What is the timeline for getting a job if you are a recent grad?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Nano1971

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2012
Messages
42
Reaction score
1
Hi fellow pharmacists,would like to know how do new graduates nail their jobs is it through online like Indeed or Monster where you post your résumé and wait for your pick Or is it through networking by word of the mouth ? And what is the timeline for finding a job in such highly saturated market and time being unempolyed wouldn't look good in your résumé Seriously what else I would do hence I have been unemployed for a year now any advice or suggestion is appreciated and thanks.

Members don't see this ad.
 
I live in a major metropolitan area. Received my license in July, started interviewing in August, got two job offers and started working full time in September. Hospital job with no residency. Maybe I'm just lucky and the timing was right. This was a few years ago.
 
I recently got a full-time offer with the company I've been interning with for the past 3 years. If that weren't the case, I think my best bet would have been to start looking for work starting in the February before graduation. I would go to different pharmacies and ask for contact information of the pharmacy supervisors or district managers. Then I'd call/email to see if there's anything they could hook me up with.

One thing I've learned from a recent hospital rotation is that there can be an opening at anytime for whatever reason (people going to another hospital, quitting, shift change, etc). You should look through job openings on hospital websites every couple of weeks because you never know when they desperately need a position filled.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
School job fairs is where most of my classmates (10 years ago - I am ancient) got their job. I usually go straight to a hospital's website. I received my offer in Feb, and started the monday (may) after my last day of rotations on that friday,
 
Hi fellow pharmacists,would like to know how do new graduates nail their jobs is it through online like Indeed or Monster where you post your résumé and wait for your pick Or is it through networking by word of the mouth ? And what is the timeline for finding a job in such highly saturated market and time being unempolyed wouldn't look good in your résumé Seriously what else I would do hence I have been unemployed for a year now any advice or suggestion is appreciated and thanks.

It's a mixture but most jobs will come from directly applying/interviewing. What are the circumstances behind your unemployment? Did you graduate last year and receive no offer? Did you get an offer but not pass your licensure exams? Did you get terminated or resign from your previous position? Were you on disability or workman's comp? Collecting unemployment? One year of not working as a pharmacist is a long time, make sure you have a good reason to have done nothing. Just my thoughts.
 
Hi thanks for all your inputs.ExpressMail I interviewed to a good Hospital by phone in my area and didnt hear back and interviewed too to major Retail pharmacies too and also no offer as for your questions yeah I am a foreign grad who are licensed since April of last year and I have an extensive hospital experience back home as well as I worked as Technician in Major retail pharmacy here in the US and did my internship voulnteering for one complete year with no a single pay BTW Iam a US citizen dont know what else I should do and thanks for taking time to reflect in my post.
 
If you are willing to work anywhere in the country , tell that to job fair recruiters, they will hold a spot for you pending licensure. If not , apply for boards as soon as possible , start applying about a month or 2 before you'll be licensed , if you have an intern license that you can use as a grad intern license, bump that to 3-4 months since often, hiring takes 2-4 weeks, on boarding takes 1-4 weeks and training takes another 1-4 weeks .. so applying in Feb. would only make sense if you have contacts in the company... Otherwise if you are applying "cold" I would start late March early April so that you can tell employers you'll be licensed "asap" or "soon" .. if your license date isn't for several months, nobody will look at your app unless you get lucky , have connections, or signed a contract for a hard to staff area.

Source: applied cold to 5 places 4 months before graduation .. got nothing... Applied with an internal company reference at same time, got one "we promise you an interview and probably a spot in 3 months" .. ended up getting the offer but it was an anxious few months.. later, I Applied to 20 places, license in hand , took about a month to get about 4 offers. One place I applied to without state license but it was hard to staff area, got an offer 3 months in advance and they paid moving and licensing costs + sign on.

Ymmv
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I agree with Type b pharm, I applied to a lot of hospitals and managed care companies 4 months before graduation and heard nothing. Through an internal resource and faculty I applied to a hospital 2 months prior to graduation and received interview month later and offer letter just before graduation. Mind you this was a few years ago but I think it still holds true, you need to be close to graduation and licensure for application to be taken unless you have another connection/reference within company.
 
Top