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Aug 2013
10:48am, 22 Aug 2013
7,210 posts
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SpicedApple
Fingers crossed, Wobbling!
(I would have been tempted to ask them to define 'culture'... ;-))
I seem to only be picking jobs to apply for that get withdrawn later on (one due to the other one of the two companies involved hiring for this role after all, not the one I applied with, another maternity cover which makes me hope it's not that anything went wrong with the current postholder's pregnancy etc). Or is this an easy way of saying "not you" so I can't call and ask for feedback on my applications etc?
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Aug 2013
10:55am, 22 Aug 2013
2,567 posts
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Wobbling
SA - thanks. I wouldn't read too much into it. When a role gets withdrawn it's usually due to some internal politics and not your application. Hope something pops up for you soon.
I have an interview for one of the roles I applied for with Big Bank next Tuesday at 5pm. Still waiting to hear about the other two...
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Aug 2013
2:14pm, 22 Aug 2013
112 posts
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PerfectOrganism
Hey Wobbling,
Good news on the interview front! It's half the battle isn't it? A moment of relief and elation, followed by the reality of having to prepare for the interview and go through the "trying to impress" motions again. Hope you get this one with the bank. You certainly sound like you're trying hard enough!
Well, a wee bit has changed since I last wrote. My application for Worthing hospital is still in the ether. They say that if you haven't heard back from them within four weeks of the closing date (11th August) THEN you should assume you have been unsuccessful. It's been about two weeks now and no word, but I'm still hopeful. I do know for a fact that the NHS can and does take AGES to get back to applicants, sometimes even beyond the four week mark.
In other news, I do have two weeks of work lined up starting next Tuesday. I'll be working for a small pharmacy chain, but sadly not as a pharmacist. I'm going to be filling in for one of their pharmacy techs who is on holiday for two weeks. I had a wee interview with them (more like a chat) and they said that their point of view is that they are sceptical about people who trained in hospital pharmacy coming in and immediately being in charge of a retail pharmacy. I can understand that perspective; I would be shit scared to have that responsibility, especially having relatively little experience of retail. So they offered me this temporary post and the way I see it, it is with a view to getting some locum pharmacist shifts. Basically, it will give me the opportunity to get some experience of community pharmacy, but without ALL the responsibility of being the pharmacist in charge. Then, if I don't completely cock it up, I'm hoping they will offer me some shifts as a pharmacist. And the pay is good too. Not quite as much as I'd earn as a pharmacist, but more than I was earning at pre-reg, so I'd be a numpty to have said no to it.
And lastly, I have a telephone interview with the Co-op pharmacy in, ooooh.....45 minutes! Again, I have no idea if this is a general chat or a proper interview. I only found out yesterday so I'm hoping it's the former, but I have prepared a little bit in case it turns out to be the latter. Anyway, in an hour and a bit it will all be over!
Hey Wobbling, do you go out and take some of those SRC classes? I went on my first one yesterday in Brighton. It was really good! We did some pretty tough pyramid intervals, but it was nice to meet some fellow runners.
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Aug 2013
6:43pm, 23 Aug 2013
7,218 posts
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SpicedApple
PO, that sounds all pretty positive, especially getting your feet into that pharmacy where you'll be working for two weeks as a tech. How did your telephone interview go?
Thanks, Wobbling. Fingers crossed for your interview!
Just got an invitation for an interview, too. It'll be a tricky one as the career change as well as me being hideously 'overqualified' will be difficult to explain, but if nothing else, it'll be good practice, given that I've only had one proper job interview (I think) all my life. Plus quite a few interesting job openings that have come up, so I'll keep trying.
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Aug 2013
5:24pm, 26 Aug 2013
114 posts
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PerfectOrganism
Hey SA,
My telephone interview was a bit of a joke to be honest! Basically the lady (who was quite nice) asked me my registration number and if I was happy to work the hours the job required. She then asked if I had a car, to which I replied "no". And this seemed to more or less end the interview! The job was for a relief pharmacist so I would be working in a different place each day, so they seemed to think that not having a car would make it very difficult to get to some of these places (presumably they're out in the sticks). Anyway, I was annoyed because the advert said a vacancy in Brighton, not all around East sussex, so I wasted a day preparing for the interview when they could have stated in the advert that the post required a great deal of travel.
I asked if we could continue with the interview, as I thought that if I made a good impression that they could keep me on their books, but she said that all the questions related to that post in particular and weren't general style questions (personally I don't see how they could differ that much) and so I felt quite deflated. I wasn't as assertive as I should have been, and as my brother pointed out I should have said "Let's carry on with the interview and if I think the post is suitable for me, and you think that I am suitable for it, then I can look into getting a car". But I didn't because I felt really disappointed that a housekeeping question had completely scuppered my chances!
