judge not, lest ye be judged

I am reviewing applications for a program that I myself was a part of several years ago. I am conflicted about scoring these people based solely on how they appear on paper, especially as I would not be in my supercool job now if it had depended on nothing more than how I looked on paper. Interviews can help give more insight, but not even that is a true reflection of the person, or how they will perform in a specific setting. My GPA wasn't that great, my major GPA even less impressive, and while I was co-President of one club for a year and participated in several others, my current position is more than anything else a result of the fact that I met, interacted with and proved my worth to the people who could, and did, help me along in my career; my work on a project enabled me to use a connection to get an internship with a company, leading to a co-op position, leading to a job, with some freaking cool opportunities along the way.

Where I am today is not the end result of a life-long goal, but rather came about through a series of accidents; fortuitous and wonderful accidents, but accidents just the same - the university I attended, the people I hung out with, the projects that I involved myself in. Decisions that I didn't really think were all that important at the time, much less how they would significantly influence my future. I sometimes wonder what decisions I'm making today that will have such an impact down the line. It really makes one think. ;)

Back to the applications; only two more to go!