On Wednesday, Reddit became a hotbed of mediocrity as users came together to bond over their unimpressive grade point averages. The new thread asks former “C” students where they are in life. Answers came from far and wide with users who earned middling grades in high school, college, and beyond. Many of them are doing surprisingly well.
These users admitted being lazy in school, but when they found the job of their dreams, they applied themselves and volleyed into excellence. This is not an uncommon occurrence. In many disciplines, grades matter when applying to graduate programs or otherwise continuing further into academia. If you’re preparing to enter the “real world” instead, some employers don’t look at grades. There’s a reason why law students often repeat a mantra that goes something like this: “A” students become judges, “B” students become lawyers, and “C” students get rich. These Redditors feel the same way about their own career fields.
Aerosol999 is living the dream with an admittedly difficult job that he loves:
“Always hated school and still do. Had sh*t grades throughout. Now I’m a train conductor and I f*cking love it. The work itself isn’t too difficult, just a lot of rules you need to memorize. The schedule is the hard part. I’m on call 24/7/365 and spend a lot of time away from home. I’ve seen a lot of families die and have personally lost several friendships because of it it. To get the job I interviewed, I’m sure it helped that I knew a guy in management but I know guys that got the job that didn’t. Otherwise A LOT of guys are ex military. They put a ton of value on that. I make anywhere from 70k – 100k year depending on how much I work.”
WorkWithPoop32‘s user name may reveal what he does for a living, but he’s making good money while doing it:
“Working for the government …. i never went to college. My wife is a stay at home mom that attends college full time we have 2 young kids. I pay the mortgage, have 2 cars, eat out a lot, drink beer, watch football, and fish and live a pretty good life for only 1 income!”
Is there a little bit of resentment in this answer? SMW2012 may be bristly:
“I was a A+ grade student, and I’m currently getting destroyed by my C-grade student wife, who is currently making 200K a year, on her way to 350K. Sometimes… intelligence, responsibility, and dedication are not enough — you have to have the balls and social acumen to put yourself in a position to succeed.”
ReDJeLLo knows all about making bad grades in law school:
“I’m an attorney now. Poor grades through high school. Poor grades in undergrad. Poor grades in my masters program. Poor grades in law school. But you know what they call the person who passed the bar with the lowest score? An attorney.”
Want to follow your passion? Optic4cd did just that, and it paid off:
“I never applied my self at school as it was more a social event than something I needed to do. C – D grade student checking in. I now work in my passion of Motorsport running international events such as the F1 earning fairly good money and also have my own motorcycle shop.”
Ex-Sgt_Wintergreen has what many people would consider to be a dream job:
I had solid C grades all throughout elementary school. High school comes around and the subject of “what you’re going to do when you grow up”, comes up, and I realize that I’m pretty sh*t at just about everything aside from videogames. So like most people who are sh*t at everything I become a professional video game journalist.”
Not-Trying lived an enormously tough early life, but found major success:
“I slacked off a lot and never studied. Got a lot of D and C grades. I dropped out of high school at grade 9 and worked on friends and family’s computers because my mom and dad wanted me to help with rent. I had a tough childhood and was in gangs. I never did drugs or sold. Just wanted to be a tough sh*t. I got the crap beat out of me by a dozen people. I stopped with gangs because I hurt my mom after I came home bloodied up. Today, I’m a Director of IT infrastructure in R&D for a Fortune 500 software company. I have no IT certifications. I have 3 great managers under me who have a headcount of 40 each. I hate sitting in my office and love being hands-on. I value each person on our team, even the weakest link.”
The successful Kimmynoodles wrote this message from her awesome job:
“Making 90k/year as a software engineer in a super chill environment where I can make this Reddit post with no worries about repercussions. To all the people asking: I’m 1 year out of college with a BS in computer science. I absolutely got lucky with the job I landed, but in this field it’s definitely more important to be passionate about learning when it matters and to do research on a company than it is to have perfect grades.”
Whereas ChimpStyles simply hung out for awhile, worked hard, and did well:
“Not doing too badly actually. I bounced around a lot as a younger man; Bike Messenger, Waiter, Dishwasher. Was a ‘medic (911) for a few years and now I’m in I.T. Self taught computer nerd. Ride my bicycle all the time and try to have fun as much as possible. Oh, and I helped raise a fine son along the way. He’s a man now and doing well.”
(Via Reddit)