Residency without Work experience?

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mickey29

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Hi Everyone,

I'm wondering if having work experience is absolutely necessary to obtaining a residency. I go to school in a heavily pharmacy student saturated area, and unless you've had previous experience it's really difficult to get a job. Does anyone have any suggestions for people who would like to pursue a residency but is in a situation where working while going to school has dim prospects? Thanks in advance!
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I think one of the main reasons why I didn't match was lack of work experience. It is possible to match with minimal experience, as I can think of at least one person from my class who did. However, I really think it's in your best interest to get as much experience as possible through working. If you truly cannot find a job, I would volunteer in a hospital (or whatever setting you are thinking of doing residency in).
 
Work experience is important for sure, but not always a total deal breaker.

If you can't get a paid position try an unpaid internship....do shadowing...get involved in research with a professor. We want candidates who are doing something with their time.
 
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I have a classmate that had no work experience, no research, and did not volunteer in a pharmacy and she got a residency. Also I tried the volunteer thing and no one would let me so I know people always say that but sometimes people are real pains and when you're in school your area is limited.
 
Also I don't see how someone having been an intern at CVS vs. a student that wasn't a retail intern makes them a better candidate because these same people will tell you that that retail is a joke and not "clinical" so why is it factored into students getting "clincal" residencies? JMO
 
Thanks everyone!

I'm wondering if certain programs would be more sympathetic of the job availability these days but I guess there's always people with the jobs so..

Would you say that a GPA is one of the more important aspects vs. a job?
 
mickey29 said:
Thanks everyone!

I'm wondering if certain programs would be more sympathetic of the job availability these days but I guess there's always people with the jobs so..

Would you say that a GPA is one of the more important aspects vs. a job?
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Unfortunately GPA matters. With the amount of people applying, they gotta have some standard way of evaluating applicants. Especially when most people have the same rotation experiences.
 
GPA is important but beware the high GPA with no or minimal work experience. Didn't work out well for me anyway.
 
What's considered " work experience '?


I like a good hefty portion of my class wasn't able to find a paying job, so while I worked and earned my intern hours - the required by the state 900 + something hours remaining from the 1500 ( 600 we get from school), it was through volunteer experiences at two different pharmacies.

One was a "medical pharmacy", some compounding, mainly outpatient.This is where majority of my hours come from. The problem is, the PIC I worked with and adored/who equally liked me and would write me a good letter, left and sued the pharmacy after. Getting letter from her at this point would be very problematic. The newer PIC, I barely worked with and while I can get a letter from her, we weren't super chamsy.

One at the specialty clinic/pharmacy - can get a very good letter from them.

So, I guess, would these be considered work experiences even though they are volunteer ? I have all my intern hours officially documented and affidavit forms signed by the PICs ready to be sent to the BOP.
 
Callista said:
What's considered " work experience '?


I like a good hefty portion of my class wasn't able to find a paying job, so while I worked and earned my intern hours - the required by the state 900 + something hours remaining from the 1500 ( 600 we get from school), it was through volunteer experiences at two different pharmacies.

One was a "medical pharmacy", some compounding, mainly outpatient.This is where majority of my hours come from. The problem is, the PIC I worked with and adored/who equally liked me and would write me a good letter, left and sued the pharmacy after. Getting letter from her at this point would be very problematic. The newer PIC, I barely worked with and while I can get a letter from her, we weren't super chamsy.

One at the specialty clinic/pharmacy - can get a very good letter from them.

So, I guess, would these be considered work experiences even though they are volunteer ? I have all my intern hours officially documented and affidavit forms signed by the PICs ready to be sent to the BOP.
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If I were a residency director, I would consider these work experience. I think many residency directors would feel the same. You don't even need to say on your CV that you volunteered if your hours are documented.

It's not a problem to not have a LOR from your employer. I didn't ask for employer LORs and I matched. Some programs do specifically ask for employer LORs, but if you're not applying to any of those you should be fine.
 
as a preceptor, I didn't necessarily look for a specific type of work experience. If someone had big holes in their work history, that was a red flag to me. I thought "what on earth did they do with all their time?" and it made me wonder if that person could hack having multiple demands of their time. I would count volunteer hours as work. As to why retail experience would help for a hospital residency? Just general pharmacy-related problem solving experience is good. I can tell in about five seconds if a student I am precepting has worked in a pharmacy or not even if they've never set foot in a hospital pharmacy. People still continue most of their home meds in the hospital you know :laugh:
 
