The most popular careers articles of 2016

Collage of the images that appeared in the top careers articles in 2016

The career opportunities available to those who have studied pharmacy are diverse and interesting. As the editor for the careers section of The Pharmaceutical Journal, I aim to showcase the variety of these options for pharmacists at all stages of their career, while giving information about the benefits and challenges of these jobs.

In 2016, pharmacists from many traditional sectors of practice were highlighted. For example, Bernadette Brown was celebrated for her innovative approach to running a community pharmacy. Consultant pharmacist Sharron Gordon and radiopharmacist Jilly Croasdale described their highly specialist roles in hospitals and ibuprofen inventor Stewart Adams gave insight into his long career in the pharmaceutical industry.

Additionally, Sasa Jankovic investigated the highs and lows of life in the emerging role of GP practice pharmacists, and pharmacist Regina Ahmed has described her recent transition to the sector in a series of blog posts. Some articles explained how pharmacists working in other sectors can transition to other roles — such as publishing or academia.

Research is an important topic to discuss with regard to pharmacists’ careers: Neetu Bansal described her year researching as a scholar for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, while Andrew Sturrock explained how he recruits GP patients to clinical trials.

Law and pharmacy, too, were covered: Richard Hough is a practising lawyer and pharmacist, while Graham Mould appears in court as a pharmacist expert witness.

Pharmacists with more unique roles also featured heavily: Caroline Dada, for example, supports patients undergoing gender reassignment. Mark Stuart worked as a pharmacist at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Bav Heer presents a live international television show about health and wellbeing.

The careers section is also the ideal platform to give advice on securing or leaving a job for new opportunities. For example, our articles about how to write a successful pharmacy CV and cover letter, published in 2015, remain our most popular career articles ever. This year, we covered potentially difficult interview questions, in the most popular careers article published in 2016, and how to resign successfully. Training is also important, at all stages of a pharmacist’s career: our articles about the five-year pharmacy degree and structured training for community pharmacy staff are particularly relevant here.

Finally, the careers section also has a business slant, because many pharmacists are also entrepreneurs — for example, Jonathon Clarke tells us how he set up his business for matching locums with placements. Our articles on deciding whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur and choosing whether to build or buy your own pharmacy can support pharmacists making important decisions, while our feature on using awareness days to boost your business may inspire some innovative thinking.

Here are the top five most read career features, profiles and Q&A articles published in 2016. Please feel free to share any interesting ideas you have for future careers content for The Pharmaceutical Journal. Your feedback is always greatly appreciated.

Career features

  1. Seven of the hardest pharmacy interview questions and how to answer them
  2. All you need to know about GP practice pharmacists
  3. The five-year pharmacy degree: what have we learnt?
  4. How pharmacists can resign in the best way possible
  5. How pharmacists can get into a career in academia

Career profiles

  1. The man who discovered ibuprofen
  2. How Tina Bayuse became the first pharmacist at NASA
  3. How a pharmacist made a career in pain and anaesthesia
  4. Law and pharmacy: a dual career
  5. How to win national recognition through rheumatology

Career Q&As

  1. My role as a pharmacist at the Rio 2016 Olympics
  2. My life as an oncology pharmacist in a private hospital 
  3. High emotions, high expectations, high flying: my life as an airport pharmacist
  4. How locum work inspired me to build my own business
  5. What I do as a flying pharmacist in the Democratic Republic of Congo
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Citation
The Pharmaceutical Journal, The most popular careers articles of 2016;Online:DOI:10.1211/PJ.2016.20201919

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