Dr Zuleyka Zevallos

But many applicants are told NOT to include this type of thing. If it really matters then you should ask them.

Agreed, I was being a bit sarcastic. I definitely wouldn't advise people to put it on their CV but maybe work it into a sentence in the essay in regards to work ethic and experience.

I put ALL my customer service experience on my CV throughout my early career. Used it to get my first research leadership role in a science organisation. Used examples of my management, interpersonal & conflict solving skills working as waitress, retail & in delicatessen/ seafood

I'm a first-gen, poor, working class migrant #WOC & these roles were the way I wholly supported myself through university, without family help given our financial position. I'm proud of this work & the skills gained helped my career development, including my path as a scientist.

I hear you. I worked retail and other minimum wage jobs through HS and college, too. But I think many now are getting advice not to share that. And the honest truth is that sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad. Hard to give universal guidance.

If students are getting this advice, I would question where it comes from and to what aim. The fact is that few students from underprivileged backgrounds can afford to do unpaid internships or have connections to get into early research programs to have "pure science" experience

Not having a publication record from undergrad experience appears to be a form of discrimination now being used in some grad school applications #academicgatekeeping

It turns out I had a publication from my undergrad research but I didn’t learn about it until just before I went up for full professor! (That’s neither here nor there, just a funny weird thing that happened to me.)