Do LC Points matter?

Gael23

Heres my situation:
Got 395 LC Points based on 6 HL Subjects. Expecting to Graduate with 2:2 Business Degree(Accounting & Finance).
Am I screwed with this when it comes to graduating? Would consider a masters if it improved my prospects.

freeze4real

ryanf1 wrote: »

Heres my situation:
Got 395 LC Points based on 6 HL Subjects. Expecting to Graduate with 2:2 Business Degree(Accounting & Finance).
Am I screwed with this when it comes to graduating? Would consider a masters if it improved my prospects.

Unfortunately your L.C does matter. I got 375 myself and most jobs would look for 400+. Especially 450+. I'm in the same field and yours.

A masters helps but again might grantee that you'll pass the filtering stage.

Next year I'll be doing some L.C to compete with some of the students who've done well.

Sprog 4

If you get your honours degree then LC points shouldn't matter all that much especially if you look for work abroad where people don't really know what these points mean. I took them off my CV to free up space for more important information and I have been relatively successful in interviews. The LC has never come up as a point of conversation at an interview (in Ireland or abroad). I don't know if you have any years in college left but the smart thing would be to study harder and try and beat those grades you think you will get. I would have thought that with a mediocre degree (2.2) it would be tougher to get a postgrad position than just going into work directly. It seems a bit strange that an employer would hire someone with 450 points as opposed to 395 points if both have the same degree. The actual interview would hold much more weight in this regard.

gdawg87

My friend got 125 points in his leaving cert... Now he lives in Australia working as a truck driver earning over 2000 per week. Leaving cert results aren't the end of the world. To be honest I think the whole leaving cert is bulls**t. It's just a test on your memory. I know people who went to Trinity and UCD and I think to myself, I know you got more points than me, but there is no way in hell you're smarter than me...

Gael23

Sprog 4 wrote: »

If you get your honours degree then LC points shouldn't matter all that much especially if you look for work abroad where people don't really know what these points mean. I took them off my CV to free up space for more important information and I have been relatively successful in interviews. The LC has never come up as a point of conversation at an interview (in Ireland or abroad). I don't know if you have any years in college left but the smart thing would be to study harder and try and beat those grades you think you will get. I would have thought that with a mediocre degree (2.2) it would be tougher to get a postgrad position than just going into work directly. It seems a bit strange that an employer would hire someone with 450 points as opposed to 395 points if both have the same degree. The actual interview would hold much more weight in this regard.

I'm just about to begin the final year of my degree. I think to get better than a 2.2 it would mean getting A's in most modules which is not really a realistic target. Im not set on a postgrad but I think it will really enhance my prospects, maybe im wrong there. From what I know its all about actually an interview and then you can sell yourself the best you can once you get in there. I hadn't given much thought to working abroad but its something I would consider as a possibility.
I'm doing Business Studies (Accounting & Finance) by the way.

BrianBoru00

Your leaving cert results matter when trying to get into college.

Now that you have a degree - thats what matters - a company will only really take LC into account when hitting a tie break situation.

If your looking for non graduate jobs in a few years -then the college results will matter a lot less as the main thing employers look for is experience.

Sprog 4

ryanf1 wrote: »

I'm just about to begin the final year of my degree. I think to get better than a 2.2 it would mean getting A's in most modules which is not really a realistic target. Im not set on a postgrad but I think it will really enhance my prospects, maybe im wrong there. From what I know its all about actually an interview and then you can sell yourself the best you can once you get in there. I hadn't given much thought to working abroad but its something I would consider as a possibility.
I'm doing Business Studies (Accounting & Finance) by the way.

The final year is usually the most important when it comes to grading. I did pretty average in my first 3 years but pulled my weight in 4th year and managed a pretty good mark in the end - better than I thought I could do. Final year is very tough, but even if you think you haven't done your best up to this point it offers the most opportunity to redeem yourself especially with projects and such. Put in the work this year and you will be glad you did as you will have more choices next year. I wouldn't say a postgrad would greatly enhance your prospects but it can certainly help you narrow down an area of interest which is quite important - especially if you are unsure what you want to do when you graduate. All this is easier said than done I know but best of luck anyhow.

