Pharmacists are the licensed professionals who work in hospital pharmacies, drug stores, and healthcare facilities. They are responsible for preparing and dispensing medicinal drug, supervising technicians, coordinating with doctors, filling doctors' prescriptions, responding to medication-related queries from patients, adhering to infection control and safety standards. Fulfilling these duties is quite challenging and have no room for errors which is why along with experience and knowledge, hiring managers expect precision, professionalism, and multitasking in a pharmacist resume.
The precise eligibility for a pharmacist depends on the sub discipline. A degree in pharmacy with internship experience and a pharmacist license are the minimum requirements. In addition, a caring attitude is needed as the job involves helping patients. The job also need pharmacists to have an eye for detail and be able to multi task while being systematic. Further, record keeping is essential for monitoring progress of patients and for maintaining prescription and sales records.
Moreover, pharmacists should be adept in software and other tools used in the industry. Cognizance with legalities and technicalities involved with insurance and other issues are essential as well. As the job requires working standing, a physical fitness has also become essential.
Since the job has become a coveted profession for many, competition has become stiff. If you are looking to get hired, you will need an impressive and professional pharmacist resume to show how and why you are the best applicant for the role.
Tips to write a Pharmacist Resume
Choose an appropriate resume format
Choosing the resume format that best highlights your experience and qualifications is the first and important part of developing an effective resume. There are mainly three resume formats that recruiters expect to see- chronological, functional, and combination.
Chronological resume is the most simple one and also the best choice for most job-seekers. This resume layout highlights your work experience and educational details in reverse chronological order with information listed in order of the most recent to the oldest.
Functional resume format also known as skill-based format mainly focuses on skills rather than experience and is mostly used by career changers or people with significant career gaps.
A combination resume is useful when you want to focus equally on relevant work experience and skills.
Begin with contact information
At the top of resume, mention your name in bold to make it noticeable. Add your mailing address with city, state, and zip code. Give phone number and a conventional email address in the next line. Contact details should always be written at the top of the resume regardless of which format you are using and you can align this section either left, right or center.
Write an impressive career summary
The career summary must showcase relevant experience, skills, and key achievements to grab the employer's attention. Keep it simple yet impressive since based on the statement, the hiring manager would decide whether to continue reading your resume.
For example:- Highly motivated, organized, and professional Pharmacist with more than 5 years of experience in preparing and dispensing drugs as per prescriptions issued by medical practitioners as well as advising patients and doctors regarding dosage, side effects, or related medication issues. Possess excellent pharmacology and medical terminology knowledge as well as communication, team-working, organizational and computer skills.
If you are a fresher, then write resume objective instead of a career summary and focus on career goals along with reasons that makes you suitable for the job. You can strengthen your candidature by stating how the company is going to benefit by hiring you.
Add job-specific skills
If you are a new graduate or a career changer, then including a skills section in your pharmacist resume is an appropriate way to highlight your abilities and to demonstrate why you make a great fit for the job role. Use specific keywords that match with the job postings and present your skills in an effective manner. Most important skills that are included in a pharmacist resume are strong communication, leadership, organizational, analytical, problem-solving, and computer skills.
Highlight work experience with related accomplishments
When it comes to work experience, including only roles and responsibilities from your previous jobs without any accomplishment will make your resume look like a job description. So, with the help of action verbs, list some of your important achievements and key contributions to the organizations you've worked with.
This section should be written in a reverse chronological order and should mention your job title, name, and location of the company, dates of employment. The details of your achievements must be mentioned in bullet points.
Here are some good examples that will help you get more ideas:-
List education
Outline this section in reverse chronological order and add degree with the institution name, location, and year of passing. GPA is optional.
Educational requirements for pharmacist are doctor of pharmacy degree (D. Pharm.) and a relevant license that the state expects. Along with that, include residency, fellowship or other certification programs in this section.
Reference
Reference should be put in your pharmacist resume only if they are requested by employers. If you are prompted to send them, create a separate section at the end of your resume and mention the person's name, job title, company he or she is working for, phone number, and email address.
As it only takes a few seconds for hiring managers to decide whether your resume is worth giving a consideration, ensure that your pharmacist resume is free of grammatical or spelling mistakes. Also, pay attention to formatting, font size consistency, underline, bold or italics.
If you found these tips helpful and wish to see real-life pharmacist resume samples, check the links below.