Does work experience matter for admissions?

[econ_to_stats]

Background: I applied two years ago (Profile here: ) but decided to take a job offer working as an economist at a Fortune 500 company instead.  With this experience I decided that I strongly prefer academia to the private sector and am planning on reapplying this year.  Will this work experience help my chances for admission?  

 

Work Experience:  I've spent the last year and a half working for a Fortune 500 company building statistical/econometric models to forecast demand for their products.  Mostly multivariate time series and panel data modeling.  I don't plan on telling my employer until after I've accepted an offer somewhere, so there won't be any LORs from this job.  Will this experience improve my competitiveness for PhD programs in Stats and Biostats??

[StatsG0d]

From what I have read, a lot of people are coming from industry (including me, but I worked for an international organization as opposed to a private company). I doubt it would hurt you, and if anything it could help you if you can show off your new skills and how the experience shaped you to be a researcher.

[ginagirl]

It may raise questions if you don't have a letter from a year and a half long position however..

[bsharpe269]

I think it will be very helpful. Even if not academic experince, it is still great experience. In order for it to be helpful, you definitely need a letter from it though! It does not have to be from your direct supervisor maybe if you do not feel comfortable telling him now. Is there anyone else with a more senior position that can write a letter though? For example, somone in a team leader sort of position? Obviously without knowing your relationship with your boss, it is hard to give advice. I would encourage you to at least consider discussing this with him though since in my experience, most employers are supportive of this and it will make putting in your notice later much easier. Of course, your work environment may not be open to this sort thing so that could potenitally be unhelpful advice.

[Stat Assistant Professor]

I think the work experience might help a little bit if you can put it in your SoP and have your LoR writers allude to it. It is definitely not the most important thing though (for PhD admissions, maybe it's different for MS) -- you have to communicate mathematical readiness and research potential in your application (through your SoP, LoRs, etc.) above all else. Therefore, your grades in upper division math/stat courses and your letters of recommendation are the most important part of the application (the relative weight depends on your undergrad institution too -- e.g. if you went to UChicago, MIT, or another school known for grade deflation, then slightly lower grades may be okay, or if you have stellar grades from a prestigious schools, good but not great LoRs may suffice).

Edited October 14, 2014 by Applied Math to Stat

[wine in coffee cups]

I think work experience can help you come off as an interesting, mature person with more focused research directions and is helpful in that sense. However, I'm not sure it'll make you much more competitive than you were when you applied two years ago. The sense I get is that academic statisticians don't give work experience much weight in admissions relative to things like letters of recommendation, coursework, and grades. This is probably because your job experience has little to do with whether you're going to eventually pass PhD courses and qualifying exams. Also, most people involved in admissions have never held non-academic positions and just aren't going to be impressed by anything you did that wasn't scholarly research, though they might have a vague appreciation for positive personal qualities and technical skills you developed from working.

[econ_to_stats]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I guess I'll have to wait for admissions decisions to come out before I'll know for sure.