Pharmacy Employment

[Kevin.Mero]

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I've owned and operated a job board for Pharmacists and Techs for 25+ years, I would like some suggestions on the best ways to reach pharmacy professionals looking for employment. Our board has 13k+ jobs and includes everything from Student and Intern positions to Pharmacy Directors. We are active on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter but I'm always interested in getting in front of more of tomorrow's pharmacists and techs. Any suggestions? Thanks!!

 

[UGAZ]

You got to be kidding me! Pharmacists are desperate for jobs and you can't find them? Best joke of the year.

 

[Kevin.Mero]

Honestly know, here is the problem we're running into. We used to have a print magazine that we mailed to every facility in the US but when the recruitment advertising market slowed with the opening of all of the new schools of pharmacy we had to really cut back on the number of issues we printed. Add the explosion of the Internet and firms like Indeed, etc. and as a niche job board it's difficult to get in front of that next generation of pharmacists. We contacted the schools of pharmacy but most Deans offices were reluctant to distribute our e-newsletters. The recurring response we rec'd was that the schools felt the students should do their own research and find the jobs on their own. I'm not going to take the time now, unless that is a suggestion, to contact the Deans offices again. Ideally I would like to find a way to get directly to the pharmacy students.

 

[lord999]

I'd be very surprised if that was the case in the Midwest. PharmacyWeek and Pharmacy Times postings are basically left on a stand outside the career office, and AACP and ASHP have always maintained job ads that students are encouraged to purview. We won't distribute newsletters or agents that don't identify the actual employer in them (that's a local regulatory matter that you can't headhunt in this particular state for undisclosed employers due to scams which is not a pharmacy regulation but an advertising one), but we genuinely have no problem (and we even encourage employers to present in lecture time!) with the major chains, independents, and hospitals. It's getting harder to actually ask the employers to come to the career fairs now.

Thing is, those publications are usually the LAST place a Pharmacy Director or retail PIC typically go. Reputation and friends/family/people you know hires are the trend even though it is not always advisable.

 

[Kevin.Mero]

I'd be very surprised if that was the case in the Midwest. PharmacyWeek and Pharmacy Times postings are basically left on a stand outside the career office, and AACP and ASHP have always maintained job ads that students are encouraged to purview. We won't distribute newsletters or agents that don't identify the actual employer in them (that's a local regulatory matter that you can't headhunt in this particular state for undisclosed employers due to scams which is not a pharmacy regulation but an advertising one), but we genuinely have no problem (and we even encourage employers to present in lecture time!) with the major chains, independents, and hospitals. It's getting harder to actually ask the employers to come to the career fairs now.

Thing is, those publications are usually the LAST place a Pharmacy Director or retail PIC typically go. Reputation and friends/family/people you know hires are the trend even though it is not always advisable.

I'd be very surprised if that was the case in the Midwest. PharmacyWeek and Pharmacy Times postings are basically left on a stand outside the career office, and AACP and ASHP have always maintained job ads that students are encouraged to purview. We won't distribute newsletters or agents that don't identify the actual employer in them (that's a local regulatory matter that you can't headhunt in this particular state for undisclosed employers due to scams which is not a pharmacy regulation but an advertising one), but we genuinely have no problem (and we even encourage employers to present in lecture time!) with the major chains, independents, and hospitals. It's getting harder to actually ask the employers to come to the career fairs now.

Thing is, those publications are usually the LAST place a Pharmacy Director or retail PIC typically go. Reputation and friends/family/people you know hires are the trend even though it is not always advisable.

Great point, and you're right, PharmacyWeek USED to be left on many stands, however with the downturn in print advertising dollars we only have a few ads in print compared to what is on our site so we no longer are sending the printed publications to the schools. Our printed pub has maybe 20-30 ads but online we have 13,451 ads today. With the move to the online world, and no one really wanting to wait for print ads to arrive in the mail, we pushed everything online. Now we're using the latest in "spider" technology and 99% of our ads are updated each day. The ASHP is a great resource however they only have 66 jobs posted today. The APhA has 132 jobs posted and Pharmacy Times has just 27 jobs. I've taken PharmacyWeek in a different direction, but now I have to re-brand it and without the benefit of the print publication. That's my dilemma!!

Please check to see if PharmacyWeek is still on your stand, my guess is we are not! All of our ads do disclose the employer, and honestly we haven't tried to contact the Deans offices in several years. Instead we moved to the Internet, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. We have a lot of members but I need to get back in front of new grad PharmD's and pharmacy students.

I can understand why it's getting more difficult to get the actual employers to come to the career fairs now, we have all but stopped. We no longer have the staff to travel to each school of pharmacy and present, I need to find a way to leverage our time.

