Retail Pharmacist Resume Sample, Job Description & Writing Guide for 2024
As a retail pharmacist, you’ve spent years learning and perfecting your pharmaceutical skills and knowledge. Now it’s time to apply for your next position, and the idea of writing a resume has you stuck. Your retail pharmacist resume is more important than ever in a competitive job market. If the idea of formatting your resume overwhelms you, you’re not alone. This guide was designed for people like you and will walk you through every section of your resume.
Retail pharmacist resume writing guide: Where to start?
Not sure where to start with your retail pharmacist CV? You’re not alone. A resume can feel intimidating if you aren’t sure how to write it. Your resume is the first impression you make on potential employers. With this kind of importance, sending out the best resume possible is crucial.
Many retail pharmacists think they can send the same resume for every position they apply for. While you can do this, it isn’t recommended. Sending job-specific resumes will result in more follow-up and interviews than generic resumes. If you follow the tips below, writing tailored resumes isn’t as complicated as it may sound.
Master retail pharmacist resume template
The first step to writing job-specific resumes is creating your master retail pharmacist resume. Your master resume documents all your experience, skills, and education history. Developing such a broad document for a job-specific resume may sound counter-productive, but it will help you in the long run.
When creating your master pharmacist resume, take time to ensure it’s as complete as possible. This is the time to reflect on previous positions and jot down any skills you earned or grew in each position. You want your master resume to be as detailed as you can get it because it will allow you to reference a single document when applying for jobs quickly.
The great thing about your master retail pharmacist resume is there aren’t any formatting rules or guidelines. It will serve its purpose as long as you can understand and navigate the document. If you have a lot of experience, your master resume will likely be a few pages long, so make sure the layout works for you.
Once you’ve put your master resume together, revisit it anytime you change jobs or gain a new skill. Keeping your master resume up to date is how you can ensure it’s serving the purpose it was made for. When your master resume is put together, you can use it to pull relevant experience to put in job-specific resumes.
Job-specific resume for a retail pharmacist
Now, it’s time to find a pharmacy position you want to apply for. You may find yourself wondering how you can create a job-specific resume for a position you’ve never held. However, the information you need is typically located right in the retail pharmacist’s job description.
You can use the retail pharmacist job description for resume building because it will mention specific skills and retail pharmacist responsibilities for the position. Read the job description in its entirety and make note of the skills the employer is looking for. Once you have a list of duties and skills, compare it to your master resume.
When you make this comparison, pull out any experience you have that matches what the employer is looking for. Skills that are expressly mentioned in a job description will likely be the most important qualifications to the hiring manager. If you are proficient in the skills mentioned, make sure you include them in your job-specific resume.
As crucial as mentioning the required skills and experiences in your retail pharmacist resume, it’s equally important to leave irrelevant information off. Your resume is only about a page long, and you want to use every line to your advantage, so avoid filler experience or skills that won’t transfer to the new position.
When creating your job-specific resume, you must ensure it’s formatted correctly. You want to provide the hiring team with a professional document that’s easy to read and understand and makes you stand out among the other applicants. The rest of this guide will focus on formatting your resume, starting with the retail pharmacist resume sample below.
Retail pharmacist resume example
Looking at retail pharmacist resume samples is a great way to get a handle on what your resume should look like. Notice that the example above paints a cohesive picture of the applicant’s experience in the pharmacy field. Before you send your retail pharmacist resume PDF to an employer, ensure it is concise and relevant to the position you’re applying for.
What should be included in a resume for pharmacists in retail? Writing tips and examples
Now that you’re clear on the importance of a job-specific resume and have seen an example of one, it’s time to build your own retail pharmacist resume, section by section. While pharmacist duties in retail pharmacy may vary from one job to the next, every resume should include the following sections: contact information, personal profile, work history, education experience, a list of skills, and certifications.
How do you write a personal profile on a retail pharmacist resume?
A personal profile is also sometimes referred to as a resume summary. This short paragraph (a maximum of four sentences) highlights your most impressive qualifications as a retail pharmacist. Your personal profile should include your current job title, how many years of experience you have, and something eye-catching that emphasizes your skills.
If you are a recent graduate or have less than two years of relevant work experience, you’ll write a resume objective instead of a summary. This personal profile is similar to a summary, but you’ll want to omit the years of experience since it’s shorter. Instead of focusing on what you’ve already accomplished as a pharmacist, highlight what you hope to achieve in your career. If you have relevant skills that you’ve begun building, you can highlight them. The best option is to make what you have achieved so far and your passion the focus instead of the lesser experience you have.
