What Are They Waiting to Hear?
When you interview for a pharmacist or pharmacy technician position, your interviewer is likely to ask you at least five questions.
You should have answers well prepared for these questions.
What are these five questions? Read below.
- Why are you leaving your current position/why did you leave your last position?
Employers want to know why you’re leaving a job because it gives them some insight into your on-the-job and career motivation. About the only legitimate reasons to leave a job are a) you want more responsibility, b) you want more money, c) the commute to the current position is too long, and d) your spouse is moving and you need to move, too. Any other reason – you hate your coworkers, you hate your boss/you and your boss clash, you decided you don’t really like retail pharmacy, etc. – isn’t a “legitimate” one because any other reason labels you as a whiner, a slacker, a difficult person, someone who doesn’t know what she wants. So even if the real reason is one of the non-legitimate ones, don’t say so.
- Why should I hire you instead of someone else?
The answer to this question is one you should think of at length before an interview. What makes you special? What have you done in your previous job(s) that made you stand out?
- Why do you want to work for us/what makes this position attractive to you?
This question relates nicely with Question 1: the interviewer is looking for what motivates you. But the interviewer also is looking to see how much you know about his company. So do your research on the company ahead of the interview so that you can answer something like this: “I’m looking to move into a more managerial position with a pharmacy that’s poise for growth. I saw in Forbes.com that your pharmacy plans to grow by 50 percent in 2014-’15 and I’d like to be a part of that expansion.”
- Tell me about a challenging situation you had at your last position/or while in pharmacy school. What did you do to make the challenge a positive one or, if it didn’t work out, what did you learn as a result/what could you have done differently?
The interviewer is looking to see how you handle stress, challenges/problems. If possible, have an answer that details the challenge, your thought process and the result.
- What kind of salary are you seeking?
The reasoning behind this question is self-evident: the interviewer/hiring manager wants to know if she can get you as inexpensively as possible. That’s why it’s wise to try to sidestep this question (“I’m sure if you decide to hire me that we’ll come to a salary agreement that will make both of us happy. Now I have a question for you…”). If the interviewer insists on an answer, give her a range, with your desired number as the bottom and your “it will be a happy dream come true if I get this amount” at the top. This way if your desired amount is too high for the company, you can negotiate down from a very nice number (the number you’d like). Keep the “number I can live with, if necessary” completely to yourself!
If you’re a pharmacist or pharm tech with at least one or two years of recent professional experience and you’re looking for new opportunities (because of one of the reasons listed in Question 1), contact the recruiters at Rx relief®. We look forward to hearing from you!
