The pharmacy that hired you may NOT be the pharmacy you work for any more. These days pharmacy mergers and buyouts are happening so fast it is hard to keep them all straight. I was right there watching it all happen many years ago when the Brooks Pharmacy chain that I worked for was purchased by Rite Aid. Just earlier this year we saw a major grocery store merger between Safeway and Albertsons, and the pharmacists within these organizations understand the implications and are dealing with the changes.
Then, of course, we got the BIG news. CVS buys the pharmacy business from Target. This is HUGE. In a 1.9 Billion dollar deal, the retail giant now adds 1,600 more stores to their portfolio making them the #1 pharmacy chain in the country (in terms of stores). All this on top of a nearly 13 billion dollar deal to acquire Omnicare earlier in the same month.
As a pharmacist who has worked most of his career in retail management for both big chains and smaller companies, I’m used to these kinds of transitions going on. I have no bone to pick with any of these companies. This type of thing is a part of life. Business is business.
What does concern me is that my fellow-pharmacists and pharmacy technicians understand the implications of these things and respond accordingly. In this post I’m specifically concerned with your pharmacist RESUME.
Is your resume ready should you need to use it?
I have looked at many hundreds of pharmacist resumes in my time. It is amazing to me what we as pharmacists think is sufficient for representing our degree and experience. We spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a degree, and give away years of our life gaining valuable experience. Then we try to summarize all that on a hastily prepared Word document which we optimistically call our resume.
My advice to all pharmacists is this: Let An Expert Do It.
Why Leave it to Experts?
The ADVANTAGES of having an expert resume writer handle your resume are:
1) They do this ALL the time. When you do something every single day…you get really good at it. That is common sense. A professional resume writer takes their work seriously and because they do it so much…they do it skillfully.
2) They see things differently than you. Trust me, it is VERY valuable to have someone else who doesn’t know you help put together a great resume for you. Why? Because someone else who doesn’t know you is soon to be reading it! You and I don’t view ourselves the same way that someone else does. We know ourselves. What you want is someone who doesn’t really know you to work with you to represent who you are and what you do.
3) They think like hiring managers. You and I think like pharmacists. A professional and experienced resume writers thinks like a hiring manager. They picture this resume sitting on the desk of an HR recruiter who is looking to fill an open position with their company. What do THEY want to see? What will impress them? A good resume writer knows and will help you.
4) Value. There are a lot of purchases you (and I!) have made in our lives that were NOT a good value. Maybe you paid too much for your car. Maybe you paid too much for that nice watch or piece of jewelry. You definitely paid too much for those concert tickets or new TV or the addition on your house or your pharmacy school tuition. But spending a few hundred bucks on a GREAT resume may be the most valuable investment you make in your career.
What Next? My FREE Offer
I am going to make you a FREE offer. I can do this because I know from experience that only a small percentage of my readers will actually take me up on this deal.
My Offer: I will PERSONALLY review your resume for FREE! That’s right. FREE.
Here is all YOU have to do:
1) Email me your resume (PDF or Word format is fine). The best email is: Jason.TheHonestApothecary@gmail.com
2) Tell me who wrote your resume (it is okay if it is YOU)
3) Include just a brief statement in the email about WHY you want your resume reviewed. Please keep it relatively brief.
Here is what I WILL DO:
1) I will personally look at your resume as a MANAGER and as a PHARMACST
2) I will personally reply to you (give me a few days – up to a week at most)
3) I will include in my reply a suggestion OR a contact person who can help you improve your resume if needed. Frankly there are only a handful of really good writers that I’m familiar with and would be comfortable recommending.
That is it. That’s my offer. I know that many won’t take me up on it, which is why I can post this for thousands of readers. Of course, if I’m wrong…LOL…I’m going to be pretty busy over the next few weeks! But that is okay.
I don’t personally write resumes. A well-written resume takes a lot of time. But I know a well-written resume when I see one.
Mergers, buyouts and consolidations occur. If you are a pharmacist and are experiencing that in your company, now is a good time to be prepared. No one can really predict what will happen tomorrow. Some locations will likely close. This happens even when there is no buyout going on. But it is wise to at least be ready should the need arise. A resume, in and of itself, is not a free ticket to your next job. But a well-written resume often helps, particularly when you have exhausted your contacts and need to reach out to strangers for employment. To those in that situation – I wish you the best and am happy to help if I can.
cvs Pharmacist Career Pharmacy Mergers resumes Target
Last modified: June 17, 2015
