Scramble blues?

We've learned in the last few weeks that nothing has gone completely according to plans in the scramble.  It made sense to us that programs would want to see information from scramblers populate in their PhORCAS "inbox" starting on March 25th.  What happened instead is that perhaps programs were waiting to hear from those still interested in an effort to save students the time and expense of loading a bunch of stuff into PhORCAS without prior contact with the program.  We feel this is unfortunate and it may have put some students who were trying not to be a nuisance at a disadvantage over the "squeaky wheels."  We did hear of a few cases of programs responding with "don't email us" or "don't call us" so this was definitely not always the case.  We also wondered why students didn't seem to be given the opportunity to make changes to their pre-match application without forking over another $25 per program.  Dr. Sebranek spoke with Janet Teeters at ASHP last week and made her aware of this issue.  This is something they were definitely interested in hearing about.  Ms. Teeters couldn't confirm whether the cause of programs disappearing from PhORCAS before April 1 was the filling of positions or programs already receiving plenty of inquiries/applications.  She mentioned that the moratorium on offers before April 1 may become mandatory in the future.

What to do now?

Option 1: Keep your eyes peeled for new positions coming open in PhORCAS.  Since there is no cost to the programs, it would seem they would want to put their openings in there.  In case inertia is the issue, keep your eyes peeled in other places as well such as the pharmacy association email distribution lists and web sites which display openings (especially ACCP).  Continue to let people in your area and in your speciality (ex. managed care) know you are still looking.

Option 2: Start planning for next year.  Look for job openings in areas which are related to your practice site of interest.  Think about casting a wide geographic net and don't forget about rural areas where demand might be higher.  One Roseman student started working per diem for a hospital shortly after graduation.  This position eventually turned into a full-time night-shift position. That position eventually turned into a 9 - 5 M-F shift in a hospital in another city.

Hang in there and continue to feel free to reach out to Dr. Sebranek or myself for assistance.