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KPIC Career Enhancement Series

Networking

Are you confident in your ability to ‘network’ to increase the opportunities in your career both during and after pharmacy school? Are you confident in your ability to humbly talk about your strengths, achievements, and character? 

If your answer was no to either of those questions, then this material is for you. This section of the Career Enhancement Series provides tips on networking, personal branding, elevator pitches, and leveraging LinkedIn.

Develop Your Network

 

Personal Branding 

Personal Branding is the conscious and intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility, and differentiating themselves from the competition, to ultimately advance their career, increase their circle of influence, and have a larger impact.

If you are wondering how a personal brand may benefit you as a student pharmacist or pharmacist, look no further than the individuals who have already built and maintained their own personal brands, for example, Dr. Adam Martin, The Fit Pharmacist, Dr. Ashlee Kleven Hayes, and Dr. Christina Madison. Some students utilize personal blogs, infographics they create, and simple interactions on social media platforms to enhance and build their personal brand. To help you get started defining your personal brand, download and complete the KPIC Personal Branding Worksheet.

Elevator Pitch

An Elevator Pitch is a professional introduction. It is a 30-60 second self-marketing “commercial.” It is not a recap of your CV or resume.  It is conversational, yet concise. Your elevator pitch can be used at job fairs, career expos, professional associations, networking events, on your LinkedIn summary, Twitter bio, and job interviews.

Below are two examples we created of the same student, Cocky, giving an elevator pitch to hiring personnel of ABC Health-System. 

In our mock scenario, Cocky is a third-year pharmacy student in our college of pharmacy at the Gamecock Career Expo where ABC Health-System has come to discuss pharmacist roles in their organization and meet our pharmacy students. Cocky attends this Gamecock Career Expo and is hoping to learn more about internships in health-system pharmacy to confirm their pursuit of residency after graduation. Prior to attending the Gamecock Career Expo, Cocky had researched ABC Health-System and decided that he would like to talk to them at the expo.

“Hi my name is Cocky and I’m a student at the University of South Carolina. I’m studying pharmacy and would like to work in a hospital I think or a community pharmacy. Really anywhere that’s hiring! What does your health-system offer?”

“Hi my name is Cocky and I’m currently in my third year of the PharmD program at the University of South Carolina. I am interested in expanding my knowledge of health-system pharmacy through an internship at ABC Health-System. I have had the opportunity to job shadow four pharmacists at ABC Health-System, have completed the hospital lab curriculum, and completed my introductory hospital rotation. Job shadowing pharmacists at ABC Health-System enlightened me to the various roles pharmacists play within this health-system, strengthened my desire to gain experience in health-system pharmacy and shown me how they each embody ABC Health-System’s promise to advocate for patients, be kind to everyone and pave the way for healthy living. May I have your business card to follow up on possible pharmacy internships with ABC Health-System?”

 
LinkedIn Tips

LinkedIn can be used as a digital curriculum vitae/resume and embodiment of your personal brand which allows you to connect with colleagues and follow companies and industries, such as health care.

Creating a LinkedIn account is free and easy. Ensuring that you have a stellar profile will help you stand out. Having a LinkedIn account is not a necessary requirement, however, it is very common among non-traditional pharmacy paths and entrepreneurial-minded pharmacy students and pharmacists. When building your LinkedIn account, we recommend looking at other colleagues’ pages to see what you like and don’t like. It’s very important to note that advice on how to arrange your page and what to include is all opinion-based. Evaluate any feedback and incorporate what you believe aligns with your personal brand.

We have created a LinkedIn Guide for how to create each section. It can be utilized when initially setting up your account, or updating your profile. If you are creating a LinkedIn page for the first time and do not feel you have the time to add in all the applicable sections, The following are recommended as the basic building blocks of a profile.

  • Title
  • Education
  • About section
  • Current work position
  • Public profile URL customized
  • Headshot, if you have one available


Resources

 

Challenge the conventional. Create the exceptional. No Limits.

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