compared to your classmates. Simply put, you may score an “A” (i.e. GPA 4.0) but all that means is that you scored better than 90% of your class. It does not say, at all, how well you have achieved the learning objectives of the course.
Curve-reference exhibits the big-fish-in-small-pond phenomenon. It’s just like me owning a motorbike in a village where most others are using bicycles and that makes me rich.
So, my point is this: GPA in a curve-reference university doesn’t really mean much. This is why although the same term (i.e. GPA) is used throughout the world, they are not equal.
The next time you apply for university, make sure you check whether their grading system is criterion-referenced or curve-referenced.