Pharmacy Intern Positions--Advice?

[SphinxRx]

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Hi All,

I am a current first-year student in NC and I find it ridiculously hard to find an intern position around my area. I have contacted the district managers for multiple retail chains to no avail. I'm asking on here what steps you guys took to get an intern position at one of your chains. I know the simple answer is "I walked into the pharmacy and asked if they needed an intern and got it" or "I called the pharmacy and they said fill out an application and called me for an interview", but did anyone else take any other measures to secure a position? Also, during an interview process, what kind of questions did they ask you? I am looking for a summer internship that has some forward mobility in terms of continuing to work throughout the next school year. I guess one of my problems is getting the district manager to actually communicate with me and set up time to meet as they are very flaky and unreliable. One last question--was there an internship fair at the end of your school year to set up summer internships or any type of recruitment?

Thanks for any help

 

[confettiflyer]

Befriend someone who already works as an intern. Most of our inpatient interns were hired on word-of-mouth before a posting ever made it to a website.

Cold e-mail directors with a short resume and they'll keep it on file (if you're memorable enough), usually there's a hiring spree in the spring as 4th years start to graduate.

Retail chains have trainers directly responsible for hiring interns, go find them. I have no retail experience while in rx school, all my advice above pertains to inpatient.

Goodluck!

 

[owlegrad]

Yeah no surprise confetti is on point. For retail find out who the intern coordinator is and get in contact with that person. For inpatient apply online and try to reach out to the DOP so you are memorable when an opening becomes available.

But for either inpatient or outpatient, find classmates who have jobs and ask them to help you get a job, even if it is as simple as giving you the contact info for the hiring manager. Pharmacy is a small world, blah blah blah. I have noticed that when jobs become available, interns are often asked to "spread the word" so to say. So ask your classmates to keep an ear out for job opening, etc.

I know some classmates who got jobs from IPPEs, guest pharmacist speakers, through professor recommendations, etc. There are opportunities all around depending on how flexible you can be.

Do you know how awesome having an intern is for a pharmacist? After a little training we can do all kinds of stuff and we cost hardly more than techs. I am probably a little jaded on this one, but I don't think it should be hard to find a job as an intern. I just don't.

 

[confettiflyer]

also, don't assume that your "friend" is actually hooking you up with a job.

I've had less than stellar candidates ask me for a job hook up and my usual response was "yeah just apply online, i'll see what i can do." then i tell my supervisor that i wouldn't touch them with a 10 foot pole and the resume hits the circular file.

kind of a catch 22 though, if you're a qualified friend i'll come to you first, and if you have to ask for a hook up, you probably a) aren't qualified or b) don't know me very well. but you can't get anywhere without asking. make sense?

yeah it's tough...it's part skill/personality, and another part luck/timing.

 

[owlegrad]

Admittedly I had not considered the sabotage option.

 

[confettiflyer]

Admittedly I had not considered the sabotage option.

partly out of selfishness...i don't want an unreliable/idiot coworker, because that creates more work for me and makes my school look bad. I'm batting 100% on referrals at my hospital and I like to keep it that way.

 

[owlegrad]

Admittedly I would do the same. I would never recommend someone I didn't think would do a good job. I just hadn't considered that when I gave my advice. So it is good you reminded the OP that it would be best to ask people that will actually help him. 👍