Work experience to include on MA app?

pow wow

Just a quickie, I'm submitting yet another MA application and this one is asking for details of my work experience. The exact wording is:

'Please indicate posts you have held in reverse chronological order.'

Does anyone know if they are talking about relevant work experience or just "1999-2006 McDonalds" type work experience? I have years of jobs behind me but I doubt many are especially relevant to the course. :cool:

King John V

I see what you mean. A friend of my was applying for a dip in primary teaching. At interview a part of his application was read back to him. He was asked what relevance working in a supermarket was to the course? He stumbled and didn't get in.

What skills did you gain from your previous jobs that would be of use to your future course? If your experience in "McDonalds" (for example) gave you people skills, communication skills etc then that's great. Especially if the postgrad is in commerce. If your postgrad is primary teaching/ child related then you put greater emphasis on how McDonalds taught you to deal with families and cater for young children. You pitch your strengths based on what's of use to them. But be honest!! If you were out back flipping burgers then your child catering skills mightn't be as good as you'd like!!! So simply reference a different job example.

In sum

1. If I was in their shoes I'd be more interested in the skills you gained rather than the general category of work.
2. Irrelevant cited work experience makes your application heavier and longer without making it better.
3. Be brief, to the point and honest.
4. If still in doubt contact the admissions office. There's certainly enough ambiguity in the statement to justify an enquiry.

All the best with it.

DiscoHugh

I wonder the same thing. Same boat as I was contemplating applying for a masters. I guess I could twist work experience as a security guard in a family planning clinic as being relevant to Development Economics..... but it's a stretch. I assume the relevance of undergrad to post grad is more important

Prob best to shoot the admissions office and email asking. Im basically going to pester them with emails all the way through my application...

Does the course you're applying for have a horrendously long and complicated application procedure? or am I just unlucky/they all do. Really making me not want to bother.

Why can't they just be like the good old CAO "Here's the results of my finals....lemme in!"

pow wow

DiscoHugh wrote: »

I wonder the same thing. Same boat as I was contemplating applying for a masters. I guess I could twist work experience as a security guard in a family planning clinic as being relevant to Development Economics..... but it's a stretch. I assume the relevance of undergrad to post grad is more important

Prob best to shoot the admissions office and email asking. Im basically going to pester them with emails all the way through my application...

Does the course you're applying for have a horrendously long and complicated application procedure? or am I just unlucky/they all do. Really making me not want to bother.

Why can't they just be like the good old CAO "Here's the results of my finals....lemme in!"

Hiya! Well I got offered a place based on my form....and I just put N/A in the work experience section. I am assuming they've gauged from my age that I must have been doing something with myself for the last few yrs....

I didn't find the application procedure too bad I have to say, but I thought it was a bad idea to have a combined MA/PhD form as applying for a PhD requires so much more than an MA (and I suspect that's what the work experience section was for). Again I put N/A in the 'articles published' section. :rolleyes: Everywhere else I've applied has had an MA only form, which is why the question never came up before I suppose.

DiscoHugh

Ah yes, the beloved "N/A" option. How many times I've used that on any variety of forms.

Well congratulations on the offer. How old are you if you don't mind me asking? (trying to get a rough idea of what is "normal" for a masters as most of my friends went straight into theirs after final year)

The application I was looking at involved amongst other things, having to submit examples of undergrad work in that field (2,000 word each), which I most certainly don't have, and a draft proposal or something of what your dissertation would be!! :eek:

Once again, why can't it just be "here's my undergrad results, either let me in, or don't!"

pow wow

26....I did undergrad late tho so I am heading for postgrad straight from my first degree.

I managed to get offers from everywhere I wanted (just have to decide now) but did withdraw one where they wanted a research proposal because at that stage I had no idea what my thesis would be on (this was back in January before I'd even written my undergrad dissertation!). Now that I've decided no-one seems to care

Mrs. MacGyver

I listed everything, one was directly related to my Masters (my degree was in a totalyy different dicipline as is my current job). i still got in and am delighted. Honesty is the best.