Aneesh Asokan, PharmD, MBA, is an APhA executive resident in Washington, DC.
It can be hard to juggle APPEs, life, and job-hunting in your final year of pharmacy school. For me, it felt like I was in a pressure cooker for about a year. There is so much pressure, both internally and externally, to do well in APPEs, network with pharmacists, and find time to figure out your career.
Thankfully, in pharmacy school you are given many career options; two of the more popular options would be either working in clinical or community pharmacy. I realized that I did not fit that mold, and so I looked outside of those two realms, which led me to postgraduate training in association management at APhA and the Board of Pharmacy Specialties.
That being said, getting here was not easy. Often, young professionals have a hard time realizing just how much experience they actually have; sometimes we think that having a job or being the president of an organization are the only avenues to gain experience. That is not necessarily true.
I hope these reflective tips will help you in your journey toward a career, residency, or fellowship.
Take stock
The first step in this journey is to take stock of yourself. Be honest and true about all the work you have done in the past. Pharmacy school is great because at one point or another, you will likely find yourself in a leadership role. If you did not hold any organizational leadership roles in school, then find something adjacent. If you worked at a hospital during school, that could show leadership. If you led a group project or discussion in school, that also shows leadership.
Depending on the role you are applying for, you can always spin your experiences to reflect yourself in a positive light. For example, some colleagues and I tried to create an antimicrobial awareness program at our school through a scholarship. Unfortunately, this coincided with the start of the pandemic, which ultimately led us to disband the coalition. While a “failure,” the lessons learned from this experience were important and helped me during my interviews.
Keep an eye on that CV
Now it’s time to gather your thoughts and work (or rework) your CV. A CV should always be updated, and I recommend having two CVs: one short and one long.
In the short one, only keep pertinent information such as dates, positions, and companies. In the long one, write out everything you did at each experience. The long one will help you remember all the different tasks you accomplished in each of your experiences. As you start applying for positions, be sure to combine important aspects from both CVs to create your final CV. This is to ensure that you have catered your experiences to fit the role.
A little help goes a long way
Always, always, always ask for help. Your eyes, ears, and brain get so used to how you act and speak that sometimes getting some input from another can help us tremendously. Have someone read over your CV, have someone help you practice with a mock interview, and be open to constructive criticism.
Best of luck!