Amy Wiggins & Natalie Smith, Careers and Employability Service

Pharmacy

What we will be covering:

• What the Careers and Employability Service can offer you

• CV and cover letter re-cap

• Interview skills

• Personal details (name, address, telephone, email)

• Education (start with most recent first)• Relevant experience/work

experience

• Other information (skills/interests/achievements)

• References (one academic, one work experience or ‘available on request’)

• No more than two sides

Paragraph 1: Introduction

Paragraph 2: Why community/hospital pharmacy? Why

one over the other?

Paragraph 3: Why that particular pharmacy/hospital?

Show your research.

Paragraph 4: Why you? What skills and knowledge can you

bring to the pharmacy/hospital. You can bring in your

experience and any relevant modules here if you wish

Paragraph 5: Conclusion

Yours sincerely/faithfully

Read the question, then re-read and highlight the relevant points. Once you have finished your answer, check that you have answered each section of the question

Always put your answers in Word first, as not all application forms will spell check (and you can save your answers)

Use the word limit as a guide to how much you should write

Keep in mind the qualities the employer are looking for

Be familiar with the employer website

Re-read employer information

Remind yourself why you find this employer attractive

Read a quality weekend newspaper

How does this relate to pharmacy?

Read a pharmacy related publication.

Read about the requirements for Pre-Reg.

Interview questions may be:▪ Hypothetical (what would you do if…)▪ Competency based (describe a situation where

you…)▪ ‘Traditional’ interview questions (tell me about

yourself)

In your answers, keep in mind the skills the employer will be looking for.

Be honest.

Why are you applying to us?

Why have you chosen Pharmacy?

What makes you suitable for this placement/job?

What have you got out of University?

What are your strengths & weaknesses?

What do you do in your spare time? What do you get out of it?

Describe a situation where you had to .....

show leadership make a difficult decision overcome a difficult obstacle refuse to compromise work with others to solve a problem

What would you do differently?

For questions where you are asked to ‘explain a time when…’, it is useful to use the STAR approach:

Situation – set the scene

Task - what needed to be done/achieved?

Action - this should take up about 80% of the answer, what action did YOU take?

Result - this is the ‘proof’ that you succeeded, try and give evidence such as statistics if possible

Get into pairs, decide who is the interviewer and who is the candidate

Interview question: Give me an example of a situation where you have had to refuse to compromise

Interviewer – take notes identifying whether the answer uses the STAR approach (Situation, Task, Action, Result)

You have 5 minutes

5 minutes

End

What would you do if an irate customer complained about the length of time they had been waiting?

What would you do if someone asked you to sell them 40 paracetamol tablets?

What would you do if a person became aggressive when talking to you?

Used precisely because it's impossible to work out your answer beforehand.

Tests your ability to think quickly, logically, produce practical solutions.

Don't panic! Take a few seconds to think - this shows confidence.

There may be many possible solutions.

Ask for some thinking time

Tell them you would need to research the answer

Ask if you can come back to that question later

Allow yourself not to know the answer – “I’m afraid I don’t know” is better than waffle!

Keep the answer short if you are operating at the edge of your comfort zone

Keep calm, even if you feel that everything is going badly

Don’t be put off by silences while the interviewer makes notes

Be aware of your body language

Shake hands warmly, but wait to be invited to sit down.

SmileTry to relax - don’t sit on the edge

of your chair, but don’t slouch.Speak clearly and not too fastDon’t fidgetKeep up good eye contact with the

interviewer

Body language at interviews

Get back into your pairs and switch interviewers/candidate roles

Interview question: What would you do if an irate customer complained about the length of time they had been waiting?

Interviewer – take notes regarding the candidate’s body language. Are they relaxed/do they keep eye contact etc.?

You have 5 minutes

5 minutes

End

Will I have a mentor in the workplace?

How many people work in the team?

Will I have to travel as part of this placement/job?

What do you think are the issues your pharmacy is facing in the current climate?

www.kent.ac.uk/ces

www.prospects.ac.uk

medwaycareers@kent.ac.uk