Is work experience necessary?

[glass-animal]

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Clinical or non-clinical, will it look bad if I have no work experience? (provided I have the necessary clinical and non-clinical volunteer hours)

 

[Luka75]

No, you just need experience.

 

[WingedOx]

Depends on the individual looking at your application. Some might find it a little odd that you got this far thru life without ever having any sort of employment

 

[Goro]

No, you just need experience.

This.

 

[ndafife]

I found it necessary because I had to pay rent and buy food.

 

[WingedOx]

It is not uncommon at all to find graduating medical students who's first paid job they will ever have in their PGY1 Medical Residency.

...which is a little sad, tbh.

 

[Lifeblood_20]

I think job experiences show that you have been in positions of responsibility, since employment is different in nature from volunteering. Of course there are other ways to show that you have been in those positions.

 

[Turkishking]

Clinical or non-clinical, will it look bad if I have no work experience? (provided I have the necessary clinical and non-clinical volunteer hours)

Nope

 

[aldol16]

Jobs are just another dimension of your application. Nobody goes out and gets a job just because they think it'll look good for medical school. People get jobs for various other reasons - they need to support themselves, they want extra spending money in school, they want to pay off school loans, etc.

 

[Goro]

Indeed. PDs are finding that these people have poor job ethics....for example, they leave at 5PM, no matter how much work needs to be done, or ask for a vacation two days after starting.

It is not uncommon at all to find graduating medical students who's first paid job they will ever have in their PGY1 Medical Residency.

...which is a little sad, tbh.

 

[AnotherLawyer]

when I first started working with nontrads I was suprised the they had a minor plus with residencies as they understood this was a job

This is the case in all professions. My non-trad law school classmates were far more content once we graduated and started working. They understood that making close to 200k in what was essentially an entry level job was pretty darn amazing and that we shouldn't complain when in turn we were expected to be available on weekends and into the evening. Us trads, on the other hand, having never had a real job, constantly complained about the brutality of it all.

 

[glass-animal]

Indeed. PDs are finding that these people have poor job ethics....for example, they leave at 5PM, no matter how much work needs to be done, or ask for a vacation two days after starting.

The only work experience I have was working at an academic summer camp prior to freshman year. Would this be worth mentioning on an app if I've continued doing something in college that is related?

 

[Goro]

The only work experience I have was working at an academic summer camp prior to freshman year. Would this be worth mentioning on an app if I've continued doing something in college that is related?

Yes

 

[vellez]

It's not necessary. Lots of spoiled pre meds probably won't work until the start residency. Not even joking a little. But at my interviews, my non medical work experiences were looked upon very favorably. I used to work at a grocery store, and one of my interviewers said something to the effect of "I also worked at a grocery store and I think its one of the best jobs someone can have to learn how to deal with people" (something along those lines, I can't quite remember). Anyway, I think it can be a real asset to an application...makes you seem grounded and mature.

 

[Youngm2194]

Last year as a senior in college I worked as a snow shoveler for my on campus apartment complex. I thought it would be simple since snow plows exist but I had many 8+ hour days working in snow storms in the cold and it taught me to appreciate people who do manual labor and not take jobs indoors for granted, especially those where you get to sit!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Last year as a senior in college I worked as a snow shoveler for my on campus apartment complex. I thought it would be simple since snow plows exist but I had many 8+ hour days working in snow storms in the cold and it taught me to appreciate people who do manual labor and not take jobs indoors for granted, especially those where you get to sit!

The Navy Diver prep school is in Great Lakes, IL. When I went, it was January, so it was basically -20F every day and it snowed constantly. One day it snowed so badly overnight that the path we had to march along to get to the pool house was covered in over a foot of snow. They decided to make our PT that morning shoveling the path clear. It's a mile and a half. Plus, the instructor's car kept getting stuck, so some of the guys had to keep getting him out of the snow. Another time, we had to shove around the entire barracks. It took about 4-5 hours, and half of us were using office trash cans as shovels haha.

Pretty much every day of that course, I kept thinking to myself, I left the relative ease of the OR for this ****?