This is pretty much my problem. I applied to a bunch of things and never even got an interview. I have a good GPA (I'll be graduating with honors), and I was extremely involved. I did A LOT of volunteer activities in the community with my free time, but I didn't go to one place consistently. I've had preceptors that have commended my work and have offered to write me a letter of recommendation without me asking for one; however, I'm still worried about my chances due to lack of work experience. I guess all I can do at this point is apply and hope for the best. I'm keeping a positive attitude. 🙂
 
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spacecowgirl said:
as a preceptor, I didn't necessarily look for a specific type of work experience. If someone had big holes in their work history, that was a red flag to me. I thought "what on earth did they do with all their time?" and it made me wonder if that person could hack having multiple demands of their time. I would count volunteer hours as work. As to why retail experience would help for a hospital residency? Just general pharmacy-related problem solving experience is good. I can tell in about five seconds if a student I am precepting has worked in a pharmacy or not even if they've never set foot in a hospital pharmacy. People still continue most of their home meds in the hospital you know :laugh:
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There's hope! 😍
 
Rattlergirl53 said:
Also I don't see how someone having been an intern at CVS vs. a student that wasn't a retail intern makes them a better candidate because these same people will tell you that that retail is a joke and not "clinical" so why is it factored into students getting "clincal" residencies? JMO
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Are kidding...working retail provides a lot of experience. Students learn how to talk to patients in way they can't learn as a tech in a hospital. There are a lot of other valuable skills with just having a job... It is what you make of it. I would take someone with retail experience versus someone with no experience.
 
GoldfishPharmD said:
This is pretty much my problem. I applied to a bunch of things and never even got an interview. I have a good GPA (I'll be graduating with honors), and I was extremely involved. I did A LOT of volunteer activities in the community with my free time, but I didn't go to one place consistently. I've had preceptors that have commended my work and have offered to write me a letter of recommendation without me asking for one; however, I'm still worried about my chances due to lack of work experience. I guess all I can do at this point is apply and hope for the best. I'm keeping a positive attitude. 🙂
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Didn't you graduate a while back tho ?
 
hereticmnk said:
Hmmm.. cuz of the time we were chatting and you were making fun on my age. I thought you had graduated for some reason. I guess I was wrong :laugh:
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No. I was making fun and calling you a baby cause you were so young. I'm old and still in school. 😛
 
I didn't match the first time due to lack of hospital experience despite retail and organization experience. I worked graveyard and reapplied.
 
ngmc11 said:
I didn't match the first time due to lack of hospital experience despite retail and organization experience. I worked graveyard and reapplied.
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did you have a lot of hospital/clinical rotations?
 
ngmc11 said:
I didn't match the first time due to lack of hospital experience despite retail and organization experience. I worked graveyard and reapplied.
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tungsten87 said:
did you have a lot of hospital/clinical rotations?
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+1?

Can we get some more stats? gpa, orgs, leadership, awards, rotation info, research, pubs, number of programs applied to, etc
 
I had a lot of health policy experience through the rotations and internship.
I had pharmacy leadership involvement, but certainly lacked clinical experience.
I applied to 10 programs back then and only interviewed for 2. I think it also had to do with the fact I applied to the most competitive programs.
 
I have heard similar notes from others who only applied to top-notch, competitive programs. I think it's important to be realistic in your CV and experiences, and apply to a variety of programs, similar to applying to college. For example, have a few reach programs, "safe" programs, and "equivalent/good match" programs. I think I got more interviews (and matched) than others who had similar experiences and got very few interviews and did not match, because of the selections I made for applications.
 
stumbleine88 said:
I have heard similar notes from others who only applied to top-notch, competitive programs. I think it's important to be realistic in your CV and experiences, and apply to a variety of programs, similar to applying to college. For example, have a few reach programs, "safe" programs, and "equivalent/good match" programs. I think I got more interviews (and matched) than others who had similar experiences and got very few interviews and did not match, because of the selections I made for applications.
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I agree with this. I thought I was a very competitive applicant, yet I got fewer interviews than I thought I would. Same even goes for some people that I thought could have gotten into any program they wanted. It's just so competitive out there now, so you need to diversify your applications.
 
stumbleine88 said:
I have heard similar notes from others who only applied to top-notch, competitive programs. I think it's important to be realistic in your CV and experiences, and apply to a variety of programs, similar to applying to college. For example, have a few reach programs, "safe" programs, and "equivalent/good match" programs. I think I got more interviews (and matched) than others who had similar experiences and got very few interviews and did not match, because of the selections I made for applications.
Click to expand...

That is good advice. Looking back on it now, I probably interviewed at too many trauma centers where I didn't stand a chance. Should of gone for some more smaller programs.
 
It's all about the fit... in terms of what you're looking for and what the program offers..
that's what I realized going back the second time..
 
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