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.

Meetings Meetings Everywhere!

Today's blog post is about the wealth of pharmacy meetings which are scheduled between now and residency application deadlines (early January).  Each one offers slightly different professional development and/or residency applicant resources.  Lower student registration prices reflect the costs for members of the organization. Organized by date...

September 14th, 2013 Utah Society of Health-System Pharmacists ($40 for students)
University of Utah Campus (HSEB), Salt Lake City, Utah

• Opportunities to network with local residency preceptors and directors
• Residency "speed dating." Students rotate between stations to learn about PhORCAS, the Match, letters of reference, ASHP Midyear residency showcase, PPS, letters of intent

October 4th - 5th, 2013 Nevada Society of Health-System Pharmacists ($25 - $35)
John Ascuaga's Nugget, Reno, Nevada

• Opportunities to network with local residency preceptors and directors
• Professional development roundtables (details TBA)

October 12th - 16th, 2013 American College of Clinical Pharmacy ($165 - $230)
Albuquerque, New Mexico

• Opportunities to network with residency and fellowship preceptors and directors
• Residency-related programming:  Emerge from the crowd: how to become a standout residency candidate
• Clinical Pharmacy Career Path Roundtables where you can speak with practitioners about 15 different specialties in clinical pharmacy
• Opportunities to meet residency and fellowship preceptors and directors via the Residency and Fellowship Forum
• CV and portfolio development workshop
• Mock residency interviews

October 15th - 18th, 2013 Academy of Managed Care Pharmacists ($120 - $140)
San Antonio, Texas

• Opportunities to meet preceptors and directors via the showcase of managed care residencies and fellowships
• CV review clinic
• Programming on understanding the residency match

October 31st - November 3rd, 2013 California Society of Health-System Pharmacists Annual Seminar ($225 - $305)
Anaheim, California

• Opportunities to meet preceptors and directors via the residency showcase
• Student programming

December 8 - 12th, 2013 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Midyear Meeting ($270 - $375)
Orlando, Florida

• Opportunities to network with residency preceptors and directors
• Residency-related programming (the Match, applications, PhORCAS, interviews, PPS, CVs)
• Opportunities to meet preceptors and directors via the residency showcase
• Opportunities for a mini-interview with some residency programs

Pharmacy Specialties? There may or may not be student or residency-specific programming, but why not go to network? 

• Society of Infectious Disease Pharmacists (September 9th, Denver, Colorado)
• Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (September 27th, Chicago, Illinois)
• Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group (April 2014)
• College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (April 2014)

Gearing up for Midyear!

Step 1: Registration

The base meeting registration fee is $255 for students who are members and $355 for students who are not members of ASHP.  This fee provides you with access to all of the following:

• Keynote presentation (Bill Clinton)
• Educational symposia from Sunday - Thursday (except ambulatory "intensive study")
• The residency showcase
• All poster sessions
• All industry exhibits

There are other activities associated with additional fees which range betwen $80 and $295 each.  Many are courses for pharmacists about how to run a residency program (RLS) and courses for pharmacists needing to recertify for a certain credential (like BCACP).  The only one of these activities targeted towards students is the board prep on Saturday. 

Step 2: Personal Placement Service

This is a separate registration and fee which allows you to interview with employers and/or residency programs at the meeting.  The fee for students is $125.  Not all residency programs participate in PPS and PPS participation does not guarantee you will be granted an interview with your desired site at the meeting.  You need to contact them, provide a copy of your CV and then be invited to interview at PPS.  To check whether a program you are considering is participating in PPS, please check this online list.  This list is expected to change frequently between now and the meeting.  Not all programs listed are recruiting for PGY-1 residencies so it might be advisable to contact them directly.

If you are considering PPS, register early so that potential employers/programs can find you and contact you.  Setting up interviews if you register for PPS on site might be problematic if all of the interview slots have been booked by candidates who registered in advance.

Step 3: Network

Many colleges of pharmacy and large health systems conduct social functions at the Midyear in order to develop new contacts and reconnect with alumni.  Roseman's social function will be held Monday night at the Luxor and is open to all Roseman students registered for the meeting.  For other social events, it is recommended that you wait to be invited rather than spontaneously dropping in on a social event.  If you do attend, make sure you are wearing your most formal business attire.  Students in cocktail attire will stand out in a bad way.

Step 4: Residency Showcase

Start with a list of which programs strongly interest you.  Make sure you have researched each one thoroughly using the ASHP Residency Directory and the program's own web site.  Write down questions that you want to ask each program.  Not all programs should be asked the same questions since each will have different information available in the directory and on their web site.  Visit the Midyear web site to figure out which program will be in the showcase on which day since different programs have booth space on each day.  The showcase will be open on Monday from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m., on Tuesday from 8:00 - 11:00 a.m., and on Tuesday from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m.  As of this posting, a list of dates for specific programs was not available; however, in "early November" per the web site, ASHP will provide an Excel file which can be sorted and filtered to help you figure out how to find the programs you are wishing to talk to by booth number.  There will also be an interactive floor plan map which can help you find exactly where on the very large exhibit floor each program will be.