If you're a graduate looking to get into pharmaceutical and need to get a feel for the kind of questions employers might ask at interview, then make sure you research these graduate pharmaceutical interview questions below. These questions and answers are taken from real graduate interviews, and compiled to give you an idea of what to expect and how to prepare your answers.
Example Pharmaceutical Interview Questions:
As a pharmacist, what do you feel may be some daily challenges you may face?
Being unable to read a prescription may be a day-to-day challenge which a pharmacist may face, thus having a method for overcoming this issue is a necessity. Explain that you would look to obtain the contact details of other medics and officials so that if the problem did arise you would be able to solve it quickly and efficiently.
Difficult customers are something you are most likely to come across on a daily basis, be it one that is demanding drugs they have not been prescribed, or an elderly customer that doesn’t have their prescription to hand but is in need of the drugs. State how you will be able to quickly learn and adapt to each situation, how the first time dealing with an issue may be slightly tougher but you are not afraid to ask a colleague for help.
Tell me a suggestion which you have made that has been implemented in the pharmaceutical field
This question may draw on your time at university, or some past work experience. There is large emphasis on the word ‘implemented’ – you may have hundreds of great ideas but the question is asking whether any of these ideas have been used. Discuss your answer using the STAR technique, explaining what the situation was, what your action was (what you implemented), and the result of your implementation – was the result good or bad? Is your suggestion still being used to-date? What was the feedback from those affected by your suggestion?
How would you get a physician to switch to your pharmaceutical product?
This question is focused on an individual pursuing a pharmaceutical sales role. The interviewer will look to investigate your methodology and sales ability. Explain how you will use open questions to find out what type of drugs the physician is already using and why they are using them – go on to express, using your extensive knowledge of the product, why you believe your product is better in order to cater to the physician’s needs and how you will use your persuasive skills to ensure that the physician will opt to use your product.