P & P Employment
Started by peroxidase
I was wondering the same thing.
Are you guys putting part time jobs from undergrad?? Things like being a TA, etc.
The beauty of this section is that it allows the interviewers/programs to get a feel for your background and see what you have done previously. I can feasibly see only two reasons to not list anything in this section: 1 - you haven't had a job...ever. If that's the case, leave it blank, then promptly get a paper route or start a lemonade stand and 2 - your employment was illegal and you prefer to not incriminate yourself on your residency application. In other words, don't leave the present and past employment section blank.
So what should you include? Again, everyone does this a bit differently, and, what is nice about this section is that you can decide which jobs you list and you can even decide which jobs not to list for whatever reason. In my application I definitely listed being a TA in undergrad, being a research assistant, and other healthcare-related jobs. However, I also listed a prior job at a music publishing company because I felt it further validated my interest in music as well as working at my college bookstore one summer as it demonstrated my interest in reading/learning etc. More often than not, your prior employment is a reflection of your interests and will further substantiate your interests/hobbies. Where this isn't the case, listing a job that was less-than-glamorous will demonstrate that you are a hard worker and simply needed to pay rent/buy books and didn't care that the job was in whatever-horrible-job-you-had for that summer in college.
what if you ran a business in college. would that make you seem like you're not medicine oriented? maybe its better not to list it
So once again, past employment includes any work you have been paid for. I would recommend listing anything and everything and letting the reader decide how significant it is. On the one hand leaving it blank is not a good idea, on the other hand if you have had 15 jobs, maybe filter out the earlier ones.
Or they will assume that you are homophobic because you needed a job for a time a Chick-fil-A was hiring, or whatever random company you put down before a scandal breaks out, and by your interview there is a scandal... I kid you not...
You all are over thinking this way too much. Just put whatever your past employment was. This isn't the medical school application process where you are trying to convince someone that you are solely interested in medicine. It is more of a place to fill in the gaps as some applicants will have taken years away from school here and there. Also, I think that there is a correlation to keeping a job for over 6 months and following through on tasks, being able to work within a group, following directions/rules...(i.e. being a resident)..So just list what you have done in the past.
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