Listing restaurant experience as most meaningful?

[perestroika]

Hi all, I try to stay away from the Pre-Allo forum because it stresses me out, so I was hoping I could get away with asking for advice here.

What do you all think of listing my experience in restaurants as one of my most meaningful on AMCAS? I'm a nontraditional student and I was a double major in English and a foreign language during undergrad. My projected career path was publishing, but I quickly decided that wasn't for me. So the most experience I have there is a summer internship and some freelance copywriting jobs.

I've worked in restaurants since I was 16 and throughout undergrad (usually 30-35 hours per week while taking classes full-time). After graduation, I worked in fine dining in New York for a year. I continued working through a year of post-bacc, switched to a formal program and quit working, and am back waiting tables now. I'm 25 years old, so this is the most I've had in the way of a "career."

More importantly though, I do feel working in restaurants for the better part of has 10 years has imparted me with skills and experiences I could not have picked up anywhere else. So I do have many legitimate reasons for listing it as "most meaningful," but wasn't sure if this sort of experience would put off adcoms.

Any thoughts?

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[DrMidlife]

In my prior career, when I saw restaurant experience on a resume, I was very very happy about it. There's so much less you have to explain to somebody who has had to flawlessly and constantly interpret the most subtle of human expressions in order to make rent.

Adcoms who had to pay their own way will love your restaurant experience.

Adcoms who never had to work will be completely unimpressed. Unfortunately that's the demographic that dominates medicine.

Pick a healthcare experience as your most meaningful. In your restaurant experience, highlight the skills that are obvious to you and won't be obvious to the average adcom.

Best of luck to you.

 

[perestroika]

Thanks, DrMidlife. Since we're able to choose three, I was planning to use this, along with hospital volunteering, and another non-medical volunteering experience. Do you think that would be okay? Or is it better to only choose healthcare experiences as most meaningful?

 

[DrMidlife]

Let's get some more votes on this, but I'd be in favor of including restaurant work in the top 3. Again, you'll want to make it clear that this was your rent, that you weren't just a register jockey, and that you didn't just work for your parents.

 

[theseeker4]

Thanks, DrMidlife. Since we're able to choose three, I was planning to use this, along with hospital volunteering, and another non-medical volunteering experience. Do you think that would be okay? Or is it better to only choose healthcare experiences as most meaningful?

My N=1 experience, I didn't designate anything related to healthcare or research as most meaningful, and it didn't hurt me. It is better to talk honestly and passionately about your life, experiences, motivations, etc. than it is to try to pigeonhole something that isn't, actually, that meaningful to you just because you are "supposed" to do so. Even if it is a negative to not have anything healthcare-related as a most-meaningful experience, I can't see how having a major part of your life designated as most meaningful would hurt you if you have also designated a clinical experience or two as such as well.

I agree with DrMidlife's statements above about how you want to present this.

 

[HinduHammer]

Hi all, I try to stay away from the Pre-Allo forum because it stresses me out, so I was hoping I could get away with asking for advice here.

What do you all think of listing my experience in restaurants as one of my most meaningful on AMCAS? I'm a nontraditional student and I was a double major in English and a foreign language during undergrad. My projected career path was publishing, but I quickly decided that wasn't for me. So the most experience I have there is a summer internship and some freelance copywriting jobs.

I've worked in restaurants since I was 16 and throughout undergrad (usually 30-35 hours per week while taking classes full-time). After graduation, I worked in fine dining in New York for a year. I continued working through a year of post-bacc, switched to a formal program and quit working, and am back waiting tables now. I'm 25 years old, so this is the most I've had in the way of a "career."

More importantly though, I do feel working in restaurants for the better part of has 10 years has imparted me with skills and experiences I could not have picked up anywhere else. So I do have many legitimate reasons for listing it as "most meaningful," but wasn't sure if this sort of experience would put off adcoms.

Any thoughts?

I also agree it matters a great deal how you present this experience. Do you have any sample wording that you care to share? I think it is a great experience... my first job was making sandwiches at Panera, then being a bus boy at Maccaroni Grill, and being a waiter at a small restaurant in college as a 22 year old. These experiences taught me a lot. At one point I was considering putting down cashier at home depot as a most meaningful, but then I was like "nah thats a bridge too far." The same thing can be applied to your restaurant experience...can you write about it in a way that strengthens the impression of you as a diligent, caring, altruistic, intelligent, savvy person?

 

[QofQuimica]

This must be something fairly new AMCAS has started, because I wasn't asked to designate which activities were the most meaningful when I applied ten years ago. Be that as it may, I agree with the others that your restaurant experience can be a major positive if you highlight the people skills you gained from it. For sure being able to deal successfully with unreasonable, unpleasant, entitled, and other kinds of "challenging" people is a very important set of skills for a future physician. Personally, as someone who did work at multiple minimum wage jobs (although never in a restaurant), I would see your work experience as a plus.

 

[LupaCupcake]

It is all about presentation...sell it!

 

[Quik]

Agreed that any customer service position, whether it be in a restaurant or any other customer focused business is a great entry of experience. I'm currently working PT in a coffee shop and have found three valuable skills that I imagine relate well to medicine. The first, as you mentioned is customer service. You have to read and properly respond to every customer you serve, and do so in a way that complements their mood. The second is team-work. In any fast paced food/drink serving establishment, you work amongst people of all different backgrounds and educational levels and you have to work together efficiently. The same holds for medicine. Learning to relate to every member and treat them well in order to maintain a functional cohesive team is critical. Finally, If you can highlight leadership within that experience, whether it be a formal position or just leading by example as a senior member of the team, then you are displaying a very strong experience that at least on those points relates to the skill set of a good doctor.