The personal profile goes at the top of your resume, right after your contact information. Think of it as an elevator pitch that grabs the hiring manager’s attention and makes them want what you’re selling (in this case, you). One of the best tips for writing your personal profile is to do it after completing all the other sections. This approach makes it easier to pull out the most impressive information to highlight in the short paragraph.
Skills to list on a retail pharmacist resume
Your resume should include a bulleted skills list, usually found toward the bottom of the document. Look at the retail pharmacist job responsibilities for resume skills you should have. Ensure the skills you list are tied into other sections of your resume to prove your proficiency and professional experience with each one.
The main goal of a skills list is to give the hiring team a section to quickly reference and see if you have the skillset they’re looking for. This list is becoming more crucial as more employers use resume-vetting software. This technology looks for specific keywords, determined by the employer, in every resume that comes in. If your resume doesn’t have the keywords required, human eyes may never see your resume.
The skills listed in the job description are likely keywords the employer is looking for. Of course, don’t add skills you don’t have just because they’re what the position requires. Compare the job posting to your master resume and include any of your proficient skills expressly listed or inferred in the employer’s listing.
An excellent skills list will list between five and 10 skills and highlight a mixture of technical skills (hard skills) and soft skills that can be transferred to the position you’re applying for. Of course, focus mainly on pharmacist-specific skills because soft skills can be hard to prove on a resume or in an interview.
If you have little professional experience, you’ll be more likely to rely on soft skills like customer service and empathy. However, you can include skills you developed during school if you have little work experience (more on that in the education section below).
Here’s a quick list of some of the most common skills found on a retail pharmacist’s resume:
- Customer service
- Patient care
- HIPAA
- Pharmaceutical care
- Order entry
- Medication ordering
- Data entry
- Drug therapy
- Merchandising
- Drug safety
How do you write work experience on a retail pharmacist resume?
Of course, the most important section of your retail pharmacist resume is your work experience. This section shows your professional applications of the skills you claim to possess and the results you experienced with each position. It’s essential to make this section as specific and related to the open position as possible.
You should list your employment in reverse chronological order unless the employer asks for something different. This means you’ll list your most recent position at the top of the section and then work back in time as you go down the list. Each entry in this section should include the following information:
- Your job title
- The company’s name
- The company’s location (city and state)
- The dates you were employed (month and year)
- A few bullet points highlighting duties and achievements
The bullet points you include for each position should be relevant to the job you’re applying for. The best way to do this is to incorporate the skills you listed in the skills section into your work experience. Highlight how you used your most relevant skills to achieve impressive results in your previous retail pharmacist positions.
When possible, use numbers and data to back up your claims. The pharmacy industry is data-driven, and having specific data on your resume can be a way to stand out among the competition. You can still focus on data even if you don’t have specific percentages or dollar amounts to back up your achievements. For example, saying “managed a team of four retail pharmacists over a six-month project” is more impressive than “managed other retail pharmacists.”
When in doubt, refer back to the job listing. Doing this will help you keep your focus when deciding what information to relay for each position you’ve held. Highlight your experience using the skills the employer is looking for to garner the best results with your resume.
How do you list education on a retail pharmacist resume?
You’ve likely completed your fair share of higher education as a retail pharmacist. This information is critical for your resume because it will show the hiring team that you’ve earned the proper educational training needed to serve customers as a pharmacist.
If you have a higher education degree, you don’t need to include your high school diploma on your resume. For the degrees you include, list them in reverse chronological order. This means you should list your most recent and highest degree at the top and work your way back in time.
The more retail pharmacist work experience you have, the shorter your education section will be. However, no matter how much experience you have, there is information that should be included for all of your degrees. The necessary information is the following:
- The name of your degree
- Your major and minor
- The name of your school
- The school’s location (city and state)
- Your graduation date (month and year or just year)
If you haven’t graduated yet, include your expected graduation date for the employer to reference. If you graduated more than 10 to 15 years ago, consider not including your graduation year to avoid age discrimination.
Typically, your education section will go below your work history. However, if you have little to no work experience, you can put your education experience above the work experience. This situation will typically call for more information to be included about your degrees to make up for lesser professional experience.
Some information to include if you need to beef up your education experience include:
- Academic awards
- GPA (only if you recently graduated and earned a 3.5 GPA or higher)
- Extracurriculars
- Relevant coursework
How do you write certificates on a retail pharmacist resume?