It's also a bit annoying because now that I'm qualified I'm finding all these extra obstacles to actually finding work like I need to have a car, or I need to get extra accreditations so I can carry out other services. All of these obviously cost money, which I really don't have at the minute so I feel like I'm in a bit of a Catch-22 situation.
Anyway, I was deflated, disappointed and a bit annoyed, but I start with this other small company tomorrow so I'll see how that goes.
Good luck with your interview in the near future. I would feel the same as you if I got an interview, that it was more for practice than anything else, as I haven't had any interviews for a fully fledged pharmacists role yet!
How was everyones running this weekend? I volunteered at Park Run for the first time. I really enjoyed it!
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Aug 2013
12:18pm, 27 Aug 2013
7,230 posts
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SpicedApple
PO, that really is annoying. I suppose the only consolation is that you wouldn't want to work for a company that isn't forthright with their information anyway, but I'd still be pretty disappointed, too. I've had an interview for a part-time job before where the interviewer looked at my CV and said: "Ah, but you live in X - no point in working for us then, is there?", to which I replied that I knew where the job would be based and that I had still applied, i.e. that getting there in time would be my own problem and that, if she took me on, I would sort out transport without this being anything for her to worry about. She saw the logic (and gave me the job). 
A friend and I were chatting about online applications/applications by email yesterday and were joking about the best time of day to submit these. I thought submitting during the day rather than late at night would look better (what with decent people being in bed at night ;-)), but she said submitting during the day would scream of 'unemployed and nothing to do', whereas submitting at night would imply 'works hard all around the clock'. What do you guys think? Not that I'm expecting it to make or break my chances - it's just something I've never even thought about beforehand. (Right now, the question is: do I submit during the day/in the evening of the day before the deadline, or early-morning on the day of the deadline itself? Deadline is tomorrow at 5pm.)
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Aug 2013
12:28pm, 27 Aug 2013
2,607 posts
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Wobbling
I wouldn't worry about something like that SA. I'd just ensure I got my application in before the deadline, so if the deadline is tomorrow, I'd be getting my application submitted today.
As someone who has recruited in the past, there are so many things to consider when shifting through applications, the time the application was submitted is completely irrelevant.
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Aug 2013
1:25pm, 27 Aug 2013
173 posts
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Funky Chicken
Good luck Wobbling with your interview later
PO - sorry to hear yours went the way it did; I guess it's one of those questions you can rehearse an answer for/ hedge your bets on in future. Someone I know went for a job interview at a school and was thrown by the first question about where they stood on religion! The interview carried on but she knew they were just going through the motions from that point on and had already made their minds up.
I've been putting some more thought into what I want to do when I leave my current employer and have started reading about Copyediting and Proofreading and looking into some training I could do to get a grounding in it - haven't quite worked out how to get into it from scratch with no background (though I can tailor my CV so that certain relevant elements of my current job become more prominent) but like the sound of it as it fits in more with my own interests and could give me some useful insights for improving the quality of my own writing/storytelling.
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Aug 2013
1:34pm, 27 Aug 2013
2,608 posts
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Wobbling
Interview has been moved to Thursday at 1pm, but thanks for all your good wishes.
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Aug 2013
9:20pm, 27 Aug 2013
115 posts
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PerfectOrganism
Thanks for the advice guys. I'll certainly be a little more prepared when a question like that comes my way and will certainly be more assertive.
SA, I have never considered how what time of day I submitted my application might affect the interview! But I would probably submit the day before, just because sometimes if they receive lots of applications they may stop accepting them, and also because I've always liked to get things in earlier rather than later.
FC, just out of interest, how was that question phrased to your friend? It sounds a bit discriminatory to me!
Go on Wobbling! Nail it!
I've put my rubbish telephone interview experience behind me (it didn't long ). Today I started with this small company that is fairly predominant in East Sussex, and it went really, really well! As I've said before, I'm basically filling in for someone who is on vacation, but I'm also doing a pharmacists job and not just a technicians. I'm doing things that only a pharmacist can do like dispensing and handing out controlled drugs, doing the final check on dispensed items, and speaking to customers about issues they might have with their medicines or conditions. So, I've basically done my first shift as a pharmacist, and it's a good feeling to get it out of the way! It was pretty full on though. There were only one or two lulls, and I was pretty knackered by the end of it, but I feel good about getting back out and working again, and I think (although I hope I'm not jinxing this ) that I've made a decent enough first impression, and if I don't fuck up for the remaining time there that I may actually get some pharmacist shifts. Maybe they're not even considering that, but I'm going to work my hardest regardless.
And, then to put the cherry on the cake, as I was walking home I checked my emails and found out that I've managed to get an interview at Worthing hospital! It's on 9th September, which is ideal, as my two weeks at this place will be up by then so there will be no issues with work clashes or anything like that.
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