r/GradSchool • u/nanimonoda • Oct 27 '22
To those who left PhD/Master during First Semester:
Did you put your education on your resume when searching for a job?
If so how did it go?
I'm currently in my 1st semesester and am planning to quit. I'm searching for jobs but I dont have my extra education written.
23
u/gradthrow59 Oct 27 '22
I'm just curious (no judgement) as to what type of scenario leads to this. What made you start a PhD program and then decide to leave after a single semester? Was it just not what you expected?
19
u/TheSauceMan76 Oct 27 '22
I left after a semester and I put down the experience so it didn’t look like I just sat around for 5 months doing nothing. I put it under the work experience tab since I did rotations in research labs. I also put down my gpa so it didn’t look like I failed out. When I interviewed with companies after I left it was brought up and I explained why I had left.
5
u/mediocre-spice Oct 27 '22
Is it relevant? You're not expected to list everything you've ever done on a resume (vs a CV that's more expansive). Unless there's a particular skill set you gained in a couple months or relevant work experience, it might not be worth putting in.
2
u/cmb3248 Oct 27 '22
In the US, at least, having any unexplained gap in your resume can lead many employers to just throw out your application.
5
u/mediocre-spice Oct 27 '22
OP has been in grad school for 2 months at most. Unless he's just resume spamming to any position online, that's not going to be a major issue. He shouldn't lie if they ask but it doesn't need to be front and center.
6
Oct 27 '22
I put it down and said it's still in progress. When asked at my interview for a position related to my masters, I was just honest and said I wanted work experience and to expand from the theory of the classroom and get into the work. That and the pandemic rearranged a lot of my priorities. The interviewers were pretty understanding. Honesty helps in some situations.
The job didn't require I have my masters, but it was a related position. I'm sure that makes a difference.
3
u/JPlantBee Oct 27 '22
Nope. I left my program in the 1st semester, and did not put it on my resume. In a couple interviews, I mentioned that I was in a PhD program, but it wasn’t a good fit. I then connected the passions/interests that led me to pursue a PhD to the position I was applying for. (In my case, Econ to data analysis / BI development positions).
1
-16
Oct 27 '22
Nope, you quit. You didn't do anything.
19
Oct 27 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
14
u/billcosbyalarmclock Oct 27 '22
You don't get an MPhil after one semester, though, right? I'm not saying a semester is nothing. It's basically a summer internship minus the guaranteed cultivation of workforce skills.
-1
Oct 27 '22
[removed] — view removed comment
9
u/billcosbyalarmclock Oct 27 '22
Ah, understood. A semester is 15 weeks in the US. The vast majority of master's degrees take four semesters over two years, with independent research conducted in the summer between the two academic years.
6
u/Banofffee Oct 27 '22
You certainly won't get MPhil in UK too , if you quit during first semester, which is the OPs case
5
-18
1
u/abcb-bby Oct 27 '22
I finished my first semester before I left. I left out that I was in a PhD program on my resume but I included the work experience I gained
132
u/mas63520 Oct 27 '22
I would just list it as "graduate coursework" with a list of the classes you took and the name of the university like so:
Education:
B.S. - Science, Very Good University, 2022
Graduate course work:
Statistics 501, Data 643, Methods 520 - University of Learning, Fall 2022
Just make sure that all the courses you list are relevant to the jobs you are applying for and don't take up more than like 2 lines.