Pharmacists: 10 Questions You Must Ask Before Accepting a Job
It’s a popular time of the year for pharmacists to look for jobs, with many new grads and pharmacy residents finishing up between now and June. Curious about when the best times are to apply for jobs? Click here to read a previous article about this.
Some pharmacists are concerned about not finding the right job in this market and are open to positions outside of what they would normally consider. But being “open to everything” can hurt you when you apply for positions.
Even when the pharmacy job market is tough, having a clear idea about the position you want will help you attract what you want. This will help you target your search and make a positive impression. At the same time, you want to be flexible during the decision-making process, because it is a tough job market, especially if you want to get into a position that leads to your desired career.
A common mistake for new pharmacy grads is primarily considering salary and becoming jaded after a few years. The decisions you make may be influences by the fact that it’s “just your first pharmacist job,” but the decisions you make in the first few years can shape your career path, so it’s worth spending time to pinpoint what’s important to you aside from setting or salar
y.
Before you say “Yes,” to your next position, think about the long-term implications of accepting a position. Here are 10 questions to ask yourself before accepting a position:
- How does the pharmacy/company’s values align with my values?
- Does the geographic area offer me what I enjoy doing in my spare time?
- How is my fit with the management and the pharmacy staff?
- Can I see myself here in 3-5 years?
Here are some insightful questions to ask a pharmacist in the position you will be working in to help you make your decision:
- What’s a typical workday like?
- What do you like best about what you do?
- What do you like least about what you do?
- How independently do you get to make decisions?
- What do you think the pharmacy will be like in one year & five years?
- Does this position set me up for growth in my career the way I want to?BONUS Question to Ask:
What changes would you make about the pharmacy if you could?
Want to find out the best way to approach getting the inside scoop to positions? Learn how to tap into the hidden job market and hear about positions before they come out.
And when you hear about a position, learn how to stand out from other pharmacists with similar background as you.
Listen to the FREE Teleseminar (Instant Access):
“How to Tap into the Hidden Job Market to Beat Your Competition to the Interview” to tap into the hidden job market. This is a prerequisite to the Advanced Hidden Job Market Bootcamp.
NOTE: Even though the live Advanced “Hidden Job Market Bootcamp” dates are over, you may get instant access at the special tuition.
How to Make the Most out of Pharmacists You Meet at APhA Meeting (or other Pharmacy Conferences) – to Get What You Want
Are you going to the APhA Meeting next week? Here’s how to make the most out of the contacts you’ll be meeting. Watch this video on the quick & easy steps to take that most pharmacists don’t think of doing when they attend a conference. You’ll love how simple they are. They will help you build relationships that can lead to you finding pharmacy jobs, sharing best pharmacy workflow/management practices, pharmacy residencies, developing friendships, and support that can get you to where you want to go professionally. Comment below on what you think about this video.
Prefer reading instead? Then scroll down to read on…
One of the challenges I hear from pharmacists who attend APhA Meeting, ASHP Midyear, or other pharmacy conferences is getting excited about receiving many business cards during the meeting, but then stuffing them in their drawer and never looking at them again. This happens even if they had the best intentions of doing something after the conference with the connections they made. You’re missing out on so much opportunity & one of the most valuable opportunities of attending a pharmacy conference by doing this. If you’re like most pharmacists, this happens to you because you’re busy or don’t know easy steps to take to make the most from pharmacy contacts you meet.
Here’s a quick tip for you. Once you meet someone, write down a few impressionable things about them, so you’ll remember what they look like and it will refresh your memory down the road. Write down something that you can help the person with or what you’d like to reach out to them about, based on your conversation. And before you go to the APhA Meeting (or a conference in the future), bring cards or postcards with you. After you’ve met someone, you can write a note after you get back to your hotel room about how you appreciated meeting them. Reach out to share potential resources that you feel would be helpful to them, or something else of value.
Mail the note when you get back home. This will save you time and from not doing anything at all. You won’t have to face the challenge of having another thing to do after you get back home from the conference. Most of the time when you get back from a conference, you will probably have a lot to catch up on. Read on for additional tips on what to do after this.
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 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
After ASHP Midyear – It’s Not Just About You
I was talking to pharmacists who have come back from ASHP Midyear & we all agreed this was a common thing to procrastinate on when coming back from the meeting…so here are easy action steps you can take right away.
