General Admissions & OTCAS Employment Section on OTCAS

[cdal06]

Hello everyone! This is unfortunately my second time applying to OT school. However I am finishing up my application within the next day or two. I am looking for some advice on the one section of the application where I can enter my employment history.

Unfortunately, I've never had a job in healthcare previously. Has anyone dealt with the same issue? Most of my jobs have been administrative positions.

I have two questions. (1) What jobs should I include on my application? Full-time jobs, part-time jobs, temporary jobs? How far should I go back on my employment history, since graduating college? As I said, the jobs I have previously held were in no way related to Occupational Therapy. (2) With my current full-time job, my colleagues nor my supervisor are aware that I am applying to these MOT programs. On OTCAS, there's a box that says "May we contact your employer?" and currently, I do not have that box checked. Has anyone ever done this? Does this look suspicious to schools? My plan was to contact the admissions departments for the schools I am applying to, explain my situation (my employer doesn't know), and then confirm that because I did not have that box checked, they will not reach out to my current employer. Or would this plan make me look bad to schools? I just want to make sure that when I ask them not to reach out, the schools will not.

Thank you to anyone who could help!

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[nOTeworthy]

I only had one job related to healthcare, but it was in information technology. All my other jobs were retail, food, oil, or admin assisting. I listed them all and allowed them to contact them (they more than likely won't). It didn't affect my application, since all my schools accepted me. Go for it. Most schools aim for diverse classrooms, so it's not ideal to pull people all from health backgrounds. It's part of the holistic process.

 

[proapplicant]

none of my jobs were health related either- i included a few but not all of them based on what they were. i didn't include any jobs i had in high school/college or seasonal positions- like retail and food. i checked some boxes saying they could contact them, others i did not check based on if i was still in contact with co-workers. i really think this page is no big deal at all and i was never asked about it nor have i ever heard of anyone else being questioned. (side note: volunteer/observation hrs is the more important page). schools aren't looking to get you, if they need more info they'll ask you for it.

 

[MrTL]

You don't have to check the box that says they can contact your current employer. Schools should understand that you can't risk your current job to take on another opportunity. I'm assuming most schools won't have the time to contact people beyond your LOR anyway. So, check "no" and be at ease. Nothing to worry about.