What I am Thankful For – It’s NOT Pharmacy
As the year comes to an end, I am thankful for the experience you have allowed me to give you this year. I am appreciative of all of you who are a part of my pharmacist community & who inspire me to fulfill my mission. Thank you for letting me live my passion of teaching and inspiring you to work a fulfilling job AND live the ultimate life.
Many of you have been offered pharmacy jobs you want under my guidance. You have learned not to settle (in the big picture perspective) for what you want, as you took what I taught and implemented it in your job search.
A pharmacy career that has at moments given me doubt and made me question why I went into pharmacy….has evolved into my helping you get jobs and interviews faster. It was an indirect path to living my passion (I came from a few generations of teachers). And for that, I am grateful.
I confess, I wrote the title just to catch your attention.
May you finish out the year feeling grateful for how you’ve touched patients’ lives. May you feel thankful for being a pharmacist, which has taken you to a place where you are today– both professionally and personally. May you enjoy this journey of discovery to live your passion within pharmacy (or maybe outside of pharmacy). Let’s continue along in our journey together. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving , and may we enjoy the rest of this year & start out next year in gratitude.
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.
Temporary IHS Pharmacy Jobs – Indian Health Service – Selecting Travel Assignments
If your career path has crossed working with the Indian Health Service at some point in time, whether as a pharmacist or student completing a rotation, chances are that you will work with the IHS at another point in your career in some capacity down the road.
For pharmacists who are waiting for their Commissioned Corps call to active duty right now, an option available to you is working temporary pharmacist assignments through a pharmacist staffing agency that offers Indian Health Service assignments. This allows you to work in the IHS setting without losing out on experience and pay, while waiting for your paperwork to come through.
If you are recently retired from the Indian Health Service and wanting to do some relief work, travel assignments can be a great way for you to stay connected with the IHS, make money to supplement your retirement, and work when you want to.
If you are currently working for a relief agency and working in the IHS setting, but want to have more desirable work environments and locations to choose from, do research on how you can get the opportunity to do IHS assignments in desirable settings.
If you have worked for the Indian Health Service at some point in time, whether as a pharmacist or had exposure as a JRCOSTEP or during a rotation, doing contract pharmacist work in between jobs or as a career can be options to consider. One IHS-experienced pharmacist Read more
Pharmacist Job Market Update
Here’s the latest pharmacist job market update:
More job opportunities are opening up for pharmacists, as pharmacies & companies are more interested in hiring, compared to late 2009. Positions are getting filled quickly in areas saturated by pharmacists, especially those that are staff level ones with desired shifts. It is refreshing to see some pharmacies ready to hire and quick to make decisions. Pharmacists are having to beat other pharmacists to the punch, because once a coveted position becomes available, pharmacies are being flooded with applicants.
On the flip side, I am seeing other pharmacies take extra care in waiting for the right pharmacist, more so than in the past. I know one hospital that waited 8 months to find the right critical care pharmacist. The pharmacy director chose not to look at critical care trained residents who had only one year of experience beyond residency, nor critical care pharmacists without a residency. Their minimum requirements were that the pharmacist had to be PGY2 critical care residency-trained and have at least 2 years of critical care experience as a pharmacist. And the pharmacy director was willing to wait for someone who met that criteria and was the right fit.
I know another hospital that has waited months for the right candidate for a clinical coordinator position. They have been waiting for someone who is cream of the crop. Even staff pharmacist roles are not immune to this type of extra selectivity and hiring managers waiting for the right person. One pharmacy in Northern California has had a staff pharmacist opening for a few months. Despite receiving many qualified candidates, they have chosen to hold off on hiring until finding someone who is the perfect candidate.
Clinical specialists that are in high demand are Read more
One Truth About Pharmacist Recruiters – Exposed
It is frustrating to me to see this happen so much right now that I just had to blog about this today. I am seeing qualified pharmacists get passed up by hiring managers because they have not taken the time to market themselves in their resume tailored to the position they’ve asked me to represent them for.
Here’s one truth about pharmacist recruiters—exposed. I think a misconception pharmacists have about working with recruiters is that recruiters will be able to get you over the hurdle of being just a resume on someone’s desk because they will be able to verbally tell their contact about why you should be considered for a position, so you don’t need to do much to represent yourself well in a resume.
Recruiters can definitely move you in front of the pile of resumes. However, just as with networking, even if a recruiter provides you with the value of a direct connection and markets you to a decision-maker, the hiring manager still wants to see your strengths and responsibilities relevant to the position backed up by your resume. If you choose to highlight other things instead, or gloss over your related pharmacist experience, you can still be passed up even if you are qualified.
For example, there is one hospital that is looking for a pharmacist who has started up an anticoagulation clinic or set up other pharmacy-run clinics. That is a key responsibility they are looking for. I know a pharmacist who has had experience setting up pharmacy-run clinics, but she chose to just highlight in her resume all the anticoagulation clinic experience she’s had, not the experience she’s had in setting up a pharmacy-run clinic. It cost her an interview.
I know another pharmacist who didn’t answer objections upfront about things that a hiring manager could have concerns about within his resume. It was not clear within the resume why he had transitioned positions within a 1.5-2 year period for the last few jobs, all of which were reasonable circumstances. Even though it may be explained to a pharmacy hiring manager by a recruiter, hiring managers are busy and can forget. When the hiring manager gets a chance to look over your resume, he/she passes a judgment based on what they see.
