LOR from outside academia (i.e. your boss)

[pirata]

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Just curious, but how many of you are asking for letters of recommendation from your boss from previous (or current) professional careers not related to medicine, in addition to LORs from professors or other medical contacts?

It's not directly applicable to medicine, but I would think that if you've worked somewhere long enough and developed a relationship with your boss, it might be something important to include...personally, I've worked at the same place for the past five years (since I graduated from college initially) and I'm pondering the idea, although it's been in a field completely unrelated to medicine. Just wondering what other people's experiences have been like.

Also, if you have asked your boss for a letter, what kind of guidance did you give him/her regarding it?

 

[Trismegistus4]

Just curious, but how many of you are asking for letters of recommendation from your boss from previous (or current) professional careers not related to medicine, in addition to LORs from professors or other medical contacts?

It's not directly applicable to medicine, but I would think that if you've worked somewhere long enough and developed a relationship with your boss, it might be something important to include...personally, I've worked at the same place for the past five years (since I graduated from college initially) and I'm pondering the idea, although it's been in a field completely unrelated to medicine. Just wondering what other people's experiences have been like.

Also, if you have asked your boss for a letter, what kind of guidance did you give him/her regarding it?

The advisors at my program have said that work related letters are often the best & most important letters in a student's file, simply because supervisors, especially if you were at the job for several years, wind up knowing you much better and working with you more closely than, say, science professors you take 2 classes from and never see again. (Not that those are bad, though.) In my program we rank our letters in the order of importance with which we want them treated when the advisors write the committee letter, and I ranked my former supervisor's letter #1.

Don't forget, employment related letters can come from people other than your boss--I didn't end up doing this, but in addition to my former supervisor I thought about asking one of the business/project managers who had been an internal "customer" of the IT group I was in for a letter too. Don't hesitate to solicit letters from anyone who can say good things about you.

My supervisor asked what kind of thing med schools are looking for, so I in turn asked one of the advisors, but all he said was that each recommender should speak to the area where they know you best. So I just wound up telling my supervisor that med schools consider leadership & initiative important traits, and sent him a list of things I'd done while at the job that I thought were good examples as a reminder.

 

[runningmom]

I did two from my paying job (current and former boss) , two from school (best I could get being out for so long!) , and two from my volunteer/shadowing experience (one DO, one MD). Of course, I'm not in anywhere yet, so take that for what it is worth! 🙂 Good luck!

 

[pirata]

Thank you both for your comments--I think I will definitely include my boss as a letter writer now!

 

[Beau Geste]

Hey non-trads. I am self-employed so I really don't have a "boss" per se to write a LOR for me (unless I want to do it for myself - NOT!). Since I work 1-on-1 with children and their families in their homes, in a way the families are my employer, so I was thinking of getting a LOR from one of the families I've provided services to in the past and were very please. BTW - I'm a speech-language pathologist and I provide services to children 0-3. Does this sound appropriate for a work-type LOR? It will definitely show my clinical and "bedside" manner!

 

[2Sexy4MedSchool]

Hey non-trads. I am self-employed so I really don't have a "boss" per se to write a LOR for me (unless I want to do it for myself - NOT!).

I am curious how often this happens to non-trads, especially those who have been out for a while. I was also self-employed for the nine years prior to going back for my pre-reqs, so was up a similar creek w/ no paddle. Ultimately I asked a judge before whom I had often appeared; she agreed and the story had a happy ending. Do you have any kind of supervisor/contact person for the county or school district you work in? Perhaps a psychologist or school administrator with whom you frequently have professional contact?

Frankly, I don't know what I would have done if she had refused....

 

[jackieMD2007]

Hey everyone, I got one from my current (and longest) professional job--my old boss who hired me and is now on maternity leave. I am hoping that hers will give schools a good indicator of who I currently am. 🙂

Other LOR:
Three science professors (one who I TA'ed for)
One Volunteer letter (for my 2+ years service at the hospital)

 

[pingouin]

also self-employed- as a clinical social worker, but have two PRN positions at two hospitals..

so far I've got my current physics professor... but no other academics. well, I ran into my old undergrad advisor (who's now retired) and he said he'd do one, as he also had me in class.. but it's been over 10 years. So I'm holding off on that unless I'm in a pinch. It's also possible that my recent bio professor would be willing, but I don't think that one would be as strong as she doesn't know me as well. so we'll see.

then from my private practice, I have a psychiatrist with whom I work very closely who has agreed.

and from one hospital, my SW supervisor..

and from the other, a pediatrician who basically makes me her social work slave (in a good way 🙂 ), who doesn't know yet that she's going to be writing me a letter, but she will be. she happens to be the department chair for one of the peds subspecialties for one of the medical schools here.. so I'm looking forward to having her name on there. she's been very encouraging of my med school aspirations, so it should just be a formality of asking her to write something.