1. What you know about pharmacist careers?
Pharmacist is one of the most popular careers all around the world. Clean working environment, professional colleagues, exceptional salary. These are the true reasons behind a popularity of this job.
While speaking about it in an interview. You should speak about your desire to help the others, your passion for drugs and medicines, or about your true love to the nature of this job. Money should never resonate in your answer. Of course, we all work for money. (Nobody would go to work without getting paid.) Interviewers know it, but they want to hear that you have also other, better motives, why you apply for the job of a pharmacist.
3. Tell me why you want to become a pharmacist?
I was always interested in treatment of various diseases, in drugs and in medical equipment. It was my passion and I never hesitated when choosing my career. I feel it is my true calling and dream job to work as a pharmacist. On the top of that, I believe to have both knowledge and right personality to become a great pharmacist and to bring added value to the team.
4. What did you dislike the most about your studies?
Each of us dislike some subjects. Interviewers have most likely seen your marks and know what troubled you at school. If you said you had no problems with any subject, but you got some bad marks, they would doubt your trustworthiness and that would be an end of your chances to get a job.
5. What subjects did you have problems with?
Therefore, do not hesitate to your weaknesses and list subjects you had problems with. Nobody is perfect. Interviewers themselves had problems with some subjects too.
6. What kind of pharmacist job is?
Job of a pharmacist can look like a piece of cake for many people. But the truth is different. One deals with all kind of clients (good and bad) and many difficult situations occur in a pharmacy on a daily basis.
7. What problematic situations can occur in your daily job of a pharmacist?
This job is not easy. One has to talk to all kinds of people, old and young, nice and angry, clever and stupid. It may be very difficult sometimes to help a patient, but I work a lot on my communication skills, to be able to talk to everyone in a most appropriate way.
8. What are the most common problems pharmacist have to deal with?
Drug interaction is one of the most common problems we have to deal with. It is important to keep your knowledge up to date, to be able to notice it, explain the situation to the patient and come up with an alternative solution. It may also happen that we do not have what the patient needs. In this case, we should offer him an alternative or send him some other place where they have it.
9. What typical interview question many job seekers are scared from?
Many job seekers are scared of this typical interview question of strengths and weaknesses. Well, nobody likes to talk about his own weaknesses, especially if we try to impress someone and get the job. On the top of that, we are good in seeing the weaknesses of the others, but struggle to identify our own weak spots. All in all, it is a difficult question for every job seeker, at least emotionally.
10. What strengths are closely related to the job of a pharmacist?
★ Good communication skills
★ Ability to uncover the needs of the others
★ Patience and responsibility
★ Detail oriented personality
★ Ability to talk to different kind of people
★ Problem solving skills
11. What are your strengths and weaknesses as pharmacist?
I have good communication skills and do not have a problem to talk to anybody. Also, details are very important for me. I believe that to be detail oriented is a crucial ability for every good pharmacist. From my weaknesses I can mention management and leadership skills. I am planning to work on it, once I have more free time.
12. What kind of a person you are?
I am patient, responsible and do not mind doing the same work for a long time. I have good problem solving and observation skills. From the weaknesses, I would love to improve my computer skills. It's not that bad but I believe in this era, one really needs to have better computer skills than I have. Therefore I attend evening classes and hope to improve on my PC skills.
13. What career growth options are available for pharmacist?
There aren't huge career growth possibilities for pharmacist. You can become a specialty ph or resident pharmacist, as well as the consultant. However, it is questionable if these jobs are better than a typical job of community pharmacist, or a hospital one. After all, one can become a pharmacy director too, but that is a very long and rocky path.
14. What kind of employers companies try to hire?
Recruitment is an expensive process. Is in not easy to choose a good pharmacist. Company also needs to train him and it takes some time to make from a good job applicant an useful employee. Therefor, companies try to hire loyal pharmacists, who would not leave them in three months time, as soon as better offer was available.
15. Where do you see yourself in five years time as pharmacist?
I would love to become a specialty pharmacist, oriented on chronic illnesses and complicated diseases in five years time. However, I understand that I need to gain some practice before and therefore I apply for this job. I know there is an option to become a specialist in this hospital in few years time, so that my goal is to work on my education and become one in five years time.
16. What skills are to much more demonstrate for an interview?
★ Your excellent communication skills
★ Ability to make a customer feel good in a store
★ Ability to uncover the needs of the others and upsell products and services
★ That you are able to deliver more than expected and exceed the expectation of everyone
17. Does non-verbal communication matters?
It does not matter how great your qualification or marks are. If you do not present yourself as a friendly, patient and customer oriented pharmacist, they will hire someone else.
18. What if pharmacist have no working experience?
However, there is no need to be worried if you have no previous working experience. You can speak about a situation from other job, from the college, from the family life. All you have to do is to pick a situation when you did something extraordinary. Pick it and speak about it in detail. After all, the attitude is what matters for the interviewers, not the details of the situation.
19. Describe the time when you went above and beyond what was expected of you?
I consider it my duty to do 110% for each customer. For example, in my last job, I called several times a friend, expert in the area of electronics, to give me an advice when a customer asked me a specific question I wasn't able to answer on my own. The customers really appreciated it and I was happy to help.
20. What kind of a place pharmacy is?
You need to realize that a pharmacy is an open place for everyone.
While most of the people are nice, some patients are angry (for example because of unexpected price), or stupid (don't understand even the simple suggestions regarding dosage and frequency).
21. How to behave with clients?
However, stupid or clever, calm or angry, client is always right. It is your duty to do your utmost to provide the best possible customer service in each instance. The goal is to ensure that customer will come to the store again and again and spend money.
22. What are the pharmacist primary goals?
★ To make a sale
★ To help the customer
★ To ensure he will come to the pharmacy again, when in need of medicines
23. How would you deal with angry and a stupid customer?
I try my very best to provide a perfect customer service. I am very focused and try to spot the actual mood of the client as soon as possible, to be able to adjust my behavior to the situation. If the client is angry, I have a clear strategy. I tell him he is right, I calmly tell it many times, even if he complains about the price of the product.
If a client is stupid, I do my best to use the simplest possible language and always write him the instructions on a separate piece of paper clearly. I repeat it until I ensure he understands everything. I simply do my best to ensure clients come back to our store and become loyal customers, what is after all, dependent mostly on the quality of customer service.
24. Who is an ideal applicant for this job?
You should show the interviewers that you are never satisfied with your knowledge and always work on improvement of your skills. Accredited continuing education classes are mandatory, ad you won't impress any interviewer with it. Try to show them that you do more than the other applicants.
25. Do you read any vocational magazines?
Show them that pharmaceutics is not only your desired field of work, but also your passion. Being enthusiastic about trends in the industry and mentioning magazines, publications, conferences and other things you read or attended to keep up to date with the trends is a superb way to stand out of the crowd of other, mostly passive job applicants, who do nothing more than attending mandatory classes.
