Work experience: narrow/broad?

Graduate School
1

<p>Is narrow good or is broader better? Narrow seems logical for those applying to very specific programs… but I’m afraid my interests have been all over the place. </p>

<p>That being said, will having all sorts of experiences be detrimental to my application? Because personally, I think having a wide range of interests can be very beneficial.</p>

<p>I’ve done work as a tutor for the college, a college newspaper editor-in-chief, a part time clerical job for the advising department… (all paid by the school, clerical job being work study, and the other two were not.) P.S. this might sound really stupid, but I did the tutoring and the newspaper at the same time, does that count as one year or two years :X.</p>

<p>Outside of the school arena, I’ve done work in private news corporations, as a copy editor, an embedded reporter for a month, and then later on as an intern coordinator. (it’s fun bossing other kids around, and getting paid to do it is DOUBLELY so.)</p>

<p>As for unpaid work, I did an internship for one semester for the college media advisers thingy.</p>

<p>I just graduated this spring, and one of my professors hooked me up with a colleague of his that is “emertius” but still publishing. So now I’m his research slave for this entire year till I get into school next fall (hopefully) + I get to have my name in the publication/as well as getting paid. </p>

<p>After having said all this I guess I’ve had narrow experience in media publishing… but I’m interested in Polsci/IR. The professor I’m working with now is specialized in international law, so I hope that’s relevant to the field. I also graduated with a government degree as well.</p>

<p>What I’m saying is, almost none of my ‘work experience’ has nothing to do with political science, that would probably hurt me right? :(</p>

2

<p>Anyone? I have views but no comments?</p>

<p>Would it help if I posted my stats?</p>

<p>630V/660Q/3.6</p>

3

<p>Hopefulgrad, I think no one has answered because no one knows. </p>

<p>Your goals and area of intended study aren’t that clear, either. Maybe being more specific will help.</p>

4

<p>Thanks Momwaitingfornew, I’ll try to be clearer.</p>

<p>My main worry is that most of my jobs had nothing to do with political science/international relations; save for the research I’m doing now. I assume this will put me at a disadvantage with those that interned with the UN or National/Local government.</p>

<p>Another worry comes from the fact that many admissions FAQs said their average applicant has anywhere from 3-4 years of work experience. With exception to my current job, the work I did before overlap each other. For instance, while I was tutoring I was also a working for a news company. Would this count as only 1 year? or would they count separately? Then again, does tutoring count if it was an internal school position? The same goes for being editor-in-chief of the school newspaper (I was paid a stipend to do this.)</p>

<p>As a tutor: 1 year.
EIC/News Editor of school newspaper: 1 year. (won an award at a conference)
Clerical job: 1 year. (the position was labeled Peer Adivsor, but I don’t want to dress it up because they mainly had me do clerical stuffs.)</p>

<p>For the news company, I started off as an assistant copy editor, then a full copy editor when my boss quit, then they sent me off for a summer to cover a long-term story, and then head editor of copy-editing/coordinating interns: 2 years.</p>

<p>With all that added together, that would be 5 years. But I highly doubt they would calculate it on a per job basis. Instead they would probably combine some experiences together and make it 2-3 years total. Or they can throw it all out of window and say, this has nothing to do with political science. </p>

<p>Basically, with my hat in my hands, I hope they regard my work experience as 3 years total which includes the entire year of research I am doing now. </p>

<p>And to answer your question about my goal/intended area of study: current guidance from the professor I’m working with is discouragement from intelligence. I originally wanted to pursue a position with one of the members of the IC or federal/state law enforcement. I wanted to do this by securing a security studies education. I know I probably won’t get into SIPA or SAIS, but my highest target would be SFS… including Korbel, Pittsburgh, and Mercyhurst as a safety. With most of my experience being in journalism, I might be wrong to assume intelligence production a completely different field… but I think the main attributes are there: finding the information… verifying it… putting the knowledge together to make a bigger picture. </p>

<p>After much debating, he wanted me to explore more options in academia. His field is international law, so he’s pointed me in directions like studying NATO and European Constitutions involving emergency war powers. I didn’t disagree with him; I found it interesting as well. But since my GRE/GPA are not good enough for a Ph.D, I intend to enroll in a masters program first. I figure I’ll try to keep my options open incase I don’t get accepted to my original intentions.</p>

<p>There, that is the most specific I can get without disclosing any personal data. :P</p>

5

<p>Although I don’t know much about IR grad schools, my guess is that you’ll be a stronger candidate with more experience; however, it doesn’t hurt (other than time and application fees) to give it a shot.</p>

<p>I recommend that you do NOT call your “peer advisor” job “clerical.” Use your title. So what if it was mostly clerical work? When bio people say that they worked in labs, they all started out doing menial lab work before gaining the experience to do their own research, but they will indeed count that first exposure as lab experience.</p>

<p>If you don’t get in, you might want to explore some government or NGO work to give your application more weight next time around.</p>

<p>There’s an IR/MPP thread. Politely ask those participants to look at this thread. If they don’t, you’ll have to accept that either no one knows or cares to evaluate.</p>

6

<p>It’s also a matter of how you write our statement of purpose. If you don’t have relevant experience, I would really state your interest in this field through your SOP. You can use your work experience to perhaps highlight the skills you gained and how that would benefit you in an IR career. </p>

<p>You might also want to consider retaking your GRE because as someone who has had more experience in journalism, your writing score does not reflect this. Have a score below 4 for writing may not look so great on your application. Some things to think about.</p>