MyKeyG

I've only been asked once for my LC results when I applied to officer training with the British Army but other than that I've never been asked. In my own opinion to judge a mid twenties or older professional by the scope of their ability when they were 17/18 is absolutely preposterous and I think a lot of companies would grasp that.

Gael23

[QUOTE=Sprog 4;86107563r. I wouldn't say a postgrad would greatly enhance your prospects but it can certainly help you narrow down an area of interest which is quite important - especially if you are unsure what you want to do when you graduate. All this is easier said than done I know but best of luck anyhow.[/QUOTE]
I really need to find that out. It seems that alot of employers and grad programs require a 2:1 and I was thinking if I did a masters and worked as hard as I could and got a good grade it might benefit me. Maybe thats not the case though

freeze4real

Some can sugarcoat all you like but simple thing its your L.C matters during the application process .

KPMG,EY,PWC,deloitte, grant thorton,BDO, Russell grant farell etc will want 400+ for starters, then they turn to your degree results but can make leeway due to work experience or clubs and socieities.

Some recruiters will ask for your L.C results. Infact the easiest of fun admin jobs want minimum of 400 points.

Once you get into the interview your L.C o not matter except tou want to boast that you fot over 450+ in your L.C or if you did exceptionally well.

I got 375 and next year I'll be sitting 2/3 L.C papers on top of my masters. That's just my own decision

freeze4real

dude impossible is nothong. If you want a 2.1 badly you'll find a way to get it. 2 8 month ago I was on a low 2.2 but took drastic steps to get a 2.1 like leaving my mates and going straight to the library.


You also have to be clever in your job search. There's a saying that 70% of jobs are not advertised. That's true. Dont limit job search to gradireland or irishjobs or your college careers page. Use linikedln, connect with some recruters even though over 90+ are assholes.

Personally I always check Trinity, Dcu, Ucd careers webpages because most recruiters and employers will post vacancies there.

You're in your final year and you've got relevant work experience, just put your head down and you'll be grand.

Sprog 4

freeze4real wrote: »

KPMG,EY,PWC,deloitte, grant thorton,BDO, Russell grant farell etc will want 400+ for starters, then they turn to your degree results

So even if you got a first or 2.1 they would look you over if you didn't get 400+ LC points? Sorry but that's complete nonsense. No employer would be so short sighted. The LC syllabi are so far removed from real world industry so as to be almost redundant by the time you have completed college. The results would only be significant if you were applying for a job straight out of school.

freeze4real

Sprog 4 wrote: »

So even if you got a first or 2.1 they would look you over if you didn't get 400+ LC points? Sorry but that's complete nonsense. No employer would be so short sighted. The LC syllabi are so far removed from real world industry so as to be almost redundant by the time you have completed college. The results would only be significant if you were applying for a job straight out of school.

Have you been burying your head under a rock. Do you want links?

Do you think that employers just just post you must have 400+ or 500+.

Please get real.

Check this, this is just a tip of the iceberg. If you want for accounting I will post them.

http://careers.murex.com/opplang.php?id=7&lang=1

Don't hate the player hate the game.

Sprog 4

freeze4real wrote: »

Do you think that employers just just post you must have 400+ or 500+.

Quite frankly, yes. Lots of employers post things like this to try and get candidates with a specific type of personality or work ethic. It's not a very good tactic in my opinion as they are scaring away potential quality candidates who have excelled at third level where it really matters. I don't believe that the LC academic record will be much of a deciding factor when they are choosing candidates for an interview or deciding who is best for the job if they have demonstrated that they meet the other more significant requirements such as degree result, communication skills and interest in the field. Their interview and in-house assessments will be so much more important than LC points. I would be surprised if you could demonstrate somehow that you have been refused an interview on the basis of your leaving cert points being a bit lower than whatever arbitrary number they have chosen as a cutoff.

