Need advice: Interviewing for different employer while current employer watches

[Pharmacyfuturegrad]

I'm a fourth year intern about to graduate in May 2019. With the current saturation of the pharmacy market, I have been interning with two employers for the past few years (a retail pharmacy and an outpatient pharmacy). There is currently a hiring freeze with my retail employer this year and my chances of getting hired on when I graduate is practically zero. Even pharmacist's hours are being reduced to part time. My chances with my outpatient pharmacy employer are also very slim, as current grad interns are struggling to be hired on.

My plan right now is to search for employment at bigger retail chains. My school is having a career fair in the Fall and I need to maximize my chances of being hired when I graduate. Is it a good idea to interview with other pharmacy chains at my school's career fair that my current two employers are also attending? Could I jeopardize my jobs if they see me do this? Or do I have the right to search for other opportunities since they can't guarantee me a pharmacist position?

Any insight would be much appreciated, thank you.

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[beautifulrobot]

The only way this would be slightly inappropriate is if you had an offer letter or contract that guaranteed you a pharmacist job once you graduated and were licensed with one of your current employers. Since that is not the case, I cannot imagine any rational employer seeing you in a negative light for searching for other opportunities. If anything, it may encourage them to try to get you to commit to their organization sooner rather than later if they do actually want to keep you around after you graduate. Also, I am not sure how big your current employers are, but will the people they send to the career fair even recognize you?

 

[Pharmacyfuturegrad]

The only way this would be slightly inappropriate is if you had an offer letter or contract that guaranteed you a pharmacist job once you graduated and were licensed with one of your current employers. Since that is not the case, I cannot imagine any rational employer seeing you in a negative light for searching for other opportunities. If anything, it may encourage them to try to get you to commit to their organization sooner rather than later if they do actually want to keep you around after you graduate. Also, I am not sure how big your current employers are, but will the people they send to the career fair even recognize you?

Thanks for responding so quickly! And yes, the current people they send to my school's career fair will definitely recognize me.

 

[PA_required_uh_oh]

There is currently a hiring freeze with my retail employer this year and my chances of getting hired on when I graduate is practically zero.

My chances with my outpatient pharmacy employer are also very slim, as current grad interns are struggling to be hired on.

Lets get real, pharmacists are more expendable than fast food employees. I mean if half of all pharmacists were to vanish off the face of the earth today, no one would even notice (okay this is a bit of an exaggeration lol). My point is, the pharmacy landscape is a dog eat dog world right now. Welcome to the middle of the storm where we're pretty much at the peak of saturation, reimbursements/hours have been cut to ****, and another Goliath - Amazon - is working it's way into the industry. Do whatever you have to do to get employed. Bring the fight to you instead of idly waiting around for an offer letter that may never come. Do you think your DM will miss you with a stack of 50 other new-grad applications on their desk? Unless you're moving heaven and earth, they will probably forget you in about...hmmm...4 seconds. Good luck to you and work your ass off and interview with anybody and everybody to secure your seat of employment. Welcome to Pharmacy upcoming graduate, we hope you enjoy your stay.