The Right Letter?

[trenttrenttrent]

Hi guys,

 

I'm applying to schools outside of the field in which I've spent my whole career so far, and I want to get a letter from the only long-term boss I'be had. She was my boss for three years, during which time she saw me grow tremendously. However, I left the job three years ago and have since had a couple of other positions, though none for nearly as long. Since my essays tend to focus on what I did in that job, as it has been the most formative professional experience I've had so far, should I try to secure her LOR, or is it OK to discuss to my experience in that job while my recs come from supervisors and colleagues at other jobs?

 

 

[themmases]

It's possible to use recs that don't precisely match up with the professional experiences you talk about. Two of my professional references were PIs and co-authors, so it's possible to see from my CV what projects they actually worked on with me if they hadn't talked about it themselves. Since I chose what projects to discuss based on each program's strengths, at some schools my references had been mentioned in my SOP and at others, not. It didn't seem to matter really. However, they were 2/3 of the most important people in my career so far and I think it was pretty clear why I chose them even if I didn't always center their project in my essay for some reason.

I'm confused about how you are choosing your references, though. If you're going to use a professional reference, it should be because your work with them was directly relevant to your educational goals. They should be able to comment on whether you would make a good graduate student and researcher (or practitioner if you are applying to a professional school), not just account for your time since leaving undergrad or say you were good at your old job. If you are changing fields, your old boss may not make a good reference no matter how important she was to a career that you're now leaving. And you definitely shouldn't spend your SOP talking about professional experience that is unrelated to the program or what you want to do with the degree.