The only situation where I could see LC points being a valid selection criterion is if the candidates degree is in a completely unrelated area.

TokenWhite

Sprog 4 wrote: »

Quite frankly, yes. Lots of employers post things like this to try and get candidates with a specific type of personality or work ethic. It's not a very good tactic in my opinion as they are scaring away potential quality candidates who have excelled at third level where it really matters. I don't believe that the LC academic record will be much of a deciding factor when they are choosing candidates for an interview or deciding who is best for the job if they have demonstrated that they meet the other more significant requirements such as degree result, communication skills and interest in the field. Their interview and in-house assessments will be so much more important than LC points. I would be surprised if you could demonstrate somehow that you have been refused an interview on the basis of your leaving cert points being a bit lower than whatever arbitrary number they have chosen as a cutoff.

The only situation where I could see LC points being a valid selection criterion is if the candidates degree is in a completely unrelated area.

Maybe, but the problem is that if they use software to screen candidates, which is pretty likely for the bigger firms, particularly the Big 4, then you're pretty much automatically filtered out of the system before you even get your foot in the door for an interview.

(Now I could be very wrong about this but) I would like to think I've got a pretty strong CV compared to most recent graduates right out of college and I've applied a few times for the big 10 accountancy companies and not even been called to an interview. The big blot on the CV is that I only managed a very weak 305 LC points.

At this point I'm tempted to lie about my LC results just to see if I can at least get called for an interview.

Sprog 4

TokenWhite wrote: »

Maybe, but the problem is that if they use software to screen candidates, which is pretty likely for the bigger firms, particularly the Big 4, then you're pretty much automatically filtered out of the system before you even get your foot in the door for an interview.

(Now I could be very wrong about this but) I would like to think I've got a pretty strong CV compared to most recent graduates right out of college and I've applied a few times for the big 10 accountancy companies and not even been called to an interview. The big blot on the CV is that I only managed a very weak 305 LC points.

At this point I'm tempted to lie about my LC results just to see if I can at least get called for an interview.

Such a lazy reason to refuse someone an interview but then again you're just a number to those big firms I suppose. Glad I don't work in finance

donegal11

freeze4real wrote: »

.

I got 375 and next year I'll be sitting 2/3 L.C papers on top of my masters. That's just my own decision

Why sit 2/3 papers? you are aware you don't just add points together you would still be on 375points and in my opinion would add nothing to the CV

innad

I have never put my LC points on a CV, nor have I ever been asked for them. Once you have a degree, leaving cert results should be (and in my experience, are) irrelevant. Most people I know don't put their results - never mind the points - on a CV.

TokenWhite

innad wrote: »

I have never put my LC points on a CV, nor have I ever been asked for them. Once you have a degree, leaving cert results should be (and in my experience, are) irrelevant. Most people I know don't put their results - never mind the points - on a CV.

Depends on the company. Some of the larger ones (e.g. the big four accountancy firms) have their own application process and they specifically ask for you to detail your LC results. From speaking to a cousin that works for, and is involvement in recruitment, for one of those firms (admittedly an English branch of the firm) he said that they do take into account secondary school results and that the software they use automatically filters out applicants that don't meet the criteria.

innad

TokenWhite wrote: »

Depends on the company. Some of the larger ones (e.g. the big four accountancy firms) have their own application process and they specifically ask for you to detail your LC results. From speaking to a cousin that works for, and is involvement in recruitment, for one of those firms (admittedly an English branch of the firm) he said that they do take into account secondary school results and that the software they use automatically filters out applicants that don't meet the criteria.

I learn something new every day
Is this a relatively recent development then? I definitely don't remember this from back when people I know would have been going for graduate jobs. Although to be fair most of them would probably have had fairly high points anyway.

Sounds like a very unfair system though - if you've got the third level qualification, LC points shouldn't matter any more.

sock puppet

innad wrote: »

I learn something new every day
Is this a relatively recent development then? I definitely don't remember this from back when people I know would have been going for graduate jobs. Although to be fair most of them would probably have had fairly high points anyway.

