i got fired...how will that affect my app

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epor35

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i got fired from my reserach job after only two and a half months, and i was wondering if adcoms will check any job references i provide. obviously, my boss will not have many good things to say about me so i would rather leave the job out of my application than risk someone contacting him. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm thinking adcoms have a way of verifying whether or not students actually worked at the places they indicate on their applications, otherwise you would have people saying they had great jobs they didnt actually have to make themselves more attractive candidates.

My main concern is that being fired from any job, for whatever reason, does not look good to adcoms, so would it be better to leave the job out of my application or include it with an explanation, incase they decide to verify? any input would be much appreciated. thanks

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All anyone can legally find out about your past work experience is the dates you worked there. If you are using your old boss as a reference that is a dumb idea since you were fired. Odds are most adcoms have never heard of your old boss and wont even bother. The whole idea behind not lying is the fear of getitng blackballed in this process because the world is smaller than you think.
 
I wouldn't put it on your app. Besides if you only worked there for 2.5 months, how much significant research could you have done?
 
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I know how you feel. I didn't really get fired, but I didn't have much time for it anymore and so the professor thought it better that my spot went to another student. I'm still going to put it down on my application, but since I didn't get much out of it (other than the fact that I didn't liek research), I will not be talking much about it.
 
like someone else said, i'd put it down...it's still research, and if you get questioned about it, just say you discovered you didn't like doing research and the arrangement didn't work out.

obviously you wouldn't want to use the boss as a reference...but that's no reason not to put the experience down.

unless you got fired for something really severe (like using the lab equipment to produce meth or something), it's just a situation that didn't work out, and in the end you were exposed to research and now know that it's not something you want to pursue in the future.
 
Apparently it doesn't matter. There is a certain SDNer who I fired a few years back who put the position on his app and still got into med school. Doesn't respond to queries about listing this on his mdapp profile, hmmm.
 
Are you really asking if you should put down on your application a job you worked at a short time before getting fired from? The answer, whether a med school app/law school app/job app is "no".
 
notdeadyet said:
Are you really asking if you should put down on your application a job you worked at a short time before getting fired from? The answer, whether a med school app/law school app/job app is "no".


....whats your reason?
 
jbrice1639 said:
like someone else said, i'd put it down...it's still research, and if you get questioned about it, just say you discovered you didn't like doing research and the arrangement didn't work out.

obviously you wouldn't want to use the boss as a reference...but that's no reason not to put the experience down.

unless you got fired for something really severe (like using the lab equipment to produce meth or something), it's just a situation that didn't work out, and in the end you were exposed to research and now know that it's not something you want to pursue in the future.

Three Platitudes:

It is a bad idea to put a research position on your application and not get a lor from your research supervisor.

If you got fired, don't ask your supervisor for a lor.

If you got fired, don't put the experience on your app.
 
dbhvt said:
Three Platitudes:

It is a bad idea to put a research position on your application and not get a lor from your research supervisor.

If you got fired, don't ask your supervisor for a lor.

If you got fired, don't put the experience on your app.

Absolutely perfect advice. 2 months man? Yea just pretend that you went on a bender for those two months and can't remember it at all. I am sure you have enough other extracurriculars to make up for this loss.
 
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