Midyear or Nah?

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GoldfishPharmD

GoldfishPharmD

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Okay, so I'm doing a PGY2 and I didn't really want to go to Midyear. The other PGY2s in other specialties at my program aren't going. They're just going to their own conference focused on their specialty. I was scheduled to go to Midyear and my specialty conference later next year, but I spoke with my program director and she said it's up to me if I want to skip Midyear and just use all my travel money on my specialty conference. So, I guess the dilemma and the only reason I would do Midyear is for PPS. Do you think PPS is worth it? Last year, it seemed the job postings for my specialty came in spurts before and after Midyear. Thoughts?
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I personally found my job through PPS, as did the majority of my PGY-2 coresidents.
 
Last year, there were 3 PGY-2s at my institution. Only 1 elected to go to Midyear. She said that PPS wasn't helpful as there weren't many positions in her specialty interviewing and from the few interviews she did have (maybe 3-4?) none of them really resulted in anything further. All 3 residents found jobs outside of anything that happened at Midyear.

Also my institution hired 3 PGY-2 trained specialists (onc, crit care, and solid organ transplant) since April (so with no relation to Midyear or PPS).
 
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PPS is so worth it if you have a chance of finding a great job in your specialty. I would just pay the registration fee and then scope it out. Worst case you lose like $100
 
tungsten87 said:
PPS is so worth it if you have a chance of finding a great job in your specialty. I would just pay the registration fee and then scope it out. Worst case you lose like $100
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No, I'd be losing more than $100. I only get $2000 for meeting expenses. I have to go to my specialty conference in May, and Midyear would eat into a big portion of my budget. It's going to be at least $1000. If I stayed the whole time that I was originally going to stay, it was $1500 in expenses (meeting registration, plane, food, and hotel). If I have more expenses with my other meeting, I'll have to pay out of pocket. That's the big reason I don't want to go.
 
Oh, if Midyear was in Vegas this year, I wouldn't even have to ask. :hardy:
 
i meant scope it out as in check out the online postings for PPS before you commit to midyear. I don't recall if you have to sign up for midyear prior to PPS but if that is the case you could just get the list from a friend.
 
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I found PPS useful in my job search. While certainly lots of jobs will not be posted until later in the spring, it can give you an idea of whats out there and practice interviewing.
 
I'm going. Plane ticket bought. I figured need to explore every possible avenue for a job.
 
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I wish I got $2000 for travel expenses...I don't even get that as a preceptor!
 
KARM12 said:
I wish I got $2000 for travel expenses...I don't even get that as a preceptor!
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I got $1000 including registration for midyear as a pgy2. We ended up staying 8 girls in a suite like savages to save money.
 
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I thought $2000 seemed low for two meetings. lol. I think I spent more than that my PGY1. I was the only resident and I got 100% of everything paid for including food for Midyear and regional meeting.
 
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joetrisman said:
Going to midyear but very doubtful on doing PPS. Most of the residents at my program from last year didn't get jobs through PPS.
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I ended up having 3 second interviews after PPS. Though I didn't get any of those jobs, might still be worth it if you are open to moving around. Definitely worth it if you're a PGY2, as there are lots of faculty positions that recruit through PPS, but still may be worth it as a PGY1.
 
So, PPS is feeling like a complete waste of money. Only 3 jobs posted in my speciality and 2 of them in NYC which I would never live there. :(
 
How do the other specialities look? I think I did 10 or 15 PPS interviews when I did it 4 years ago.
 
njac said:
That's good.
There's been a dearth of those the last few years (hence why so many ED people did critical care PGY-2s)
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Not good for me and they're taking the transplant jobs too! :'(
 
Im in the same boat Goldfish.
I went back and forth for a long time about whether it would be a good idea to do PPS or not, and finally caved in and spent the 190$ to register. I sort of regret it- there are not too many positions that are in my specialty. I should probably check out some of the regular clinical pharmacist positions, but since I am open to moving (almost) anywhere in the country, it is hard to know how to even choose which ones to talk to.

That, and I don't feel like repeating my PPS experience last year, which was just exhausting.

