Describe your experiences working in teams. What role do you play and how do you work with others?
Pharmacists are critical members of the total healthcare team. Throughout your career, you will be working closely with physicians, nurses, pharmacy technicians, and other healthcare professionals on a daily basis. Your interviewers need to be assured that you would join their pharmacy fellowship program as a great team player.
"I have a lot of experience working in teams, especially as my pharmacy school and residency training programs were big on team-based learning. Each semester in pharmacy school, we were assigned a new team and worked with them for all our classes that semester. At first, I'll admit, I didn't love the idea, but now that I'm on the other side, I really see the value. I know as a research pharmacist, I will work in many interdepartmental teams, and this experience taught me a lot about collaboration and communication. When joining a new team, I usually observe for a little bit to see where I can fit in and what needs to be done. Sometimes that means I'll be the team leader, and other times that means I'll be more reserved and play a supporting role. I think no matter what, communication is key, and making sure you're staying on top of your portion of the task. Once I'm done with my responsibilities, I'll ask around and see if anyone needs help with theirs. Overall, I think teamwork is really important as we each have strengths and weaknesses and can fill in the gaps for each other."
Describe your experience working on teams, whether in school, training, or outside in your personal activities. You can share what your group's goals were, how you worked together, and the role you played. As you answer, you ideally want to portray that you can join this fellowship program as a flexible and adaptable team player. You want your interviewers to walk away with confidence, knowing that you can lead when necessary and take direction in other situations.
