everything you ever needed to know before heading to ASHP Midyear
By Shifa Zachariah, P4, University of the SciencesHow often have you heard your retail pharmacy manager a) wishing they never went to pharmacy school b) did a residency, or my personal favorite c) advising you to stay as far away from the community setting as possible while you are still young and have some hope for the future? And if you work in retail, how often have you found yourself envious of your friends who managed to secure a hospital job or that obscure job in the pharmaceutical industry?
Well, if you can relate to any of the above, you are certainly not alone. According to a recent study, over 50% of community pharmacists want to quit their jobs! And a recent workforce survey from AACP reported that pharmacists from all practice areas are increasingly stressed, having difficulty seeking new jobs, and experiencing lower levels of job satisfaction with an incessantly increasing workload. Why do we feel like we have been stuck in a rut? Surely none of us can forget the grueling amount of work and stress we endured as students in pharmacy school and of course the ominous student loans following us into retirement. So why settle? There is a myriad of other non-traditional options which are available for pharmacists. Not convinced? Consider this list of just some non-traditional practice settings for pharmacists:
If you happen to be one of those individuals who always enjoyed writing and belonged to the group of pharmacy students who did not think that Writing 101 was a “waste of time since you are a science major, duh!”, you may consider medical writing as a career! Medical writers provide clients with specific expertise to meet diverse marketing challenges. They offer decades of experience in effectively communicating educational messages through print, live meetings, and electronic media. Medical writers are able to combine scientific expertise with strategic thinking and marketing in areas such as strategic publication planning, audiovisual presentations, and special event planning for some of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world. And if you are now wondering how to go about becoming a medical writer - you're in the right place! Our MedVal/PharmaWrite 1-year postdoctoral fellowship in the medical communication industry is a great place to get started in the field. Apply for our fellowship today! Now if you see yourself happy working in a retail setting, by all means follow your dream, but for the rest of us seemingly stuck in a rut, why not give one of these non-traditional options a chance?
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When I was a P4, PPS was a completely foreign acronym to me. Most of my classmates had done PGY1 residencies, not fellowships – so when I starting asking around for advice about PPS, I didn’t really get any useful feedback. The main thing I wanted to know was:
Luckily, I had an amazing preceptor who went through the PPS process during her Midyear, and she gave me all the advice I needed. And after going through it last year – hopefully I can pay it forward! First of all – what is PPS? It stands for Personnel Placement Service (which might not tell you much). Essentially, PPS is a set of interviews where you can pay an extra fee to actually sit down and meet with your programs of interest, one-on-one. Second – do I need to do PPS? Again: it depends. Keep in mind that NOT ALL programs participate in PPS in the first place, especially PGY1 residencies. Make sure to double-check with your programs of interest to see if they are doing PPS first, and you can make a decision from there. On the other end of the spectrum, some programs actually require PPS and use it as first-round interviews before on-site interviews. (For our fellowship (MedVal/PharmaWrite), we participate in PPS and use it as part of the interview process. For the candidates who can’t make it to Midyear, we accept phone interviews in place of PPS!) PPS is for people looking for employment and is mainly beneficial for P4’s applying for fellowships and PGY1 residents applying for PGY2s. If a bunch of the programs you're interested in are doing PPS for PGY1s, then it may be beneficial - but most PGY1 programs don't participate in PPS, so you can consider saving your money if you only see one or two. The ASHP website will put up a list of all participating programs here closer to the date – keep an eye out! To register for PPS, sign up on the ASHP website and pay the fee ($145 for students, $200 for current residents). [NOTE: PPS registration is SEPARATE and IN ADDITION to registering for Midyear!] There you can upload necessary documents (CV, Letter of Intent, etc.) and contact each program you want to schedule your interviews with over the course of the conference. These PPS interviews are conducted parallel to the rest of Midyear – so schedule accordingly! If you want to make it to the Residency Showcase or have a school meetup, be sure to schedule around those. Full PPS registration and resume uploading opened in September for candidates. Beginning October 21, candidates, employers, and jobs will become visible. Candidates will then be able to request interviews with employers, and employers will be able to view the resume database and contact candidates. Since PPS interview spots can fill up quickly, it’s important to upload your resume and request interviews as soon as possible. Interview spots are generally first come, first serve. Once I registered for PPS, my next question was: how many interviews should I schedule?! Honestly, your PPS experience will be what you make of it. I’ve read articles that say you shouldn’t do more than 10 or else you’ll get burnt out – but at the same time, my fellowship director told me she did 40 during her year, so… it’s up to you! During my year, I only signed up for 2 interviews because there were only two programs I was interested in who happened to be on the list of participating program. And it still worked out! When you first get to Midyear and sign-in, they’ll give you a special sticker that says ‘PPS’ on it and will grant you access into the PPS exhibit room later on. PPS will be conducted in slots from 12/4 to 12/7, 7:30am – 5pm. Once you're in the room, you will find the "semi-private" booth where you can meet individually with employers. This one-on-one interaction honestly can be extremely valuable; you're essentially paying to have 30 minutes of personal face time with programs where, at Residency Showcase, you're just one face in a sea of hundreds. But just like with the Residency Showcase, do not feel obligated to do PPS – especially if you’re aiming for a PGY1 residency. Hopefully that helped answer a few of your questions about PPS! If you have questions about this fellowship or want advice about anything else, don't hesitate to let me know! ... what are my next steps?! Well, first of all - if you haven't done so already, nabbing an industry APPE rotation (like ours here at MedVal/PharmaWrite) could be a great place to start. This will give you an idea about whether or not industry truly is for you before you commit fully to attending Midyear or interviewing for fellowships.
