SOPHAS Work Experience

[splashnchaos23]

Just wondering what everyone did with the work experience section... I know SOPHAS asks that you list every work experience, but did you all list every single job you've had or did you focus relevant experiences?

My job history alone gives the impression that I wanted to be a cop or a biomedical engineer or a high school teacher or an athlete. I held several overlapping positions that I worked to make extra money or to keep busy, but there's really no appropriate place (or appropriate way) to note this within the experience section. I'm a bit worried that the odd jobs I worked will overshadow my relevant experience and just make me look scatter-brained or unfocused. I don't have a ton of public health experience as it is (doing a gap year: 6 months done, another 6 pending), so I want the few experiences I do have to stand out.

This is the only glaring drawback on my application. Everything else about my application feels about average or better... 3.5 GPA, great honors, good EC's, good letters (maybe great? haven't read them), interesting experiences (again, overlapping) coming up in 2011.



Should I just leave the work history alone or should I trim the random stuff?

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[Awapi]

I spent some time thinking about this one as well, but ultimately decided to include everything because that's what the instructions said to do (I figured that I could be faulted for ignoring instructions, but I couldn't really be faulted for following them).

Despite the fact that your jobs are all over the place, it can go towards supporting your strong work ethic. A lot of schools/employers like to see that you worked continuously, regardless of the field, to show that you are a hard worker with the motivation to get things done rather than sitting at home on the couch during your breaks from college eating BonBons because your parents are paying your bills (obviously a colorful example, but you know what I mean).

On my application, I used all the characters/space available for relevant jobs and just listed basic details or honors received in jobs not relevant to the application. You can list them all but still draw most of the attention to the ones that you want them to focus on.

I've already gotten one acceptance so I guess the way I did it was ok! But you should do what's best for you...good luck!!

 

[aaftmb]

I listed all the important things in the past for four years.. just the stuff that i would include in my resume..

Just wondering what everyone did with the work experience section... I know SOPHAS asks that you list every work experience, but did you all list every single job you've had or did you focus relevant experiences?

My job history alone gives the impression that I wanted to be a cop or a biomedical engineer or a high school teacher or an athlete. I held several overlapping positions that I worked to make extra money or to keep busy, but there's really no appropriate place (or appropriate way) to note this within the experience section. I'm a bit worried that the odd jobs I worked will overshadow my relevant experience and just make me look scatter-brained or unfocused. I don't have a ton of public health experience as it is (doing a gap year: 6 months done, another 6 pending), so I want the few experiences I do have to stand out.

This is the only glaring drawback on my application. Everything else about my application feels about average or better... 3.5 GPA, great honors, good EC's, good letters (maybe great? haven't read them), interesting experiences (again, overlapping) coming up in 2011.



Should I just leave the work history alone or should I trim the random stuff?