TRUTH SERUM with Little Miss Pharmacist…No-nonsense wisdom to help you avoid personal and professional pitfalls in your hospital practice.
Dear Little Miss Pharmacist,
I just finished my 3rd year in pharmacy school and I’m working as a pharmacy technician in a hospital. How can I increase my chances of landing a scarce hospital pharmacist job (in the same region where I work now) when I graduate next year?
Sincerely, Jo B Hunter
Dear Jo,
In my world, the job market IS tightening up. You need to set yourself apart from all the other applicants who are, let’s face it, equally as qualified as you – once the ink on that license dries. Barring a hospital residency after graduation (which would definitely open doors for you) this is the time to put on your game face.
The first thing you need to do is excel at your current job. These are the managers and supervisors who will either make or break your professional reference. It’s a small pharmacy community, so whatever you do, don’t burn any bridges. Be conscientious in your day-to-day dispensary functions. No dumb mistakes. Be polite and helpful. Ask if there are any projects or tasks that need to be undertaken over the summer. Organize your workspace and keep it tidy. Arrive on time. Always be busy. Don’t complain.
I suggest requesting a brief meeting with your supervisor/manager to state your lofty goal and to ask them for advice also, especially if your work history is not as stellar as you’d like it to be. Indeed, if that’s the case, ask them for frank feedback as to how to improve your performance review, and then designate two deadlines – one near the end of summer and one next spring – to discuss your progress. This demonstrates that you really mean business.
Next, ask your supervisor if you can “shadow” some pharmacists. If they can’t allow it on work time, ask if you can come in on your own time. Yes, I’m serious.
Job shadowing is a great way to learn “hands-on” about aspects of various hospital practice – surgery, medicine, critical care, emergency, oncology, renal, psychiatry, pediatrics, whatev – and importantly, how each area is more or less suited to you. Moreover, the knowledge and experience you gain will undoubtedly improve your performance in the all-important job interview next year.
Ask the pharmacists if you can attend their committee meetings, patient care rounds, and educational events with them. Talk to them about their performance expectations, challenges, and rewards. As a 4th year pharmacy student, your observational “fly-on-the-wall” experience is short-lived. Take advantage of it. And, as geeky as it sounds, take notes!
The key to preparing for a job interview is to have several real-world work-related “stories” in the forefront of your mind. (Hence those handy notes!) You do not want to be sitting there blankly “uhh, uhhhh, uhhhhhing” while you try to think of something brilliant.
They must be stories that illustrate the skills and knowledge and KEENNESS that you possess in spades – the initiative that sets you apart from Joe Shmoe, the gold-medal-getting but socially-retarded fellow 2011 Pharmacy grad.
Next, think of tough situational questions that the interviewer might ask you. Then, to brilliantly answer these, you can effortlessly draw on your fabulous stories.
Here’s an example: “Tell us about an ethical situation that you have experienced or observed. What did you learn from it?”
Tough one, right? Meh.
You‘ve got it licked, keener, because you went to an Ethics Resource Team meeting over lunch in June, 2010 (while shadowing Pharmacist X) when they discussed an ethical case where the oncology nurses felt moral distress (excellent use of jargon!) by administering doctor’s orders for half-dose, futile chemotherapy to that palliative grandmother, mostly because her granddaughter had insisted they do so. And thus, you learned that autonomy is an ethical principle that is balanced by non-maleficence (more excellent use of jargon!), and that the perspective of each person involved in this situation is individual and unique to that person’s experience.
Aren’t you a smart cookie?
Because the beauty of it all is that this same story could have just as brilliantly answered other tough interview questions such as “What have you done to learn more about hospital pharmacy practice?” or “Give an example of how a real-world experience has supplemented your formal pharmacy education?” or “Tell us a time when you performed above and beyond your work expectations?”
I could go on, but you get the gist. This means, my friend, that you’d better get busy acquiring relevant stories to share with your future employer.
So, as they say in Transcona, Manitoba: “Give ‘er!”
DISCLAIMER: The material on this website does not constitute advice and you should not rely on any material in this website to make (or refrain from making) any decision or take (or refrain from making) any action. Cheers.