Many retail pharmacists earn extra certifications, which can be a great tool to show proficiency in your career. If you have earned relevant certificates, include them in their own section below your education section. Certification listings should consist of the following information:
- The name of the certification
- The awarding agency
- The year you earned the certificate
If you have any of these certifications, consider including them on your resume as you see fit:
- Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT)
- Board Certified Medication Therapy Management Specialists (BCMTMS)
- Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist (BCPS)
- Certified Specialty Pharmacist (CSP)
- Board Certified Nuclear Pharmacist (BCNP)
Formatting your retail pharmacist resume can feel tricky if you aren’t sure what you’re doing. To build the perfect resume, use the CVMaker resume-building tool. Simply put your experience and information into the provided fields, choose a template, and you’ll have a professional resume ready in just minutes.
Key takeaways on retail pharmacist resumes
Your retail pharmacist resume is the first step to landing your dream pharmacist position. Make sure you refer to the job description included in the posting you’re applying for. This will ensure you keep your resume focused on what the employer is looking for, letting you utilize every line on your resume to your advantage.
Here are some final tips on creating your resume:
- Focus on both technical skills and your soft skills, like customer service skills.
- Format your resume to be professional and easy to follow.
- Mention any certifications you have that will make you stand out among other applicants.
- Highlight your impressive knowledge of pharmaceuticals throughout the resume.
- Keep your sentences and bullet points clear and concise.
- Proofread the document for any spelling or grammar errors before you send it out.
Next steps?
Still trying to figure out how to write your own resume? Utilize the CVMaker resume writing service and have your retail pharmacist resume written for you. For a one-time fee, you can send your information to the professionals, and you’ll receive a fully editable resume in just four days.
FAQs
How do you make a retail pharmacist resume sound professional?
Wondering how to make a retail pharmacist resume sound clinical? The easiest way to achieve this goal is to focus on keywords and pharmaceutical terminology. Using job-specific wording throughout your resume will provide the experienced, clinical tone you hope to achieve.
The terminology you use will be determined by the specific position you’re applying for. However, here’s a list of some of the most common keywords found in retail pharmacist resumes:
- Documentation
- Pharmacist
- Patient care
- Customer service
- Pharmacy
- Collaboration
- Compliance
- Clinic
- Communication skills
- Innovation
How do you write your contact information on a retail pharmacist resume?
Your contact information should be included in the header of your resume. Let the font and format you choose emphasize the text in this section, not distract from it. Our sample resume above gives a great example of the resume header section. The applicant provided their full name, address, email, and telephone number.
Should you include references in your retail pharmacist resume?
Generally, you shouldn’t include professional references on your retail pharmacist resume. The exception to this rule is if the employer asks explicitly for references in the job posting. If so, you can include them at the bottom of your resume. Otherwise, expect them to ask for the information later in the hiring process, such as after the first interview.
Do you need a cover letter with your retail pharmacist resume?
Almost half of hiring managers say they won’t even look at a resume without a cover letter, but about half of all applicants don’t include one. This means including a cover letter with your resume will give you a 50 percent advantage from the beginning.
A cover letter is an introduction to your potential employer that lets them know a little about who you are and why you’re the perfect candidate for the open position. It should highlight your skills, experience, and qualifications. A strong cover letter can be the difference that lands you an interview.
Keep these tips in mind when writing your cover letter:
- Keep the whole document to about 400 words.
- Start with an attention-grabbing achievement, move to your qualifications, then end with a call to action.
- Explain why you’re interested in this specific job. If you love the company, this is the time to mention why.
- Thank the reader for their time and consideration.
- Keep a professional tone, but portray your enthusiasm throughout the letter.
How should you format your retail pharmacist resume?
You’ve learned how to format each section of your resume, but it’s just as essential to format the document as a whole. When choosing the font for your resume, pick one that’s easy to read and in size 10 or 12. Keep your accent colors to a minimum (only one or two), and avoid templates with extravagant designs.
Finally, save your resume as a PDF. PDFs are easy to send and open on various devices, making them a better option than a Word document or other common choices. The only exception is if the hiring manager specifically asks for a different document type.
Do you still need to figure out the formatting? Take all the stress away by using the CVMaker resume builder. Input your professional experience, pick one of more than 30 templates, and you’re done. You’ll have a PDF resume saved and ready to send quickly.