Hard Interview Question

[laura_mideon]

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Hello again,

I have been emailing alot of people in the pharmacy program that I want to get into and they have been giving me info about the application process at that school.

One thing that I'm confused about is that a huge problem at this school (and probably a lot of pharmacy schools) is that the best students all leave the field to become doctors or dentists. So I've heard that during the interview process the faculty is really trying to weed out people who may do that. I really DO want to be a pharmacist and DON'T want to be a doctor or dentist.

I have a gazillion reasons why I want to be a pharmacist, but no decent sounding reasons why I don't want to be a doctor or a dentist (my reasons are: not doctor because of hours mostly and not dentist because I think it's gross, but mostly because they are not pharmacists, but if I said that, they would totally think i was lying)

Do you have any ideas on good ways to say this to the interviewers (because I heard that they walk around these questions alot), without sounding dumb?

Thanks

 

[bananaface]

Just be sincere in your reasons for wanting to practice pharmacy and they will pick up on it. If you offer reasons specific to pharmacy as a profession you should avoid the whole issue of why pharmacy and not another medical profession.

 

[tanyas]

In my situation, I had actually worked in both medical and pharmacy fields. So I always responded that I have tried mysef in both fields and pharmacy suits me the best. I then would elaborate on all my reasons and just explain that pharmacy is what I want to pursue. My interview at USC was closed file, so they did not ask me too much about my work in medical field. At Western U, they saw on the applications that I have been working for a Dr. for last 5 years, so they had a lot of questions. Yes, you do have to prepare to answer why you chose pharmacy instead of other medical fields. I think at UCSD and SF they did not ask much about that....Good luck

 

[ucdbiochem]

i wouldn't worry about other professions. like other posters, just focus on your reasons of becoming a pharmacist and tell them what you got to do that.
good luck

 

[laura_mideon]

That sounds like a good idea, thanks, I'll just try and steer all the answers to why I DO want to be a pharmacist instead of why I don't want to be something else. that makes sense

 

[de javu]

Yeah, you should prepare for that question thoroughly since all the schools that I interviewed with had asked me that question.

 

[quinn25]

The question about why pharmacy and your enthusiasm/sincerity for the profession will definitely be accessed during the interview. An answer that I gave over and over again was that the profession is the most accessible form of health care in comparison to doctors, dentists, etc. With other health practioners, one has to wait for an appointment whereas with pharmacy a patient can walk up to a consultation window and receive care and attention. As a pharmacist you can distinguish yourself from your health colleagues that way and grants you the easiest way to help patients, which I assume you want to do.

Hope this helps.

 

[laura_mideon]

That's a great answer, thank you!

 

[spacecowgirl]

The question about why pharmacy and your enthusiasm/sincerity for the profession will definitely be accessed during the interview. An answer that I gave over and over again was that the profession is the most accessible form of health care in comparison to doctors, dentists, etc. With other health practioners, one has to wait for an appointment whereas with pharmacy a patient can walk up to a consultation window and receive care and attention. As a pharmacist you can distinguish yourself from your health colleagues that way and grants you the easiest way to help patients, which I assume you want to do.

Hope this helps.

this is about what I said too because I got this question as well. I went into how pharmacists are a liason between the doc and patient and how they are consistently ranked as one of the most trusted professions (usually they are 1 or 2 changing places with nurses) and that I wanted to be a part of that. I also had lots of pharmacy experience and I drew on that saying I knew what it was like to be out there - the good and the bad - and that I still wanted to go for it. I applied and got into the one school I wanted to on the first try 😀

 

[npp71681]

Hi!

I went on American Association of College of Pharmacy(AACP) website. In that website they had a Powerpoint presentation for Pharmacy. Here is the answer from AACP for "WHY PHARMACY"?

- A well-rounded career
- A vital part of the health care team
- Excellent earning potential
- Outstanding career opportunities
- A trusted profession

I hope this helps!

 

[laura_mideon]

Those are all excellent answers, thank you. Do you guys think it would be bad to mention that the excellent earning potential is one of my reasons? Because it is, albeit, it's not the most important factor, but it definitely helped me make this decision.

 

[spacecowgirl]

Ummm, I don't think I would include that. Adcoms are well aware of what pharmacists can make. Although that was right up there in my list of pros, I wouldn't mention it unless you wanted it to afford you the type of lifesyte to save orphaned baby whales in the Pacific or something equally altruistic.

 

[lord999]

In response to the question "Where will you be five years from now?", I didn't have a problem telling my adcom that I wanted to do pharmaceutical research when I finished. Because of the emphasis in the US to train research and clinical pharmacists, this actually helped my application to pharmacy school (and I made good on that statement starting this fall in Minnesota).

I'm not sure that the Canadian schools (Laval, in particular, comes to mind) would tolerate the same answer. The Canadian schools have shifted their emphasis to more clinical, but still are very grounded in the basic sciences portion of pharmacy. Their expectations are more to train front-line pharmacists rather than clinicians, but that is changing.

If you see sample questions and expectations from NAPLEX from NABP vs. CQE Levels I and II from NAPRA, NAPLEX requires a stronger clinical background, but the CQE requires and EXTREMELY solid science background with a competent clinical background.

I do not think you'll have a problem convincing an adcom that you don't want to go to medicine if you talk about the lifestyle part of pharmacy.

 

[laura_mideon]

Sorry to sound like a dunce, but what's an adcom? 😕

 

[vafcarrot]

Admissions Committee... don't worry, I felt like dunce until I figured it out. Then I did a classic Homer "Doh" and slapped my forehead.

 

[laura_mideon]

Oooooooooh, that makes sense. Don't you hate that, it seems so obvious now. lol.

 

[laura_mideon]

Adcom sounds like some crazy fake computer company/pyramid scheme that's out to steal all your money. You scared me for a minute, I was like "I have to join a pyramid scheme to become a pharmacist"....I knew this was too damn good to be true!!!! just kidding.