Best of luck!
 
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Who has money to spend on going to midyear? What is the point
 
KARM12 said:
I wish I got $2000 for travel expenses...I don't even get that as a preceptor!
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I could swing that at my place IF I precepted about 8 students in a year, and begged my boss, and did it once every 5 years. Other than that if I am not the RPD, I am looking at $500
 
Dred Pirate said:
I could swing that at my place IF I precepted about 8 students in a year, and begged my boss, and did it once every 5 years. Other than that if I am not the RPD, I am looking at $500
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Do you get paid to precept students? Is this the norm for preceptors/rotation sites? One of my preceptors told me they use to get the money from the hospital to precept and now they don't.
 
GoldfishPharmD said:
Do you get paid to precept students? Is this the norm for preceptors/rotation sites? One of my preceptors told me they use to get the money from the hospital to precept and now they don't.
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Ours goes in to a generic department fund for resources etc.
 
njac said:
Ours goes in to a generic department fund for resources etc.
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I think that's what happens now at my current hospital. I guess I never knew how often schools paid people to precept. I think when I was in school, someone said that they didn't pay people to precept and they were doing it out of the goodness of their hearts but some preceptors sucked and I could never understand why you wanted to precept students if you obviously didn't care about their experience...
 
Anyone have PPS interviews conflict with your program's showcase booth times? What'd you end up doing?
 
GoldfishPharmD said:
I think that's what happens now at my current hospital. I guess I never knew how often schools paid people to precept. I think when I was in school, someone said that they didn't pay people to precept and they were doing it out of the goodness of their hearts but some preceptors sucked and I could never understand why you wanted to precept students if you obviously didn't care about their experience...
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My school did not pay preceptors.
 
PharmBeanz said:
Anyone have PPS interviews conflict with your program's showcase booth times? What'd you end up doing?
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I didn't schedule PPS interviews during that time.

I used an Excel spreadsheet and filled in residency showcase/important session times before I scheduled interviews to avoid those sorts of situations (ie: if you want to do a pgy2 in a specialty, make sure you attend the associated networking session...)
 
PharmBeanz said:
Anyone have PPS interviews conflict with your program's showcase booth times? What'd you end up doing?
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Mine conflicts. I'm going to go to the showcase for 1.5 hours and then to my interview. I didn't schedule interviews until late in the game, so I didn't want to make them to reschedule because of my mistake. I asked my RPD first and got the okay from her or else I would have had to cancel or ask them to readjust their schedule.
 
njac said:
I didn't schedule PPS interviews during that time.

I used an Excel spreadsheet and filled in residency showcase/important session times before I scheduled interviews to avoid those sorts of situations (ie: if you want to do a pgy2 in a specialty, make sure you attend the associated networking session...)
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Oops. Guess I flubbed then. I didn't know when our showcase time was and I started the PPS process relatively late. I guess in my excitement about receiving interviews I started scheduling them anytime they were offered. Now my RPD wants me to reschedule them..Gahhh. Oh well..:bang:
 
GoldfishPharmD said:
Mine conflicts. I'm going to go to the showcase for 1.5 hours and then to my interview. I didn't schedule interviews until late in the game, so I didn't want to make them to reschedule because of my mistake. I asked my RPD first and got the okay from her or else I would have had to cancel or ask them to readjust their schedule.
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This is essentially the response I expected to see. I figure it's not ideal but most people would try to accommodate. My RPD is driving me nutty.
 
PharmBeanz said:
Oops. Guess I flubbed then. I didn't know when our showcase time was and I started the PPS process relatively late. I guess in my excitement about receiving interviews I started scheduling them anytime they were offered. Now my RPD wants me to reschedule them..Gahhh. Oh well..:bang:
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How many conflict? Is this for PGY2s or jobs?
 
GoldfishPharmD said:
How many conflict? Is this for PGY2s or jobs?
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GoldfishPharmD said:
How many conflict? Is this for PGY2s or jobs?
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2. Pgy2
he sent us a schedule today saying that being at the booth the entire time is required. He never mentioned this prior and never asked me or my co resident if we were doing PPS.

