When I went into college, I was in a completely different track that didn’t suit my academic strengths at all, and I also worked part time on top of that. My GPA the first year going into college tanked and it just wasn’t a good fit. I ended up changing my path and major, maintained the part time employment and was able to increase my semesterly GPAs and graduate with a little over a 3.0 overall. While a 3 isn’t bad, I do think it would’ve done me better to switch earlier but it is what it is. I’m not really sure where to begin to explain the initial dip to what would be a 3.8 in my last semester. “Switching my major” literally just sounds like a cop out considering there’s a little more to the story (ie, bad fit and work). So…where do I start while keeping it concise?
4
4 comments
I've got some good news - you basically just explained things in a very concise way in this exact post! You just need to put it in professional-ese instead of messageboard-ese.
"I would like to take a moment to address my undergraduate academic history. You will note the upward trajectory in my GPA through college. To provide further context, I was working a part time job during freshman year and was studying ___. Regarding the former, this took more of my time and attention than I should have allowed. Regarding the latter, I found that it was simply not the right fit for me...."
Nothing too crazy!
Ok, thank you!
@JacobBaska (hyper-specific question on this) if I write an addendum very similar to this situation, should I include the referenced job on my resume? COVID started my freshman year of college and I ended up getting laid off from my part time job after only working there 3 months & being in school. I wasn't even planning on putting that job on my resume because of how short it was, but if I reference this situation does it need to match up with my resume? or is it good enough to just mention it all in the addendum and exclude from the resume?
You can go either way. I tend to encourage folks to have a more comprehensive resume that lists all work from the beginning of college through the present. But would I fight you to include a job you had for three months six years ago on your resume? No, not at all. And would I be concerned if you made reference to a job on the addenda that wasn't on the resume? In your specific circumstance (had only been in the job for three months, you were in college, it was six years ago), I would not be concerned at all that the docs don't match.