Pharmacy Internships 2012

I figured instead of just belly-aching about how the market sucks that I would rather talk about something that improves our competitiveness for positions upon graduation such as pharmacy internships.

At my school, we have a P1 career fair every spring semester where employers conduct interviews on the spot for summer positions and onwards. However, the majority of people that got these internships have already had existing relationships with that company or have already had similar experiences elsewhere.

So my questions are...

How many of you guys (current pharmacy students) have been able to find pharmacy internships for this coming 2012 summer and/or into the school year?

Was it difficult to find one? Are you still looking for one?

If you were able to find one, what type of setting is it in? How much pay are they offering, if any?

When you say internship do you mean just a 2-10 week program over summer or a regular intern position year round?

Edit: sorry was at work didnt read the whole thing.

Im doing a radiopharm internship over the summer but those aren't too competitive. When I get back just working as a regular intern where I work now. I was scared my manager would be mad that I'd be gone for 11 weeks but he was cool with it.

Some people in my class are doing this albertsons internship over the summer. One girl is doing one with a PBM but that's it I think. Not many people from our class applied for them.

Originally Posted by Notecard

Im doing a radio-pharmacy internship over the summer but those aren't too competitive. When I get back just working as a regular intern where I work now. I was scared my manager would be mad that I'd be gone for 11 weeks but he was cool with it.

Some people in my class are doing this albertsons internship over the summer. One girl is doing one with a PBM but that's it I think. Not many people from our class applied for them.

Oh wow, that's definitely different than from over here. At my school, it is pretty much mandatory that you get an internship, at least, over the summer.

I was lucky enough to get a paid internship at a community pharmacy over the summer. However, only about 1/3 of my classmates got internships but roughly 90% of those people already had existing relationships with those employers.

I have no idea as to whether these statistics have been the same in the past or if the success rate has been higher.

Well technically everyone in our class is doing a mandatory month long IPPE, but are you counting that? It's assigned by the school and not paid lol. I'd say about 2/3 of our class already has a job as a pharmacy technician and will be bumped up to interns as their regular job on May 10. We turn into interns after we complete our first year

I just got an intern position with CVS. I wouldn't say it was hard to get it, but it just took too long. I had a phone interview with a recruiter first, then I met face to face with her, then had another phone interview with one of the pharmacy supervisors. All that took almost 4 months. Wal-Mart made an offer also but I turned it down; interviewed for a nuclear position and was denied; applied for a clinical position --waiting on interview.

Originally Posted by ACE Rx

Oh wow, that's definitely different than from over here. At my school, it is pretty much mandatory that you get an internship, at least, over the summer.

How is it almost mandatory for you to get an internship during the summer? You go to a Texas school right?

I had a hospital internship last summer. I had to dig to even find it, since their notice of a job was never circulated by the school (the school dropped the ball). It paid more than $12/hr.

Lined up another hospital internship for this summer at a different health system. I think my IPPE experience in the Fall gave me the biggest opportunity since it allowed me to network and meet with pharmacists in that system.

This system also advertised at our Intern Recruitment Fair, but our school pretty much locked out P2s until the P1s had had a few days to take all the good interview slots.

I think when I logged into the appointment system, the only company available was CVS.

P1 gets preference over P2?! What sort of backwards school do you go to?!

Originally Posted by pharm B

How is it almost mandatory for you to get an internship during the summer? You go to a Texas school right?

I had a hospital internship last summer. I had to dig to even find it, since their notice of a job was never circulated by the school (the school dropped the ball). It paid more than $12/hr.

Lined up another hospital internship for this summer at a different health system. I think my IPPE experience in the Fall gave me the biggest opportunity since it allowed me to network and meet with pharmacists in that system.

This system also advertised at our Intern Recruitment Fair, but our school pretty much locked out P2s until the P1s had had a few days to take all the good interview slots.

I think when I logged into the appointment system, the only company available was CVS.

Originally Posted by Notecard

Well technically everyone in our class is doing a mandatory month long IPPE, but are you counting that?

Not counting the IPPE.

