How to Find Pharmacy Jobs Before they Come Out

Q:  Chen, why is it that all the jobs that are posted on different pharmacy job boards and websites, when I actually apply, those jobs don’t exist?  How should I go about searching for a job?

A:  If you are applying for jobs online, you are already one step late to the game compared to some pharmacists who have heard about it before the job has been posted. In the current job market, although there are more pharmacy job openings than last year, things move fast for desirable positions because there are still many pharmacists looking.  When a position is posted online and is desirable (especially geographically), many applicants flood in.

By the time you get to applying, sometimes the positions are filled already. Why do you often encounter this?  Just as it took time for a hiring manager to post a job, it also takes time to remove a job posting.  This is why you may still see a position posted even though it’s already been filled.  Busy hiring managers simply haven’t had a chance to take them down yet.

Other times, a pharmacy may be still accepting applicants and it’s your responsibility to get yourself noticed through strategies I teach (and which most pharmacists aren’t doing), plus having a resume that stands out from your competition.  The first step to increasing your chances of being noticed for an interview is to understand how the hiring process works, allowing you to stay ahead of the game.

Once a hiring manager receives a certain number of applicants, he/she will likely review the first batch before moving to the second batch. However, there is some luck to this and it’s not black and white. Depending on the mood of the hiring manager, he/she may choose to look at the more recent batch of applicants rather than the earlier ones.  But as a general rule, if a hiring manager is staying on top of reviewing resumes, once he/she has determined that they have a good selection of applicants, they will not look at applicants who come in later, unless you give them a reason to.  What to do and say to give them a reason to look at you is an important part of what my training programs teach.

Job aggregate sites are now more common than before, such as sites like Indeed.com.  These sites make it easier for you to find relevant positions, but also make the jobs more visible to other pharmacists.  By the time you’ve applied, so have 15, 50 or 100+ pharmacists who have seen them on other sites.

So what do you do instead?  To improve your chances for getting interviews, one important strategy to learn is how to tap into the hidden job market. This is especially true for pharmacists looking for general positions, such as staff pharmacist or clinical pharmacist roles.  Specialized positions such as pediatric pharmacist jobs, pharmacy clinical coordinator jobs, or pharmacy director jobs take longer to fill, so those job openings may stay up longer.

That’s not to say that you should stop applying for jobs online. A successful way to look for pharmacy positions is a combination of searching online (and responding in a way that stands out by NOT doing what everyone else is doing) and other strategies that I will be teaching in the Tapping Into the Hidden Job Market Bootcamp.

In the meantime, join me in this FREE Teleseminar:

“How to Tap Into the Hidden Job Market to Beat Your Competition to the Interview”:
Thurs Feb 24, 2011

Register Now

(Register even if you cannot make it—you will be informed when it is held again)

You will learn:

• How to hear about jobs before they’re advertised
• Ways to get into a job that most pharmacists don’t know about
• 3 common mistakes pharmacist make that keep them from getting interviews
• How to find a good job when the job market is tight
• BONUS:  The best keywords to search for when looking for jobs

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