Bad Terms with a Potential Verifier

[Rtb9]

Hey all - I just had a quick question regarding verifiers & recent employment history. I'm hoping to apply to medical schools this upcoming year, and I'm not quite sure how to treat a rather unfortunate situation.

 

Essentially I was employed for 1-1.5 years with a company, and when I left, had quite the falling out with my now ex-boss to the point where I'm uncomfortable putting him as a verifier on upcoming applications. I'm sure he would have no problem confirming the details & hours of my verification, however I've been reading past posts, and it seems sometimes verifiers are asked more "open" questions. Needless to say, unless absolutely necessary, I'd rather not give that employer a chance to hurt my application or volunteer extra information in case he hasn't moved past what happened.

Does anyone have any idea if a colleague who was in a formal role of a "mentor" (responsible for aiding to develop clinical skills for more junior employees) would be an appropriate choice for a verifier? I did work with this person quite closely, and they would legitimately be able to verify my hours & details of work; however, they were not in supervisory role whatsoever like most applications guidelines require/request. It was a small company, so there isn't a manager or HR department I could use. Further, it's very easy to look up online to see on the company directory that I would have elected to not use my ex-boss as a verifier.

I'm hoping that I can somehow still use this in my employment history since it did involve patient contact in the medical field, and would hopefully reflect well. That said, if using an alternate verifier that is borderline inappropriate will end up hurting things in the long run, I guess I would consider omitting the entry altogether or taking the chance on using the ex-boss.

 

Does anyone have any advice about what to do or perhaps have any information about how much verifiers are asked (primarily, at UBC)? I appreciate any input!

[bearded frog]

AFAIK, the verifier doesn't have to be your boss, just somebody who can say, yes, X did work here between A and B. It doesn't have to be your boss and they don't have to go into detail about your performance as its not a recommendation. Like if there was a HR department they probably couldn't comment on your performance very much anyway, so no problem to use someone else at the company who wasn't your direct boss.