Resume Mistakes that Sabotage Getting Interviews – Pharmacist Jobs
Resume Mistake #1:
Being lazy and writing a generic resume to send out to every position
Being lazy is tempting, because it makes you feel productive by blasting off your resume to many places. Let me guess. After you hit the send button, you feel a sense of relief as if your problem is solved. Even if it’s just for a moment, you feel a sense of accomplishment. You’ve done something about the pain of not being satisfied in your current position, or not having another job lined up. You hope that the pharmacy hiring managers will be impressed by you because they can just tell from your resume you’d be perfect for the position.
The hard truth: Pharmacy hiring managers and pharmacy directors are busy people. When they are looking at potential candidates, they sift through resumes to see who seems to have the most relevant experience. If you didn’t spend the time to tailor your resume to the position, you will be set aside.
There is more competition for pharmacist jobs than in the past, so it matters more now than ever. Even in a job market that is less saturated with pharmacists, there is (and always will be) competition for the jobs with the best schedule, salary, and work environment.
Resume Mistake #2:
Resume looks like it was just something you “had to do”, rather than your best foot forward
Appearance counts. Period.
Not only does content matter, but the format, layout, and having a clear strategy that conveys your sizzle matters in the presentation of the resume. Some resumes I’ve seen have no spacing in between lines. Others are not consistent in the layout. Some just list responsibilities in a way that looks the same as every other pharmacist’s resumes.
You may be one who cares about the appearance of your resume, but you don’t actually realize that your resume looks like you don’t care. Many pharmacists fall under this category. As with any situation, we cannot see ourselves. That’s why even the best tennis players, golfers, and even business owners have coaches/teachers. We are not any different as pharmacists. You write a resume and are proud of what you’ve written, but do you really know for sure how it measures up to your competition?
How would you know? Listen to my free teleseminar “How to Write a Kick Ass Resume That Stops Getting Tossed”. You are invited to it, if you are someone who wants to get ahead of your competition in this tough pharmacist job market.
Resume Mistake #3:
Qualified, but doesn’t make it to the top of the resume pile
Some pharmacists have told me that because they are qualified for a position, the “(hiring manager) should see from my resume that I have the experience.” But why should a pharmacy hiring manager choose you?
The hard truth: It isn’t only about how qualified you are, but how well you convey that in an eye-catching way regarding why you are “the one” for the position. Your resume needs to be concise, easy-to-understand, and market yourself well so that stand out from the crowd of competition.
I had an experienced pediatric pharmacist interested in having me represent him for a pediatric pharmacist job in another state. His resume at first glance looked ok…it had descriptive words under responsibilities (but I will tell you about it later what was lacking). After talking to him, I felt that he would be a strong candidate for the position. My team told the pharmacy hiring manager about him and they wanted to see his resume. They saw his resume and the answer was they were not interested in interviewing him. His resume confused the hiring manager because of the way he had written it . The responsibilities also did not convey his peds experience in a way that gave the “wow” factor. He was also written off because the hiring manager was confused about the timeline of his work history. Now, we were able to do damage control in this situation, and the hiring manager is open to seeing his updated resume that shows off his actual Sizzle, but there have been many other times when I’ve seen pharmacists miss out on opportunities and not get a 2nd chance. Keep in mind that HR does not always know pharmacy well, but they often involved in the screening process.
Stop sabotaging your job search results because you don’t recognize your own limitations. If you’re ready to learn what to do to transform your resume to get more interviews for the jobs you deserve, join us in the next “Kick Ass Resume” Bootcamp, where I will be teaching pharmacists how to create their “Sizzle”, write their ‘Kick Ass Resume” Blueprint, and reverse-engineer their resume to write a Kick Ass Resume that rises to the top.
