LoR from my boss

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

So my boss is a "top 25 <subspecialty> surgeon in the country," Harvard grad, awards, and etc. He's the CEO/owner of a health tech startup that I work at. We're on a first name basis as I was the first software engineer he hired and I demo stuff to him pretty regularly.

How do I turn this into a LoR that's useful for med school? Should I ask to shadow him in a clinical setting or would that be really weird? I haven't done anything clinical with him as, again, I'm a software engineer at his company. He doesn't know of my med school aspirations, but he's been generally supportive of people following their career goals even if it means leaving our company, so I don't think that's an issue.

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[KnightDoc]

So my boss is a "top 25 <subspecialty> surgeon in the country," Harvard grad, awards, and etc. He's the CEO/owner of a health tech startup that I work at. We're on a first name basis as I was the first software engineer he hired and I demo stuff to him pretty regularly.

How do I turn this into a LoR that's useful for med school? Should I ask to shadow him in a clinical setting or would that be really weird? I haven't done anything clinical with him as, again, I'm a software engineer at his company. He doesn't know of my med school aspirations, but he's been generally supportive of people following their career goals even if it means leaving our company, so I don't think that's an issue.

You're good. Shadowing LORs are almost worthless, since shadowing is such a passive activity. Being the first software engineer hired by a Harvard trained, top surgeon, health tech startup CEO/owner is waaay more valuable. I'm not sure that his impressive accomplishments will cascade onto you through the LOR, but, if he has nice things to say, any LOR from any employer will only help. Having one come from a renowned leader in medicine will certainly be icing on the cake.

 

[Moko]

So my boss is a "top 25 <subspecialty> surgeon in the country," Harvard grad, awards, and etc. He's the CEO/owner of a health tech startup that I work at. We're on a first name basis as I was the first software engineer he hired and I demo stuff to him pretty regularly.

How do I turn this into a LoR that's useful for med school? Should I ask to shadow him in a clinical setting or would that be really weird? I haven't done anything clinical with him as, again, I'm a software engineer at his company. He doesn't know of my med school aspirations, but he's been generally supportive of people following their career goals even if it means leaving our company, so I don't think that's an issue.

We routinely get LORs from non-academic/non-clinical employers. You do not need clinical experience with him for the letter to be useful to adcoms, though if he's your ticket to getting valuable shadowing experience, by all means, use your connection!

Being a physician himself who has likely written his share of evaluations, I suspect he'll know how to write a good LOR. You can always provide him with these guidelines from AAMC. Most of the competencies are not specific to academia or medicine. Best of luck.

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Well when you frame it like that it does sound pretty fancy, lol. Thanks man.

 

[Banco]

You just need the letter to speak to your positive professional/personal qualities. You don't need to shadow or anything.

You maybe should let him know of your desire for medical school though. Eventually you'll be going on interviews anyway. And who knows, he might be able to hook you up with some connections/clinical experiences etc.