job im community pharmacies?

[ThomasObkircher]

I'm contacting you concerning the following problem: My girlfriend is a Spanish pharmacist with about one year of working experience after university. She's looking to find a job in an London pharmacy. Unfortunately it seems not as easy to get into as it is in Spain. Quite a lot of internet reseach and phone calls did not lead to any result. Perhaps you could help my by answering the following questions or giving me some further contact information:

- How do English students apply for pharmacies after graduation?
- Are there any independent pharmacies in London or is the majority part of the big chains?
- Are there any student organisations helping international applicants with the required paper work?
- Is it possible to apply for a job without being registered in the UK?
- What kind of registrations would she need?
- Are there any websites with job offers for pharmacies?
- What would you recommend as first steps to get in contact with local pharmacies?


Best regards and thanks for your help in advance,
Thomas Obkircher

[johnep]

Re: job im community pharmacies?

Good Lord. All you have to do is go to Lloyds and they have special induction courses for Spanish and other continental pharmacists.
put lloyds pharmacy into google and your search is over. we had an agent attempting to advertise for continental pharmacists only last week.
johnep

[pharout]

Re: job im community pharmacies?

I'm contacting you concerning the following problem: My girlfriend is a Spanish pharmacist with about one year of working experience after university. She's looking to find a job in an London pharmacy. Unfortunately it seems not as easy to get into as it is in Spain. Quite a lot of internet reseach and phone calls did not lead to any result. Perhaps you could help my by answering the following questions or giving me some further contact information:

- How do English students apply for pharmacies after graduation?
- Are there any independent pharmacies in London or is the majority part of the big chains?
- Are there any student organisations helping international applicants with the required paper work?
- Is it possible to apply for a job without being registered in the UK?
- What kind of registrations would she need?
- Are there any websites with job offers for pharmacies?
- What would you recommend as first steps to get in contact with local pharmacies?


Best regards and thanks for your help in advance,
Thomas Obkircher

Thomas,
My wife is a Spanish pharmacist and I'm wondering where in Spain it would be considered "easy" to get a job? My understanding is that community pharmacies are somewhat difficult to find a job, pay very little and you are always on call. Hospital pharmacy, well..., someone must be on the wrong side of the grass to have a remote chance to get a job. Spain is the second highest exporting country of pharmacists to the UK. I think the problem is they have no way to "tighten the spicket" and keep the bucket of unemployed pharmacists from filling up. In my wife's region alone (Galicia), they graduate 400 pharmacists per year with no control of entry into the profession. If you know of an easy market there, please do share...thanks, pharout.

[ThomasObkircher]

Re: job im community pharmacies?

Hi Johnep,

thanks for the hint - as I'm neither English nor Spanish I have no real feeling how difficult it really is to get into.

Unfortunatley a first look at job vacancies on LLoyds did not bring any offers in London, anyway we'll call them on Monday.

Still, I'd be very interested to know if the big chains such as Boots or Lloyds are the only pharmacies left or whether you still find smaller pharmacies as well. What would you recommend for a two years stay? How would you get in contact with smaller ones?

Best regards,
Thomas

[ThomasObkircher]

Re: job im community pharmacies?

Hello Pharout,

maybe I'm going way to far when I talk about Spain, but in Barcelona it was no problem at all to get a job in a pharmacy. As there was no progress with her ideas going to London, she's now working in Barcelona until things become clearer. We spent 1! day in Barcelona running around and asking for vacancies in pharmacies. After that day she had 4! invitations to talk with the head of pharmacy and at the first interview she chose due to the opening hours she was taken. On the other hand, salary is quite low - especially for prices in Barcelona and she had to take afternoon and evening hours. Whether it's a safe job, I can't tell.

As far as I know there is as well a job website run by the faculty in Barcelona where pharmacies post their offers and students can apply - we took the straight approach as the hours were afternoon and evening only as well.

Best regards,
Thomas

[Zoggite]

Re: job im community pharmacies?

Thomas,
Try the recruitment section of "The Pharmaceutical Journal", which is the weekly publication that all pharmacists in the UK receive every weekend (when the Royal mail isn't on strike...!);
Pharmaceutical Journal Recruitment Portal
Your idea of walking into London Pharmacies and asking about pharmacist vacancies would probably work, too!
Your girlfriend would have to be registered with the RPSGB in order to be able to work in the UK as a pharmacist, but if she is already registered in Spain then this should be nothing else than a (rather lengthy) administrative exercise.
When I was planning my move from Belgium to North Wales, I sent my CV to the Chairman of the local branch of the RPSGB, and I sent my boyfriend to a local pharmacy to ask how one would go about finding a job as a pharmacist in the UK, as I knew it all worked on the "Grapevine" principle in Belgium; through some twisted turn of fate, I now find myself, nine years later, working as the full-time manager of that very pharmacy my boyfriend first went into!

[johnep]

Re: job im community pharmacies?

London one of the few areas in UK with relative surplus of pharmacists.
Particularly in North West. This is in part due to children of immigrants choosing pharmacy as way to becoming self employed in relatively secure area. Fifty years ago many more jewish pharmacists who were descendants of those fleeing from Russian then Nazi pogroms. Many prominent asian pharmacists are the children of Ugandans and Kenyans escaping Idi Amin etc.

Medicine, law and pharmacy are traditional ways of joining the establishment in a new country as success depends on yourself rather than who your father was or which public school you attended. Few descendants in merchant banking or stockbroking.

In particular, pharmacy appeals to those who would like to combine a scientific career with commerce.
johnep