You’ve attended the ASHP Midyear Meeting and met other pharmacists & new contacts. Some you were excited to meet & made strong connections with. Others you met and it was just a gesture of courtesy that you accepted their business card– you did not see how they would be a match for you. Now you’re back home with a huge stack of business cards, flyers, and notes.
If you’re like most busy pharmacists & pharmacy directors, you come back and stash them in a desk drawer with the intention of using them in the future when you have a need to connect with that person. Or maybe you are well-intentioned to connect now, but keep procrastinating until that connection is not as memorable.
Unfortunately, many people only follow-up after networking events if they can see a direct, immediate benefit to themselves. Using that approach will cause you to miss out on opportunities that you can mutually support each other with.
Networking is not about meeting people and taking what you can from them at this moment and time. It is about relationship building and creating long-lasting, mutually beneficial connections that can follow you throughout your pharmacy career. It is also about reaching out to others to see what you can help them with. By doing this, you will actually be amazed with the support you receive from others relating what you need.
This year, make a plan for getting to know your new pharmacist and other contacts.
• During ASHP Midyear (you can do this next year, or at future pharmacy conferences) – Write short phrases and memorable things about each person so you will be able to remember them later on. Add project or networking ideas while they are still fresh in your mind. Write down one thing you can help them with, whether it’s an introduction you can make for them, something they need help with, or just to develop a friendship with.
Include on the business card what someone looked like or was wearing. You think you may remember what they look like now—but you may scratch your head later.
• Immediately after the conference (click below to read more):
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.
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.
Throw Out Resolutions – They Don’t Work
Are you feeling stuck, or wondering what you got yourself into by living the life you are living now? Or maybe you know exactly what you want, but you’re having internal conflicts about how to get where you want to go?
Seeing pharmacists feel stuck is one of the main reasons why I went from working as a pharmacist in ambulatory care clinics on Native American reservations to helping pharmacists find the right jobs for them. I was tired of seeing pharmacists feel stuck in what they were doing & feeling like they need to settle.
Seeing pharmacists lose their passion was frustrating to me. A job is just a part of your life, but the way you approach your job can reflect how you approach life. Many pharmacists I’ve seen who’ve lost zest in their jobs have also lost zest in their dreams for their life.
This is the year for you to take the big leap.
Here’s a secret to how you may be sabotaging yourself & not achieving what you want to achieve, even though you’ve put forth the effort: Conflicting desires. Even if you are clear about what you want, sometimes you are not achieving what you want to achieve because of internal conflicts that you may not realize about. I know this very well myself-–on the surface, I felt I was clear, but during times when I struggled and wasn’t as successful as I could be, it was because I had an internal conflict.
On the surface, you tell yourself that you plan on spending more time with your family and will not stay late from work anymore. But you keep picking up shifts when your boss asks you to, so you can make more money. Or, you may have set the resolution of being financially set when you retire and that you plan to invest $500 every month, but you don’t spend your time figuring out what to do with that money you invest; instead you buy new clothes or a new car.
You need to overcome your internal conflicts in order to achieve what you want to achieve. Sounds simple? If you aren’t achieving what you are wanting to achieve, chances are that you have not overcome them or they are masked. Stop writing resolutions that don’t work. Start with the secrets I’m going to teach you.
Join me in my FREE “Throw Out Resolutions & Live Your Purpose in 2010” Teleseminar to start out the New Year. It is completely my gift to you.
“Throw Out Resolutions & Live Your Purpose in 2010”
The program is over, but you may access the FREE replay instantly:
Give yourself the gift of this 1-hr teleseminar:
· Learn how to achieve what you want to achieve without setting resolutions that don’t work
· Re-connect with your higher purpose
· Release what isn’t supporting you
· Discover 3 ways to overcome internal conflicts related to the gap between where you are & where you want to go without feeling pressured
Come away with clarity & a plan to live your purpose in 2010 like you never have before! Register Now! You will get the call-in details when you register.
You will also receive a bonus gift, “90-Days to a New You” accountability e-course. We are in this together. As you leap into the next level of your passion, or re-discover your passion, I am also going to take that leap with you, stepping into the next level of my passion.
Look forward to connecting with you on the call and seeing you re-ignite your passion and create a plan to live it.
To 2010 & new beginnings!