Sounds like a very unfair system though - if you've got the third level qualification, LC points shouldn't matter any more.

Studying for accountancy exams is a major part of working for those firms. People who fail are always fired as a rule so they don't want to hire someone who does well only to have to let them go after they fail their first year exams. So being able to study and cram is important.

Every graduate job I applied to asked for leaving cert results although I can't recall it ever coming up as a discussion point in interviews.

Gael23

But how do you avoid being filtered out at the very beginning?

TokenWhite

Has anyone ever "embellished the truth" slightly when it comes to LC points? And if so, how has it worked out? I have quite a poor LC but have done very well academically since then and am tempted to put in a few higher level subjects where ordinary was taken to throw me over the criteria mark, I have my heart set on workign for a big firm and I think if I can get into an interview I stand a real chance of a job, but in saying that, I'm very uncomfortable with the thought of lying. Even if I could guarantee that it would never be an issue in the future, I'd still be uncomfortable with it

starlit

If you only got a 2:1 or 2:2 degree they often ask for leaving cert points and add leaving cert results in a CV. Depends if its a big or a small company/business their policies on recruitment can vary. Though some places often state for grad programmes you need so much leaving cert points. 300-450+ usually.

A lot of online application forms tend to ask for leaving cert results/points as well.

bezerk

Leaving cert points do matter for some companies, I'd say for 80% of companies they don't matter. A lot of places would rather say someone who got 350 points and did honors Maths than someone with 550 points and no honors maths. I got 375 in the L.C and a 2.2 in computer science and never have had any trouble finding employment.

70% of your application will be your personality. Most companies now do short telephone interviews before bringing people in for interview. They want to check your telephone manner and your personality. If you have a 1st class honors and not able to deal with clients or sound shakey on the phone then the person with a 2.2 and say 300 L.C points will get the job who would be able to deal with clients. Results are not everything, it's more about your personality.

I never put my leaving cert results on my C.V. After two years of experience there irrevelant

starlit

Depends some companies/businesses request you put your leaving cert results/points on your cv/application. I don't put them on my CV anymore unless asked. Not since I were last in college have I had them on it.

That is often the case if you have mid 300's points and 2:2 degree they often short list you for a phone interview. I find they are harder than a face to face one! So basically a phone interview leads you to a face to face one. Act as if you are at a face to face interview.

Though depends on the role they might ask for examples of such and such like teamwork and or if you learnt code they might ask you what this that and other is and on a scale of one to ten how you rate yourself of your ability of certain code and what code you have experience with. What software have you used or applications learnt in your course etc. All relevant depends on the role. I am just throwing out an example. Once you get pass the graduate stage/entry level jobs/graduate jobs then your work experience will count more as you gain more examples to add to your cv and interview.

freeze4real

I applied to Ernst and Young and I got called in for an interview even though i didn't meet the requirement such as 450 points, higher level maths.

In the end I got offered a training contract which I rejected as I have no plan on being an accountant. But when speaking top the partner I was told that I gave a good explanation or reason why I'm not a weak candidate even though I met 25% of their requirements.

Twix44

Apparently the Big Four have a formula for calculating your overall desirability score. LC points and uni results are used to calculate the score.

SpaceTime

I can't even remember mine and no employer has ever asked me for them!

Seems a bit daft to be perfectly honest if they are asking for stuff like that.

In a lot of cases they didn't even ask to see my degees. Just taken at face value.

Mostly it's about your work achievements after you've gotten away from college.

Gael23

I was at a presentation with EY today. They said there is room for flexibility in relation to stated leaving cert requirements but that a 2:1 is non negotiable

Twix44

What are the points requirement for EY?

TokenWhite

Twix44 wrote: »

What are the points requirement for EY?

425 judging by the application info. I'd say they'd accept lower points if other parts of your application compensated (College grades, extra curriculars, work experience )