My advice to you is get clear about the responsibilities of the position you’re applying for and take the time to address those specific responsibilities as much as you can. Also meet potential objections upfront someone may have about why you would be a good fit for the position.
Sometimes you can think you’ve addressed this the best as possible without realizing how 1) you have really undersold yourself, 2) you have not crafted your resume to market yourself to give yourself the best chance possible to be invited in for an interview. Whether you tap into my teachings or another expert with my credentials, get a resume critique before you send off your resume/application. Doing it yourself without expert feedback will only get you so far. It will cost you interviews. You have no idea how many times you are getting passed over because of something that you can take control over, if you just took that extra step to get feedback. You deserve the best shot, especially for positions that you are qualified for.
Remember, if you do the same thing you’ve always done, it’s not going to work in this pharmacist job market where you have lots of competition. Take what you’ve learned from this and change what you are doing so you get better results.
Timing is Everything
I was thinking about this the other day– how timing is everything. And how it plays an important role in getting hired for the job you want. If only…. you heard about the job one step before another pharmacist, you would have been the last one to be considered for an interview because that was the cutoff before they stopped accepting applications. If only… you had answered the phone when a recruiter called you about a job opportunity that met your criteria, you would have heard about a position you wanted to be considered for.
I suppose it makes you wonder if, in the end, it was all meant to be. Whether you were truly meant to be to work as a clinical inpatient pharmacist, or you were actually meant to transition into a home infusion pharmacist position….perhaps whatever ended up happening was just fate. At the same time, if you leave everything to chance without doing what you can control, you will leave things on the table.
Getting the pharmacist position you want is in many ways like meeting the significant other of your dreams. If you sit around at home with the right intentions & wait for your dream guy or woman to show up, you will not have as good chances as if you made the effort to be in a situation more conducive to attract the significant other you are looking for.
Getting the job you want is about being at the right place at the right time, and being prepared. If you have the connections without a plan to ace the interview, you have missing pieces to getting hired. If you know how to market yourself in an interview and “talk yourself into a job”, but don’t get invited for interviews, you will fall short of getting offers you deserve. If you want to close in the gap of missing pieces to get interviews & offers faster, look into joining the next session of the “Get the Job” Premium Membership Program. If you prefer to do the same thing you’ve been doing, you can. Just be aware that other pharmacists who decide to take control of their search will have an advantage over you.
Share your story of being at the right place at the right time when you got the job you wanted. Comment below–I want to hear about them! Inspire other pharmacists to be at the right place at the right time.
Interview Coming Up? Get the Job!
You’ve done the work to market yourself to stand out from your competition. You’ve been requested for an in-person interview. It’s time to get the job!
Here are a few things to check off from your interview checklist:
1. Prepare for the interview enough that you’re comfortable to ask for the job.
Know the names & titles of everyone you will be interviewing with. This includes key interviewers within the pharmacy, HR, and perhaps people such as the CEO. Prepare for your interview by anticipating the questions that will be asked of you. Decide how you will answer challenging questions. Research and figure out questions to ask that are both important to you and which reflect on your interest in the position that you are applying for. Plan to ask for the job at the end. Asking for the job is something that most pharmacists are not used to doing. There is an art to it and the pharmacists who know how tend to get the job.
Go through the interview process by asking a pharmacist job market expert to do a mock interview with you. This will give you an advantage over other applicants. You will have practiced interview questions being asked in this job market and ace the interview with confidence.
I know a pharmacist who has been able to talk herself into jobs that others haven’t been able to. It is because she is amazing with marketing herself. She will be a guest on our upcoming invitation-only teleseminar “How to Get the Job You Want Without the Experience”. The teleseminar will be useful to pharmacists who don’t have the specific experience for a position, but want to apply for a pharmacist position in a different practice setting. It will also be useful to new pharmacy residents & grads. The first 32 pharmacists who enroll in the “Get the Job” Membership program will be invited to attend.
Many pharmacists are imbalanced on what part of the interview process they are good at. Some are good at getting the interview, but not the job. Others are good at getting the job, but have trouble getting interviews. The good news is that this is something that can be learned. You just need to have a handle on the secret of what works & what doesn’t in this tight job market.
2. Get directions ahead of time. Map it out via Google Maps or Mapquest. I prefer Google Maps because it also gives you the estimated time in traffic. Also, call to request directions. Someone familiar with the area will be able to give you landmarks that make it easier to find where you need to go. Have the phone # of the interview location handy, in case you get lost.
3. Look and feel sharp. Take care in presenting yourself to make a memorable first impression, from brushing your hair neatly, to dressing professionally in colors that complement your skin tone. It is better to overdress one notch than to under dress. When you feel sharp, you radiate confidence and the hiring managers can feel that.
3. Bring a few hard copies of your resume. This offers something tangible for the hiring managers to hold on to. They have it ready and can make notes on it if they wish. Few pharmacists actually do this, so you would be standing out by bringing this to your interview.
What part of the interview checklist have you done in the past and gotten results from? What part do you have challenges with? Share your experiences below.
Good luck at your interview! Remember, give yourself the best chance possible–you only have one shot.