Work Experience in SOP

[WebbsInferno]

Hi all, I am currently a forensic scientist looking to go back to school for my Phd in Chemistry. I found a great program, that, honestly I wish I had heard about it sooner or I would of applied straight after my undergrad. But, in life things happen for reasons. After being in the field a year already my drive to continue my education has increased tremendously partly because of some mentors, partly because of the current trends and partly due to my own ambitions and what I want out of my career, not that I've been in it day in and day out. 

 

I have a summer research experience in organic chemistry (I enjoyed it a lot, but left due to me getting my current position) and have identified a PI who's research actually sounds like something I want to be part of. 

 

My question is, how do I word work experience into the SOP? After going through the threads, I've seen it could either benefit you are be a detriment. What's the best way to go about it so it makes the admissions committee see your potential. Thanks ya'll!

[WebbsInferno]

*now, not "not".

[fuzzylogician]

My question is, how do I word work experience into the SOP? After going through the threads, I've seen it could either benefit you are be a detriment. What's the best way to go about it so it makes the admissions committee see your potential. Thanks ya'll!

 

It's useful to bring up your work experience if it connects in a meaningful way with what you hope to do in grad school or beyond. So if the work gives you relevant research experience, that's an easy one. If it helped you somehow better define your future career goals, you can talk about how that came about. If you want to combine some things you learned there into your future research, that's also relevant. If you learned transferrable skills, you can explain that. On the other hand, if it's completely unrelated work in another field, you'd have to ask yourself if it adds to the image of yourself that you want to project through your SOP or if it's just making the reader trudge through more verbiage before they get to the main point (=what you want to do, why at Uni X, how your past prepares you for your chosen career path). If that's the case, then it's questionable whether it does you any good. Being one year out of school is not something you need to explain, and there are other places to list your post-BA employment than your SOP.