 

[Abby Atwood]

Honestly know, here is the problem we're running into. We used to have a print magazine that we mailed to every facility in the US but when the recruitment advertising market slowed with the opening of all of the new schools of pharmacy we had to really cut back on the number of issues we printed. Add the explosion of the Internet and firms like Indeed, etc. and as a niche job board it's difficult to get in front of that next generation of pharmacists. We contacted the schools of pharmacy but most Deans offices were reluctant to distribute our e-newsletters. The recurring response we rec'd was that the schools felt the students should do their own research and find the jobs on their own. I'm not going to take the time now, unless that is a suggestion, to contact the Deans offices again. Ideally I would like to find a way to get directly to the pharmacy students.

That's a crazy response from the deans office. They should want their students to get jobs. I would recommend reaching out to career services at the pharmacy schools rather than the deans office. It's ~6 months since my graduation, and I'm still getting emails and phone calls about pharmacist job opportunities from my schools career services.

 

[Kevin.Mero]

That's a crazy response from the deans office. They should want their students to get jobs. I would recommend reaching out to career services at the pharmacy schools rather than the deans office. It's ~6 months since my graduation, and I'm still getting emails and phone calls about pharmacist job opportunities from my schools career services.

Great suggestion, thank you! I'll make it a point to contact several career services offices and see what they say. I do write a bi-weekly blog and e-newsletter and that would be the easiest for us to send to the schools to distribute to their students. Maybe now that the pharmacist job market has changed the schools will be more receptive. On a different note, we also started a pharmacy salary and pay practice survey back in 1995. We merged it with another survey and it's been the biggest in the US for many years. We're seeing new grad wages rise this year by 2.8% but we're expecting them to begin to turn-down soon, possibly by as much as 10%. Thanks again!!

 

[abdc]

Out of curiosity, what is the link to this job board?

 

[Kevin.Mero]

Out of curiosity, what is the link to this job board?

It's PharmacyWeek I would welcome any suggestions or comments you have as well, thx!!

 

[Kevin.Mero]

We're beginning to contact the Career Services areas of the schools are making some headway, definitely better than going through the Dean's office. I'm still looking for that Holy Grail on how to reach thousands of pharmacy students at once so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know!! Oh, we had 2,000+ new jobs post just last week alone on the site, PharmacyWeek, thanks again!!

 

[Depmonce1133]

The deans know that most of the students aren't ready. Most students freshly graduated will not have any real world experience and on top of that are drowning in debt. That is if what you say is true. That's great what you're doing, but if the deans are reluctant, there must be some reason for it. Most young people can't be productive waking up everyday being -40$ in the hole. The school has a reputation to uphold.

 

[Kevin.Mero]

The deans know that most of the students aren't ready. Most students freshly graduated will not have any real world experience and on top of that are drowning in debt. That is if what you say is true. That's great what you're doing, but if the deans are reluctant, there must be some reason for it. Most young people can't be productive waking up everyday being -40$ in the hole. The school has a reputation to uphold.

Thank you for your comment! We're making a little progress with the schools of pharmacy but it's very slow going. We have to find a way to leverage our time and get to the right people. We're still getting push back too unfortunately!!

 

[zelman]

I think you need to look at the other end of the equation. The only way you’re going to reach more applicants than Indeed is to offer higher quality postings/experience. Find out what applicants find lacking from their job hunting experience and fix it. Something as simple as your posters guaranteeing a rejection email in under a month would put you head and shoulders above the competition.

 

[Kevin.Mero]

I think you need to look at the other end of the equation. The only way you’re going to reach more applicants than Indeed is to offer higher quality postings/experience. Find out what applicants find lacking from their job hunting experience and fix it. Something as simple as your posters guaranteeing a rejection email in under a month would put you head and shoulders above the competition.

All great points, thx! To me the other end of the equation is where everyone begins their career, the Pharmacy schools. I need to be careful with my response based on this forums rules but sites like Indeed are merely aggregators of jobs. Many employers go out of their way to avoid getting on aggregators like Indeed. Other sites have gone to what is called "back filling" in this case they are simply re-purposing other jobs from other aggregators. Finding out what applicants find lacking from their job hunting experience is another great point. But as there are so many possible ways to reach students what do you suggest? To your last point about having employers guaranteeing rejection letters, I just don't know how that would be possible. The labor market is so fluid, and as employers needs will change, if you are not qualified for one opening you could be qualified next week for another. One of my biggest fears is the continued progression away from having any human contact with HR dept's/staff. With AI in recruiting I see this trend going from bad to worse as employers use machine learning to better predict what constitutes the right hire.

