Pharmalife Application Tips

So it’s finally reached that time when all of us hopeful pharmacy students must submit our hospital pharmacy applications and pray that our application gets a second look at least…

I know the feeling. I too have been sitting at my laptop most days this past month, wondering how on earth I would answer the complex riddles known as the Pharmalife profile question. In this time I have found a few tricks or tips that have helped me put together a pretty successful application and I thought I would share them here.

Remember:  The questions aren’t there to catch you out. From my understanding they are simply trying to get to know what kind of a person you are, what you have done in the past and what your ambitions are.

Top tips:

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•             The Person Specification:   

So initially I found getting the person spec for each of my chosen trusts a good start. These are incredibly useful. All the trusts I applied to have had more or less the same person spec. So by linking your answers throughout the application to this document you are showing them you are exactly what they are looking for.

 (Note: The London Collaboration invites all those who meet the person spec to the assessment day)

• ·         Get a Whiteboard:

All those who know me, know I swear by a whiteboard for everything. If you are a visual person like I am it helps you organise your thoughts for each question. I like to write down all the points from the person spec on one side and all the experience I have on the other. I then match up the qualities on the person spec to where I have demonstrated it. This prevents you from repeating yourself and helps strengthen what you’ve learnt from your experience. It also helps you write more coherent and direct answers to their questions.

• ·         Do your research!

I know this one seems like a given but you would be surprised at the number of people who don’t bother to actually click on the ‘About us’ tab on each trust's website. There’s a great deal of valuable information that would look so good in the ‘Further information..’ section of your application. The information is all there and it shows you have gone beyond what’s on Pharmalife and done your own research.

• ·         And Finally…. Read, Re-read and then get someone else to do the same:

There’s no such thing as checking something too many times. Your hospital application is your introduction to your future employer. Having spelling errors or grammatical mistakes will only get your application tossed in the trash. So check your work regularly and get others to check it too. The more people you can get to look at it the better and higher the chance of catching pesky errors. Your university's employment team are a good start and you can get your work checked by different people within that team. I would avoid using online spelling and grammar checkers as the best ones are never free and they can also make mistakes. You can also ask friends, family... hell, ask your neighbour if you have to. Just get those multiple checks before you press 'Apply'.

These are just a few of the things I found useful when completing my application. I hope they help you all as much as they’ve helped me and if you have any more tips you think others could benefit from just pop them below!

S.