Personal Placement Service - decision time!

Personal Placement Service (PPS) is a service offered by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists which takes place at their Midyear Clinical Meeting (MCM).  It allows employers and potential employees to meet face-to-face for a mini-interview at Midyear.  In addition to traditional job opportunities, PPS is also a venue for those interested in pharmacy residencies.  Participation in PPS is not universal so it is important to understand the factors which will predict whether a PGY-1 residency program will participate in PPS.  The programs most likely to participate are:

• Large programs which offer both PGY-1 and PGY-2 positions
• Large employers which may also have multiple job openings as well
• Pharmaceutical industry fellowships
• Programs geographically located close to where the MCM will be held ( this will be Florida in 2013)

Decision time is here because early-bird prices for PPS applicants expire on October 21st (prices go from $70 to $130 for students).  Although the ASHP meeting is not until December, if you are interested in participating in PPS, you should consider getting started now so that you can secure an interview slot at the meeting.  Once you register for PPS, employers and residency directors will be able to find you in searches for PPS participants.  You will also be able to express your interest in participating programs.  Because PPS involves scheduled interview times, not everyone who wants an interview will receive one.  Programs will be looking for your qualifications as well as whether what they are offering matches what you are looking for.  

Although what happens at PPS is an "interview," different programs have different practices.  Some may treat PPS as a pre-screening activity where they will ask tough questions and try to get to know each applicant so that they can decide who moves to the next round.  Others will treat PPS as an opportunity to showcase their program and attract interested applicants.  It will be tough to determine which is which but if you are extended an offer to interview at PPS, it is always a good idea to ask whether there is anything specific you need to do to prepare for the interview.

To best take advantage of the PPS experience, avoid looking at programs which are located in your city.  Programs will want to use that time to look at applicants more geographically distant and you can always work on scheduling a visit with programs in your town when things are less hectic.  Make sure you make that face-to-face connection, however.  It is strange for a program to receive first contact with a local applicant when the application arrives.  You don't want the program to think they are your last choice or back-up program if they are not.

More about PPS will be posted on this web site in November.