Not everyone starts their career thinking that they want to be a midwife.
So what happens if you think that the experience you have isn’t relevant? Will a university still accept your application? Should you bother applying?
Make your experience relevant
You might be pleased to know that midwives come from all ‘walks of life’ and different experiences. It doesn’t actually matter what your experience is as long as you can find a way to make it fit into being a midwife.
Keep in mind what you think a university might be looking for when you are writing your personal statement. Although everyone will be different it is standard that universities will be looking for someone that is professional, hardworking, offers good customer service, calm, friendly, aware of risk, organised.. the list can go on, but you get the idea!
Look at your experience with fresh eyes
You may be looking at studying midwifery straight from school and are concerned that you don’t have any relevant work experience, or you may have been working for many years in different areas and are just not sure how to make it fit into studying to be a midwife. You don’t have to have worked in health care to make it relevant. You can make your key skills fit and here are some examples:
You may think that administrative work would not be relevant to being a midwife. You may not work directly with the public but there are many transferrable skills to being a midwife. Being organised, documenting, working in a team, good communication with team and clients. Attention to detail, following procedures, good time keeping… sounds like a midwife to me!
You may think that there are not many similarities with working in a supermarket and being a midwife, but you would be wrong. Time keeping, communicating with members of the public, customer service, being intuitive to the needs of the individual, making a shopping experience as best as possible, conflict resolution.. are just a few examples of why this experience is very transferrable to being a midwife.
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All you need to make sure is that you make the links on your personal statement, don’t leave unanswered questions and spell out why your experience would mean that you will be a great midwife. By leaving gaps in your personal statement and leaving the universities guessing as to why you want to be a midwife is a mistake that may cost you the chance to be interviewed.
