Residency 6 years post grad?

[Curiousone1111]

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Hi!

has anyone done a residency 6 years (or later) after graduating? If so, is it harder since you aren’t as “fresh” as you were when you first graduated? Thanks!

 

[BidingMyTime]

I would be hard in today's competitive residencies to get one 6 years after graduating. Not impossible, but its really going to depend on what kind of job you are currently doing. IE if you are already at a job doing resident like work, you would have a chance at getting a residency.....but then if you already had a job like that, you probably wouldn't be applying for a residency. As for how hard it would be, that would depend on how much resident like work you are doing in your current job. The majority of new grads, and probably a vast majority are your competition for residency, and they being fresh out of school, they will have an advantage over you in getting the residency. You will need to have something above and beyond the new grads, to beat them out of a residency.

 

[GradVantageRx]

Although I agree with some of the comments above, I'd add/disagree on the following:

• You will certainly stick out from the pile just for having so much work experience!
  • I'd argue that this would give your application package a slight advantage in terms of how it is evaluated when compared to comparable applicants.
• Your ability to tell a compelling story, and show yourself to be a committed learner will be crucial in any interviews.

Best of luck!!

 

[KidPharmD]

You can argue that 6 years of work (retail based on OP's other posts) would give an applicant an advantage, but people also argue that the world is flat. I don't know of anywhere who's rubric would give any points to already being a licensed pharmacist more than they would to someone with similar intern experience. It's also probably that LOR writers would either be 6 years removed from interacting with the candidate or be much less likely to be able to speak to the kinds of things that are evaluated on an LOR.

Additionally, I think that many involved in the selection/interview process will view a candidate who is coming back after so long with default skepticism. I think we have all had those applicants who seem to be using residency more as a way to escape retail than a path to a desired clinical position.

 

[samven582]

You can argue that 6 years of work (retail based on OP's other posts) would give an applicant an advantage, but people also argue that the world is flat. I don't know of anywhere who's rubric would give any points to already being a licensed pharmacist more than they would to someone with similar intern experience. It's also probably that LOR writers would either be 6 years removed from interacting with the candidate or be much less likely to be able to speak to the kinds of things that are evaluated on an LOR.

Additionally, I think that many involved in the selection/interview process will view a candidate who is coming back after so long with default skepticism. I think we have all had those applicants who seem to be using residency more as a way to escape retail than a path to a desired clinical position.

Or for better job opportunities?

 

[KidPharmD]

Or for better job opportunities?

If you are saying that's a valid reason to seek a residency... Then you have to realize that those retail pharmacists will be competing with P4's whos story will be that they always wanted to be a clinical pharmacist.

Those of us in hospitals are aware that retail is sucking more than it ever have. But it is hard to prefer the pharmacist who is motivated by his dislike of retail over the student who is motivated by their love of clinical pharmacy. Also, I understand that many of those students will be simply looking to avoid retail too but they are not as obvious.

 

[RN2RPh]

just my though: are you willing to relocate anywhere for residency ? If yes, then are you willing to relocate anywhere for a non-retail job ?

 

[Dred Pirate]

It is hard, but not impossible - unfortunately we took some fliers on people who had been out of school for a couple of years and offered them an interview for residency, and 100% of them just straight up sucked in their interview - not saying this applies to you, but it was our experience. We got to the point that we auto eliminate you if you have been out of school more than 1 or 2 years.

I think your best bet is to try to get a job is some small rural hospital that is hard up for employees. Another option is a large academic type hospital on an operations team - those jobs are boring as hell to me, but I know many will hire people just to check product - albeit those jobs could be eliminated with tech check tech and a bar code scanner at any moment.

 

[BidingMyTime]

It is hard, but not impossible - unfortunately we took some fliers on people who had been out of school for a couple of years and offered them an interview for residency, and 100% of them just straight up sucked in their interview - not saying this applies to you, but it was our experience. We got to the point that we auto eliminate you if you have been out of school more than 1 or 2 years.

Curious, was this because of lack of knowledge after being out of school a few years, or was it because of a bitter, jaded attitude after working retail a couple of years?

 

[Dred Pirate]

Curious, was this because of lack of knowledge after being out of school a few years, or was it because of a bitter, jaded attitude after working retail a couple of years?

obviously out sample size is relatively small but ya- it was mainly due to obvious lack of knowledge, not saying all retail rphs fall into this category, but it is more likely to occur is people who didn't get a residency (or didn't try) right out of school. I am not saying this is true about all rph's in retial, but we felt we wasted an interview spot every time (never even ranked a single one) so felt it was the best use of resources going forward.

 

[deleted205891]

Curious, was this because of lack of knowledge after being out of school a few years, or was it because of a bitter, jaded attitude after working retail a couple of years?

We interviewed someone that has been out of school that long and actually had some clinical duties in their retail position, and seemed like a great candidate on paper. However, their lack of clinical knowledge was very apparent throughout the interview. We ranked this person, but not high enough for them to match with us.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Match numbers don't lie- you are more likely to match as a new grad than a non-new grad.

 

[samven582]

We interviewed someone that has been out of school that long and actually had some clinical duties in their retail position, and seemed like a great candidate on paper. However, their lack of clinical knowledge was very apparent throughout the interview. We ranked this person, but not high enough for them to match with us.

What kind of clinical questions did you ask? Is it the standard VA case studies?

 

[deleted205891]

What kind of clinical questions did you ask? Is it the standard VA case studies?

I am not on the clinical assessment panel, but we asked some AC questions on our panel. BTW if you are interested in a GS12 position, come to our VA, we are hiring.