I’m trying to figure out how to include my work history on the app. Right now, I have it bullet-pointed like it would be on a resume. I’ve been in the same career for the past 16 years, although at different hospitals. I have only used 9 of the available boxes, but I really don’t want to break out each place I’ve worked since it’s been basically the same type of work. If I leave it in resume form, do I really need to include contact info for each hospital? I worked for about 5 different hospitals before starting my own company and working as a contractor for hospitals (so for that I’m using a business associate’s contact info and putting it under its own “leadership” category). If I include a contact for each of my earlier employers, then I would have to split the work history into different boxes in order to fit the contacts due to the character constraint. What are you other non-trads with long work histories doing for this? Thanks!
Having seen this from both sides of the fence, I’d advise taking the extra time to break out each employer. When I review this part of the application, I’m looking to make sure there are no gaps and that the story presented through employment history is consistent with what the applicant reveals in the personal statement. I’ve never personally called a contact to verify former employment, but I know of some physicians who have, so be honest about the dates, reasons for leaving, etc.
It’s a pain…I know…I bounced around a lot in the first ten years of my previous career and I had to fish back into old tax files to even find the phone numbers of some employers. More than likely the adcoms are just going to run down the list and review the chronology, but you never know. Better to take the time now than to have a committee member skip over your application because it seemed incomplete. Just my $0.02.
If I broke out each employer on the AMCAS I wouldn’t have space for important things like volunteering and shadowing. I wish they had a work section on it like the AAOMCAS application has.