If your school doesn't have any industry pharmacy APPE sites (like my school), ask an advisor how to set one up! They'll know how to connect you with companies around your area. Below, our MedVal/PharmaWrite fellowship director and previous fellow, Maryah Haidery, shares some advice on how to make the most of your industry rotation to help you get a fellowship after graduation! How do I prepare for an industry rotation? There usually isn’t much to do to prepare. If you know the department you will be working in (ex. diabetic products), it might be good idea to read up a bit on the products the company manufactures. You can also look up your preceptor on LinkedIn to get a sense of their background. What should I expect on rotation? My rotation was at Janssen Pharmaceuticals with the CNS team of the Drug Information Department. Typical activities included literature searches, compendia reviews, medical letter updates, PRC meetings, writing and updating training material for sales reps and listening in on phone info requests ***Important: Keep a running tally of all the projects you do as you do. This list will come in handy when you are updating your CV and preparing for fellowship interviews.*** I am not enjoying my industry rotation. How do I know if industry is right for me? Industry might not be right for everyone. But before writing it off as not for you, just remember that the experience is highly dependent on the type of rotation (you might be a great fit for regulatory affairs but hate drug info), your preceptor and what is going on in the company during your particular block (e.g., When I got there, one of the products was just approved for a new indication so there were a lot of things that needed updating and I was pretty busy but the girl who was there before me just ended up doing a bunch of literature searches and was pretty bored). Be prepared to spend a lot of time at your desk and at meetings. This may take getting used to. If you’re not feeling challenged, try and be proactive and talk to your preceptor and volunteer to help in any way you think might be helpful – for example if you see something that can be improved, offer to improve it. If you notice that someone is overwhelmed with a project, try and figure out if you can help. Bottom line, your industry experience can be as good as you want to make it. And if you don’t enjoy it, try and figure out if it’s that particular department that you don’t enjoy or the industry culture. If it’s the latter and you really don’t feel like industry is a good fit for you, that’s fine too. Better to figure this out earlier rather than later. What else can I do to make the most of my industry rotation? Network, network network!!! I personally am not the best at networking but meeting people and making a good impression is key in industry so you better get used to it. The only way to get better is to put yourself out there and practice. I was fortunate in that part of the Janssen rotation is actually setting up meetings with Pharm D’s in different fields (Drug Info, Med Affairs, HECOR, Regulatory Affairs, Drug Safety, etc.). But if your industry site doesn’t do this, I would definitely ask your preceptor if you could set up meetings with people – especially in fields that you are interested in pursuing a fellowship in. Looking up people on LinkedIn is a good way to prepare for networking and might give help you come up with talking points (e.g. you can reference a particular position or company they worked for or a research project they were involved in) Get a feel for the company culture. All companies are not alike and industry jobs are more than just doing the job at hand. While you are at your site, go to town meetings, poster presentations, speaker events and participate in any interesting committees or activities. Not only will this help you get a better sense of what an industry job entails, but it will also give you good talking points for midyear interviews. Does it matter if my industry rotation is after Midyear if I plan to go to Midyear? Yes and no. Contrary to popular belief, previous pharmaceutical industry experience is NOT required to apply for a fellowship at midyear. Theoretically, fellowship programs understand that some students may have difficulty getting industry experience before midyear or at all. But practically, It’s pretty obvious that if you have an industry rotation under your belt before midyear, it’s much easier to come up with talking points during interviews and when you say you want to pursue a career in drug info because you had a great experience during your rotation, it’s much more convincing that saying “you think you might be good at drug info”. But the bottom line is that interviewers at midyear are looking for you to demonstrate your problem-solving, team work, communication skills, professionalism, and working style. And while it might be difficult to convince an interviewer that you will be suited to industry despite not having completed an industry rotation, it is possible. Some industry-like experiences you can talk about if you are in this position:
Also remember that even if your rotation is after midyear, you should still ALWAYS do your best job at the rotation. It is still an invaluable opportunity to make connections and some students have even been offered direct positions in the company after doing a particularly impressive job. |
AuthorJonathan Mitchell, PharmD, MedVal/PharmaWrite 2019-2020 Postdoctoral Fellow Archives
October 2019
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