Networking

Social Networking

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network on the internet. You can use LinkedIn to find the right job or internship, connect and strengthen professional relationships, and learn the skills you need to succeed in your career.

APhA has developed a resource to help craft an effective LinkedIn profile for pharmacists.

 

Career Fairs

Career fairs are a great way to meet employers in person, but you are not given much time to sell yourself. The following steps tell you what to do so you can let the recruiter know why you are an excellent candidate.

  1. Prepare yourself by knowing your strengths
  2. Work on how to market yourself during the brief time you will talk
  3. Grab your resume and go through each item (education, work experience, internships, professional associations, memberships, leadership experiences, volunteer work, etc.)
  4. Jot down some success stories for each or words to jog your memory that focus on the competencies/skills that recruiters are seeking.
    • Example: If one of the positions you want is looking for people with “conflict resolution skills;” then you need to have several specific examples that demonstrate you have the ability and/or are competent to effectively handle a conflict. So, look at “education” and jot down a few words to remind yourself of an experience where you had to overcome a conflict in a class project, disagreement with a professor, scheduling conflict, etc. that demonstrates:
      • What the situation was
      • How you handled it/what was your reaction
      • How you overcame the conflict and it was successfully resolved
      • What you learned from the experience or what you are doing to improve that skill
  5. Then, look at some of the other items (such as work experience, internships, professional associations, memberships, leadership expe­riences, volunteer work, etc.) and jot down some examples under those where you had to overcome/deal with a conflict.

 

How to share your success stories

Triple Xs:

  • X Assignment to be dealt with
  • X Action you took
  • X Accomplishments that resulted

Your assignment and accomplishment must match and complement each other – the result must solve or resolve the assignment.

 

 

S.T.A.R. Technique:

  • Situation
  • Task you had to complete
  • Action you took to complete the task or achieve the goal
  • Result of your efforts

 

One-Minute interviews

A one-minute interview is typically a response to the “Tell me about yourself” question during an interview or the perfect way to introduce yourself at a career fair. Your one-minute interview should:

  • Tell employers what you consider important and give insight into your values
  • Tell employers if you’re organized, self-motivated, and focused
  • Demonstrate that your qualifications, abilities, and potential for success would make you a great fit for the position you are interviewing for
  • Show that you have done your homework and know about the organization
  • Help employers determine how well you’d fit into the organization’s culture

 

You can design your one-minute interview to your preferences, highlighting those things that best demonstrate your qualifications and abilities. The key to replying to the “Tell me about yourself” request is to rehearse (not memorize) a 1-2 minute commercial making sure that you highlight specific accomplishments and abilities you wish to convey to the interviewer. Think about what a commercial does. It focuses on selling a product in a minuscule amount of time. It grabs your attention immediately with information that is interesting. Then it tells why you should buy the product. That’s exactly what your commercial should do: grab employers’ interest with a confident statement about yourself and then support that statement with specific facts. Concentrate on selling your strong points; tell employers exactly why they should hire you instead of someone else. You can accomplish this by showing them right away (first impressions) that you possess the relevant qualifications needed for the position.

The better you know what you want to convey in your commerical, the more confident you’ll feel — and look. Practice by touching on the key points of your commerical so that your expessions and thoughs will sound natural and convincing. Just like and actor, you need to learn certain lines in your script (key points to touch on) and be able to deliver it in character. Be comfortable with your delivery, know who you are, and know what qualifications, skills, and abilities you will be able to contribute to the job and the organization. But avoid sounding rehearsed.

There are a few things that your commerical can include:

  • How you became interested in this field or passionate about this type of work
  • Your academic degress(s), majors, minors, specializiations, areas of concentration, certifications and relevant coursework
  • Honors, awards and achievements
  • Specific skills applicable to the position (transferable skills)
  • Specific job training, past/present relevant work experience and itnernships/externships/co-ops
  • Positions of leadership, involvement in professional associations, student organizations, memberships and affiliations
  • Volunteer activities
  • Technical, computer, language skills, etc.
  • Goals
  • Business philosophy, work ethic
  • Interest and enthusiasm in the position for which you are applying/organizaiton you wish to work for

 

Why should we hire you?

(This is similar to your 1-minute commercial/tell me about yourself response)

  • Give a 1-2 minute summary presentation on why you are the perfect candidate. (Don’t be distracted by the mentioning of other candidates. Focus on what strengths you bring to the table (i.e. competence, professionalism, enthusiasm and likeability)
  • Mention how your goals are similar to or in alignment with the company’s goals
  • Talk about skills you possess that are needed by the company
  • Discuss how your past pattern of accomplishments will likely continue with this company
  • Finally, stress your interest in the compnay, why you think it would be a great place to work and do so with enthusiasm.