Interviewing Tips for Pharmacists

Interview Tips

By Ray Fisher

In nearly every pharmaceutical industry hiring managers are seeing the same trends – the pharmacy shortage is, at the time being, over.   Pharmacists now have to compete for jobs and part of maintaining a competitive edge is your interview skills.    Here are nine quick tips to help you get ready for and ace your next job interview.

Dress for Success.   When showing up for an interview you should be dressed professionally.  Blue jeans, t-shirts and casual wear are out.  Hiring managers want to know that you will represent their company to their patients in a professional manner.  

Do Your Homework.  You can bet that hiring managers are using Facebook and linked in to get to know more about you before you ever arrive to an interview.    Be sure that your Facebook profile doesn’t have anything on it that would reflect poorly on you.  Also, Google your name!  As a pharmacist, much information about you is public information in many cases, you need to know what people can find online about you and the best way is to Google your name.

Investigate the Company.   Facebook, linked in and Google works two-ways.   You can log on to web-sites such as www.jigsaw.com and get a list of current employees that work for the company you are interviewing with.  From there you can find many of them with Facebook accounts and learn more about the people you’ll be working with.   

Be Personable.   Use the information you found when investigating the company to tell appropriate professional related stories that show a more personable side to you.    Have a humorous work-related story to share with the interviewer, just remember to keep it clean.  Find things that you have in common with your interviewer and bring them up in light conversation.

Ask Questions.  Make sure that you prepare a list of questions about the company.  One great question that you might want to save to the end is closing the interview with, “I’m really interested in this position, what is the next step in the process?” 

Stay Alert.  Employers like professionals that have high energy levels.   Make sure that you get plenty of rest before an interview.  You don’t want to walk into the interview room yawning frequently.   This tells employers that you’re not interested in the job.

Bring Your Resume.  Actually, bring a few copies of your resume.  You never know who else you might be interviewing with.  Having copies of your resume on hand shows that you prepared for the interview.

Be Professional.   Not only do you need to ‘look’ the part but you need to be professional.  Be careful not to use offensive or questionable language during your interview.   Also, don’t tell jokes that could be offensive. 

Follow-up.   After you leave the interview, follow-up with a thank-you note to the interviewer.  This will help keep your name fresh in their minds.   Don’t hesitate to give them a call back a few days later, especially if they’ve given you permission to, with additional questions about the position.    This would also be a great way to show continued interest.

If you’ve got an important interview coming up, please give me a call if you’d like some additional help on getting ready for the interview.   937-867-1977.