ASHP Midyear – Setting Yourself Up to Be Overlooked for Pharmacist Jobs
ASHP Clinical Midyear Meeting is coming around the corner.
A lot of pharmacists who go to ASHP to interview for a residency or job think their experience or personality will speak for itself…until they show up and see that they are only part of a herd of cattle. Everyone is dressed in dark suits and being asked the same interview questions. Do you realize how everyone starts to sound the same and resumes look the same after awhile?
(For those of you who are NOT going….if you are job hunting right now, do you know confidently that you will beat out your competition?)
Here’s how to stop being part of the herd of cattle. If you miss an important step, you will be in the herd.
1. Figure out what’s important to you. Write down your preferred job situation (practice setting environment, schedule, salary, geographic location). Take a moment to think about your “must haves” and “negotiable” desires.
Be clear about why you want a new job. Not only is it important to figure this out for yourself, a potential employer will want to know this. If your desire for the position doesn’t make sense (ie, you are not wanting the job for the right reasons), you are less likely to stay. As a result, you may be a less desirable pharmacist candidate to an employer, so you are less attractive. You are also not likely to be as happy in your new job.
2. Figure out how to impress, starting out with your sizzle. Your sizzle is your unique pizzaz that makes you special from any other pharmacist. It inspires a hiring manager to want more. You will use it to write your resume that rises to the top and to make your first impression in a conversation with a hiring manager. You will also use your sizzle in the interview to stand out from your competition.
This foundation to your job search will move you from feeling frustrated to taking control of your job search. Creating your sizzle is step one of the 5-step formula I teach in the Kick Ass Resume Bootcamp to help you rise to the top of the resume pile. Get access to the free prerequisite training teleseminar: “5 Simple Secrets: How to Write a Kick Ass Resume that Stops YOU From Getting Tossed.”
3. Tap into the hidden job market. This is one of the biggest challenges you have shared with me. How to find jobs before other pharmacists find out about them and how to approach your interest. Stay tuned—I will be teaching this soon.
4. Create a resume that rises to the top of the pile. Learn the #1 thing you need to change about how you’re writing your resumes, if you care to get noticed (not knowing this can cost you many interviews). Write a resume that leaves a hiring manager wanting more & inviting you in for an interview.
5. Ace the interview with confidence. I will be creating a series of videos to help you get the edge in your interviews at the ASHP Midyear Meeting or elsewhere. Be the first to get them when they come out.
Do you want to be busy in your job search, or do you want more interviews and job offers to choose from? Evaluate whether you have currently control of your job search and what you will do differently to gain control back.
Wishing you all luck when you get to your interviews. Whether you learn from me or someone else, learn from a pharmacist job market expert whose job is to get pharmacists on the top of the resume pile. Don’t rely solely on fellow pharmacists, preceptors, or professors who may have a limited view of what it’s taking to beat out the competition right now.
If you are doing all of the above….and there isn’t something fundamentally wrong with your work history (ie, frequent job hopping), your fit with the company, or how well you get along with others, you should be getting offers you deserve….even in this tough job market.