I've heard of other residents being able to check out programs during their booth time so I don't think all programs require this.
 
PharmBeanz said:
2. Pgy2
he sent us a schedule today saying that being at the booth the entire time is required. He never mentioned this prior and never asked me or my co resident if we were doing PPS.

I've heard of other residents being able to check out programs during their booth time so I don't think all programs require this.
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I would just contact them, explain the situation and see if you can get them moved. It just sucks cause this is super last minute and some places have a lot of slots filled.
 
GoldfishPharmD said:
Do you get paid to precept students? Is this the norm for preceptors/rotation sites? One of my preceptors told me they use to get the money from the hospital to precept and now they don't.
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all to a fund for us to use for registration/CE's - my buddies in retail get to pocket the whole amount
 
when I think clinical pharmacy...I think brown nosers
 
I attended and I was disappointed to see that Midyear consisted mostly of pharmacy students, residents, and residency directors - not a whole lot of regular ol pharmacists. So it seems like the Midyear is just a transient group of residency-associated people (except the directors). Understandably directors/residents attend comp'd while other pharmacists have to pay and use PTO but still the residency buzz in the air was overwhelming and kind of a turn off (even though Im considering pursuing one myself)
 
pharmasaur said:
I attended and I was disappointed to see that Midyear consisted mostly of pharmacy students, residents, and residency directors - not a whole lot of regular ol pharmacists. So it seems like the Midyear is just a transient group of residency-associated people (except the directors). Understandably directors/residents attend comp'd while other pharmacists have to pay and use PTO but still the residency buzz in the air was overwhelming and kind of a turn off (even though Im considering pursuing one myself)
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Should of attended PPS for fellowships, was more fun, and way more interesting people! We called it the Hunger Games. LoL. Rutgers felt like it anyways..
 
JamesL1585 said:
Should of attended PPS for fellowships, was more fun, and way more interesting people! We called it the Hunger Games. LoL. Rutgers felt like it anyways..
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Lmao. I said the same thing to a friend. They should just throw all the industry candidates in an arena and last one standing wins!
 
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JamesL1585 said:
Should of attended PPS for fellowships, was more fun, and way more interesting people! We called it the Hunger Games. LoL. Rutgers felt like it anyways..
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haha i'm still P3 so not at that point yet. why what happened?
 
pharmasaur said:
haha i'm still P3 so not at that point yet. why what happened?
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Honestly its too much to even try to describe, but here I'll get you started. You had 500 candidates competing for those (see link below) on the spot. Not like residency. Was just kinda nuts. One of the most intense things Ive done in life. There are more options than just Rutgers though, note that!

http://pharmafellows.rutgers.edu/companies.php
 
JamesL1585 said:
Honestly its too much to even try to describe, but here I'll get you started. You had 500 candidates competing for those (see link below) on the spot. Not like residency. Was just kinda nuts. One of the most intense things Ive done in life. There are more options than just Rutgers though, note that!

http://pharmafellows.rutgers.edu/companies.php
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Have you heard from current employees about the job stability in the pharmaceutical industry? Sounds like it's hard as f*ck to get a position as a clinical trials specialist, sales rep., scientist, etc. But once you get passed the fellowship year, are most of the fellows retained? And those that are retained . . . how long do they realistically last? Haven't heard much - I do know for a fact (like you mentioned in a prior post) that these conferences can turn into Hunger Games 2.0. What's your 2 cents?

I know layoffs are huge these days because of patents not going through, FDA's stingy policies, drug company mergers, CEO's wanting to maximize profit, etc. It's crazy enough to prepare a good CV just to get attention from these big pharma guys, and usually requires all the "eggs in one basket" strategy, i.e., this would not give one enough time and resources to prepare for a backup plan such as obtaining floating hours at CVS/Wags - and the timeframe to apply (as you mentioned) to these things are supposed to be done within the 2-3 years after graduation. Very difficult and I commend your enthusiasm!
 
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Expect to last 5 yrs in pharma before a layoff. Goodluck landing a job too. Merck just bought Cubist...
 
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