ERAS Experiences

[kittycat_642]

Hi Everyone,

I have a question about ERAS experiences. Are you all including everything since and including college? I'm listing all the research stuff, but I'm not sure about everything else. For instance . . .

*I worked in the kitchen for a year during college.
*I worked at a cafe for 2 years and then managed it my 3rd year of college.
*I was an RA for 2 years in college.
*I temped at a bank for a few months bewteen graduate school and my first real job.


I think some of these were important when applying to med school, but now they seem like so long ago. (I started college in 1992.)

Thanks for your input.

Kittycat

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[Sugar72]

I am applying this year...and I don't know if this is the right thing...but I left off a crapload of stuff. I graduated from college in 1994 and worked a million jobs between 1994 and 2002. I only left things on there that were interesting or pertinent to medicine....I mean really I worked at 3 different coffee shops and was a secretary for 4 different temp agencies...do they really care? I don't feel like I am trying to decieve anyone through ommission and I don't think that any programs will see it that way...if say, one of my interviewers purchased a grande latte from me in 1996 and notices that PJ's isn't listed on my experiences. Of course the safest thing is to put every single experience on there no matter how small.
BTW, I absolutely left off working in the kitchen my first year of college I totally forgot about it until I read your post!

 

[Jalopycat]

I was in the same situation. I graduated from college in 1993 and have worked a lot of jobs. The only ones I included were my post graduate jobs:my main career (where I worked for 6 years) and then a part time waitress job (where I worked 7 years). The only reason I included the waitress job was to show I could work 2 jobs and go to school part time for my science pre-reqs. I thought it also showed that I work hard.

I had tons of jobs in college that I left out (teaching music lessons, waiting tables, photo studio receptionist, pharmacy tech). It just seemed like overkill to include them all. Maybe I'm wrong.

I think you should do what you feel comfortable with. Is there somebody in your Dean's office that you could ask?

 

[chicamedica]

do we need to write a reason for leaving for each experience?

 

[labangel]

My dean told me to only include those things that are relevant...ie jobs tied to medicine &/or research. She said that short and sweet is better and to keep it to what you would put on a regular resume (which would be limited to at most 2 pages).

 

[trouta]

My dean told me the same thing. Just put things on there that are relevant to medicine or your residency or that fill big periods of unaccounted for time.

 

[porokeratosis]

My dean told me the same thing. Just put things on there that are relevant to medicine or your residency or that fill big periods of unaccounted for time.

I'm an older student with lots of unique experiences as well. I slimmed down my resume and only entered revelent experiences (research, publications, medically-related jobs, etc) into my ERAS resume. On the ERAS application, my CAF is 4.25 pages and my CV is 3 pages. I admit it's still a bit long, but I truly believe my experiences are revelent and paint a unique picture about myself. Therefore, I'm leaving it as is.

 

[Fermi]

I'm entering all jobs since beginning college 10 years ago. They're certainly not all pertinent to medicine, but that can be a plus in a CV -- professional experience in other fields that demonstrates technical or managerial skills. If it's been more than 10 years, maybe trim it down, but why leave holes in time where they might wonder what you were doing for 2 years? If it's just a mickey mouse job, give a one line description so it doesn't take up too much space.

 

[shorrin]

PD at my school, told me that my extensive job experience in my previous life would be a big bonus. He said that people may be smart and have great board scores but you cannot tell if they can follow things through? Most med grads have never held fulltime jobs. - sorry M3 year is not the same - I've been through it, I know.