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

Honestly know, here is the problem we're running into. We used to have a print magazine that we mailed to every facility in the US but when the recruitment advertising market slowed with the opening of all of the new schools of pharmacy we had to really cut back on the number of issues we printed. Add the explosion of the Internet and firms like Indeed, etc. and as a niche job board it's difficult to get in front of that next generation of pharmacists. We contacted the schools of pharmacy but most Deans offices were reluctant to distribute our e-newsletters. The recurring response we rec'd was that the schools felt the students should do their own research and find the jobs on their own. I'm not going to take the time now, unless that is a suggestion, to contact the Deans offices again. Ideally I would like to find a way to get directly to the pharmacy students.

Indeed's market share has shot up like a rocket , and I can't imagine specialized firms like yours can survive.

Even if you do somehow attract unique job seekers, Indeed will simply index all of your job postings.

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

Honestly, your best bet is to get in bed with the fraternities and state organizations

 

[Kevin.Mero]

Indeed's market share has shot up like a rocket , and I can't imagine specialized firms like yours can survive.

Oh how I wish I could explain in more detail but again I just want to ensure I stay within the boundaries of the forum. Indeed is still a great resource but IMO it has a lot of junk in it. Google is now in the process of usurping Indeed. But that was the biggest news in recruiting in the last 15+ years until just this week! The latest announcement by Microsoft and LinkedIn is going to usurp Indeed/Google. (I have been in pharmacy recruitment advertising for 35+ years.)

 

[Kevin.Mero]

Honestly, your best bet is to get in bed with the fraternities and state organizations

The fraternities are a great suggestion! We started that then stopped, will have to re-visit. The state org's tho may be a different situation. I have been watching the membership of most state org's dropping. It's a generalization but much of what makes up the state org's are independents, not the health systems. Chains may give them funding but I wonder just how many chain pharmacists are members of their state org? The big national orgs like ASHP and APhA are still growing as are the niche specialty groups like AMCP, ACCP, ASCP, etc. It's generational in our case, I want to know who the next group of pharmacists are but it's very splintered today unlike what it was 10-15 years ago.

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

Oh how I wish I could explain in more detail but again I just want to ensure I stay within the boundaries of the forum. Indeed is still a great resource but IMO it has a lot of junk in it. Google is now in the process of usurping Indeed. But that was the biggest news in recruiting in the last 15+ years until just this week! The latest announcement by Microsoft and LinkedIn is going to usurp Indeed/Google. (I have been in pharmacy recruitment advertising for 35+ years.)

Actually, their quality control for job posts (DRADIS) is incredible.
That, combined with SQUAL is a big part of the lack of junk posts


I wasn't aware of Google attempting to enter the JB Space

 

[Kevin.Mero]

Actually, their quality control for job posts (DRADIS) is incredible.
That, combined with SQUAL is a big part of the lack of junk posts


I wasn't aware of Google attempting to enter the JB Space

I won't debate Indeed with you, I just know what we have to deal with on a near daily basis. But re Google, yes, they jumped into the job biz back in July/Aug. It stands to reason they are well-positioned given all of the searches they perform. In addition most everyone uses Gmail so they have all of that data. But, the caveat is that to be indexed on Google all jobs have to marked-up correctly. And guess who didn't want to mark-up all of their jobs?? Indeed!! But before the ink was dry on that mammoth market shift Microsoft/LinkedIn enters with their Resume Assistant just this month. It could be huge, will watch it play out!!

 

[M0df]

I did a basic 'pharmacist' option search for a couple states that I am interested in. One search listed mostly CVS jobs. Another displayed mostly Walgreens jobs. I understand these are two major employers but it was still underwhelming.

 

[Kevin.Mero]

I did a basic 'pharmacist' option search for a couple states that I am interested in. One search listed mostly CVS jobs. Another displayed mostly Walgreens jobs. I understand these are two major employers but it was still underwhelming.

Without knowing what you searched on I really can't comment. I also need to be very careful as I do not want to break this forums rules. I appreciate your comment tho!!

 

[BidingMyTime]

Just to be clear, so pharmacy students aren't falsely getting their hopes up, it seems from a cursory search that many, if not most, of the jobs on your site aren't actually looking for pharmacists--they are looking for pharmacy technicians, beauty consultants, and all kinds of completely unrelated pharmacy jobs such as "performance media associate", "infusion nurse", & "customer loyalty & insights manager".


Also, your search engine could be considerably better. I did a search for "pharmacist" under "Chicago, IL", there weren't any actual pharmacist results on the first page. On the 2nd page, about half of the listings were for actual pharmacist jobs. It seems like the search engine is prioritizing the description (ie for techs "assists the pharmacist") over actual job titles that have pharmacist in the title.

I realize you probably have no control over the actual web page and search engine, but I can see why you are having a hard time getting schools interested in promoting your product.