Peculiar Professional History??

[Cinji18]

I am filling out the school applications, and having an unsettling time filling out my employment history because it's slightly unconventional.

I was an engineer for 5 years until 2 years ago when I started my own consulting company in a completely different industry. Unfortunately, the business is less than successful, so the revenue, my salary, and hours worked were minimal. Yet on the application, these are required fields to fill in. I'm afaid these numbers may be so low that they may cause suspicion about whether I really worked or not. Should I go ahead and state these low numbers, then attempt to explain myself in the essays? Or should I fill-in the info from when I was an engineer since that is the majority of my professional life?

[ayankm]

I am filling out the school applications, and having an unsettling time filling out my employment history because it's slightly unconventional.

I was an engineer for 5 years until 2 years ago when I started my own consulting company in a completely different industry. Unfortunately, the business is less than successful, so the revenue, my salary, and hours worked were minimal. Yet on the application, these are required fields to fill in. I'm afaid these numbers may be so low that they may cause suspicion about whether I really worked or not. Should I go ahead and state these low numbers, then attempt to explain myself in the essays? Or should I fill-in the info from when I was an engineer since that is the majority of my professional life?

On the contrary i think it shows a good amount of courage and zeal to do something new on your part. Imagine how many students will actually leave a 5 yr old job to start something new in a totally different field.
I feel you can use this to your advantage by citing the efforts you have put in and the fact that you came out of your comfort zone. Good luck for your admission.

[Jessica@VeritasPrep]

I agree with the above poster, and, most importantly, you need to be honest. If you didn't work (plenty of people have been laid-off) then that is what you put. If you lost money on a venture, I'd write that. I think it is preferable not to have large gaps in employment, but, bottom line is that you need to write the truth! You can absolutely use the essays to explain.