I practically flunked my third-year final exam,” says a 30-year-old assistant editor of a weekly news magazine. Well, lots of people practically flunk their final exams. But what adds an edge to this comment when she makes it, as she recounts her plight at barely scraping through her finals to get an undergraduate degree in the arts from a college in Calcutta a decade ago, is the fact that today she is a successful career woman. She not only heads a seven-member team in her company but also draws a salary that, in her own words, “is very satisfactory even if you don’t consider the numerous perks and incentives that I get”.

No, her low college scores did not come in the way of her successful career. “Though I was never a brilliant student, I didn’t expect to do poorly in my exams,” she reminisces. “But I fell seriously ill just before the final exams. Some of my friends and family members advised me to take the exam the following year, but I didn’t want to be left behind as my friends moved on. So I sat for the exams. I had high fever and couldn’t write the papers well. When I got my scores, I thought my future was ruined.”

While some people tried to console her by saying that “it was not the end of the world”, most of her friends and family shared her view that she would never really “make it”. She proved them and herself wrong. “When I started applying for work, I realised that not much emphasis was given on marks. Though in most of the places where I applied — which included advertising agencies and media houses — the minimum criterion for application was a bachelors degree.”

There is a lesson to be learnt here. Stop fretting even if you have not fared too well. It’s not the end of the world. Poor, low or average school or college scores do not mean your future is doomed. Ask career counsellors and they’ll tell you. “There are many professions where school or college grades are not a determinant of success,” corroborates Calcutta-based career counsellor Debashish Roy.

He lists a number of prestigious and respectable professions where the main criteria are not just aptitude but also skill, communication abilities and other factors which are not necessarily reflected in high or low school or college marks. Among those that he names are advertising, management, journalism and even a career in information technology or IT-enabled services.

Dia Sen, a senior manager at a Bangalore-based IT firm agrees. “I was one of those non-studious types while in college in Calcutta. Not that I was dumb or anything. I was always a quick learner and I loved to read. But studying for the sake of the exams and preparing answers was just not my thing,” she says. Not surprisingly, she did not do too well. “When my results came out, my friends and family thought that I would end up finding only secretarial work at offices or call centres or as a receptionist or a sales representative at some store or another,” she laughs. “But I proved everyone wrong. I did a management course in Hyderabad where my college scores were not even a factor for admission. I did well. I worked in several firms and today I’m here.”

The 30-year-old assistant editor who admits to practically flunking her third year finals also points out that “if you are trying to get into a newspaper house, for instance, you will most likely have to take a written test which will be followed by an interview. You are not going to be judged by the marks you got in school or college. While marks may determine your academic aptitude, it is definitely not the only determinant of how well you will fare.”

P. Dey, who works in the human resource development department of an IT firm in Salt Lake’s Sector V, points out further that “we hire on the basis of communication abilities, language skills and aptitude for problem solving rather than very high marks”. “Sometimes we have turned down job applicants with higher college marks and hired candidates with a poorer academic record because we felt they were more creative or demonstrated better communication abilities and were more suited for the job at hand,” he says.

In some professions, however, the emphasis is still on marks. Points out professor Anup Roy, medical superintendent and vice-principal of Calcutta Medical College, “If you are going to pursue academics and get into teaching, or are going to study engineering or practice medicine, marks still play an important role.” In order to get into medical college, for instance, you have to have a physics, chemistry and biology combined grade of at least 50 per cent and a high Joint Entrance Exam ranking. Professor Roy points out that with only 900 to 1,000 medical and another 150 dental students being selected each year in West Bengal, the competition to get admission to medical college is very tough. So it’s the JEE toppers who get preference.

Those of you who are not toppers are by no means at the bottom of the pit. Look at Bill Gates. He didn’t even have a college degree. He dropped out after his freshman year to start Microsoft.