Quick, what’s your grade point average? If you’re applying for graduate school or a scholarship program, you probably already know. But when else will you need your college GPA after graduation? Practically never.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, the number that seemingly drives our lives now will weigh next to nothing once we exit academia. Why is this? And if this number truly doesn’t matter for those entering the workforce, why do we think it does?

Call me the ultimate hypocrite for what I’m about to say, but worrying about your grades can actually lower your performance levels. And if the work you do suffers, so does your chance of success.

This goes beyond the sociological argument of “feeling like a number.” Not only should you avoid pigeonholing yourself by academic standing, you need to recognize that for the vast majority of potential careers, rank will not be a factor. With the exception of medical practice and law school (both advancements in academia, however practical), no employer will open an interview and ask about your GPA. They don’t care about a number. In fact, they don’t even care about you — not yet. They care about the work you have done and the work you can do for the business. So start counting your practical skills (common sense counts for 2 points), because that is the number you’ll want to improve.

Do I care about grades? Of course I do. I used to obsess over test scores (and mine were never very high) to the point of nausea. I equated success with high academic standing, and for some, that may hold true. But then I started interviewing for jobs. I started interning. I started seeing the truth.

While every job is different, employers told Forbes that they look for five key components in a successful future employee: Professionalism, high-energy, confidence, self-monitoring and intellectual curiosity. What about test scores? Academic standing? More often than not, no one cares.

Of course, some entry-level positions focus on college GPA because they have little else to go on. Evidence of leadership, teamwork and flexibility can roughly be deduced through GPA. A November column in the New York Times blamed high GPA in 2012 to a sense of entitlement, not the skills and discipline required, according to those CEOs and 135 graduates the reporter surveyed.

Full disclosure, I don’t have a job yet. But as a second semester senior intent on not living my life out of my parent’s basement, my free time has now become my networking agenda. And I’m starting to notice a trend in job searching: good work, not high approval, is what matters. We have been conditioned to think that one leads to the other, but what is good for one professor or boss is abysmal by scale of another. Subjectivity — it’s what GPA is supposed to eradicate. Numbers are supposed to be unbiased – fair – but they aren’t.

I have been advised NOT to put my GPA on my resume. The argument is that an employer that interprets a GPA is highly subjective. An abysmal score indicates poor academic standing, perhaps even laziness. But a high score does not guarantee comprehensive interpersonal skills. It’s a lose-lose situation; too low or too high, employers read into numbers. And they are not hiring a number — they are (hopefully) hiring you. Look into your field — see if GPA is absolutely required for a resume. If they don’t ask, you don’t tell. It’s not so much outsmarting the employer as it is giving an honest display of who you are. If you are the type of person that the modern academic system conditions, you’re probably not the ideal job candidate. Focusing on the quantity of a grade point average over the quality of your work is where GPA fails you and your future employers.

Besides, you will never need your GPA to establish a bank account or apply for credit. You cannot use a 4.0 to purchase a car, refinance a home mortgage or develop a comprehensive retirement plan. Understanding of the legal system, good human contacts and sound investing skills, however, are things that can serve you for the rest of your life, no matter how your career evolves.

The ability to hold a coherent, much less engaging conversation is valued beyond any test score. People skills are what employees want, even if an internship or job description doesn’t mention eye contact and a firm handshake on its list of requirements. It is true that a high GPA opens doors to further education and scholarship aid, but in the world beyond academia, “the real world,” one number is just as good as any other.

Renée is a senior in Media. She can be reached at [email protected].