Originally Posted by dxb8307

I just got an intern position with CVS. I wouldn't say it was hard to get it, but it just took too long. I had a phone interview with a recruiter first, then I met face to face with her, then had another phone interview with one of the pharmacy supervisors. All that took almost 4 months. Wal-Mart made an offer also but I turned it down; interviewed for a nuclear position and was denied; applied for a clinical position --waiting on interview.

Same deal here with CVS but it depends on which city your wanting to work in. One of my classmates got hired a month about their interview. Another friend of mine who wanted to work in same city I wanted to got rejected a few weeks ago. However, I have not heard either acceptance nor rejection. I wonder if this is a good thing.

Originally Posted by pharm B

How is it almost mandatory for you to get an internship during the summer? You go to a Texas school right?

Yes I do go to a Texas school. Our school has a requirement where you must have X amount of hours as a pharmacist intern before being allowed to proceed into P4 rotations. However, this can be waived if you have worked X amount of hours as a certified technician before being accepted into pharmacy school.

Originally Posted by owlegrad

P1 gets preference over P2?! What sort of backwards school do you go to?!

I have no idea if owlegrad went to the same pharmacy school I do but P1s also got preference over P2s with regards to interview slots. I do not actually think the dean's office even opened up slots for P2s but not sure on this.

I go to University of Florida and upperclassman definitely get preferential treatment for interview slots. as they should

Originally Posted by ACE Rx

I figured instead of just belly-aching about how the market sucks that I would rather talk about something that improves our competitiveness for positions upon graduation such as pharmacy internships.

At my school, we have a P1 career fair every spring semester where employers conduct interviews on the spot for summer positions and onwards. However, the majority of people that got these internships have already had existing relationships with that company or have already had similar experiences elsewhere.

So my questions are...

How many of you guys (current pharmacy students) have been able to find pharmacy internships for this coming 2012 summer and/or into the school year?

Was it difficult to find one? Are you still looking for one?

If you were able to find one, what type of setting is it in? How much pay are they offering, if any?

I started my search for internships this summer last September/October. I started so early because I started my search way too late my P1 year and didn't want to repeat the same mistake. I was interested in a lot of industry internships so I went to the jobs webpage for all the major drug companies I could think of. After that, I used sites like indeed.com and just plain ol' Google, using search terms such as "pharmacy intern" and/or "pharmacist intern". You'll have to sort through a LOT of pages, but there are hidden gems out there.

It takes a lot of time to and you have to stay on top of it, but there are a variety of interesting positions out there available for current pharmacy students. As mentioned earlier in this thread, nothing beats networking during rotations, volunteering or any other interactions with employed pharmacists in the setting you desire.

Were you successful this time as far as getting interviews and being offered internships.

Actually most chains near where I live give preference to younger students as well - they want to get you early and have you for 2+ years instead of training you, and then you end up going on APPE rotations a year later

Originally Posted by dreamofdental

Were you successful this time as far as getting interviews and being offered internships.

I was. Key is to follow up with emails and try to get a phone number for an actual person (instead of a generic HR contact line). PM for more info.

Retail internships aren't that hard to get. The hospital internships are a lot more competitive. I know a few classmates who gave up paid retail internships for unpaid hospital internships.

Originally Posted by 30Percent

Retail internships aren't that hard to get. The hospital internships are a lot more competitive. I know a few classmates who gave up paid retail internships for unpaid hospital internships.

Yup, I definitely would have preferred an unpaid hospital internship over a paid retail one, but those are really hard to come by!

Summer internships are definitely hard to come by! Many grocery chains only take 3-4 interns at my school and lately have only been hiring students already working as tech. Even CVS and Walgreens have been rejecting people left and right.

My school also has a career fair (for everyone, not just P1s) where you can sign up for on the spot interviews with some companies. I think that's how most people get the summer-only internships if they wanted one.

As far as year-round internships, many of my classmates working as retail interns already worked for the chain as techs. In Oklahoma you're an intern once you start school, and your intern license cancels out your tech license, so it was just a matter of switching the title over from tech to intern. One classmate got a retail intern job after doing some IPPE hours at her site, and they liked her so much she was asked to apply for a job as a paid intern, but that's not the norm.

I'm working for a hospital, and it didn't seem hard for me to get the job. I had prior hospital experience before pharmacy school though. A couple of my classmates have been trying to apply to hospitals with only retail experience, and they're still looking.

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