Five essential skills they didn’t teach you at pharmacy school

I’m a self-taught personal development diva..

I spend so much time on personal growth, reading, listening to podcasts, and writing.. and I absolutely love it!

If you think your undergraduate degree has armed you with all the tools for success, you are wrong!

Recently, I've been thinking about how inexperienced I was when I graduated, and how my undergraduate degree only really equipped me with a quarter of what my professional practice and life, in general, require of me.

The truth is, you never really graduate, in fact, a degree is only the beginning of your learning journey, the journey of life—the journey to start learning the attributes that differentiate those who reach their goals from those who don't.

Then you strive to learn those attributes and skills. Those skills, combined with your undergraduate learning, complete the equation!

I just wish it didn't take me that long to figure out what those skills and attributes are, so I work on building them early. So to save you about 5–10 years of figuring out what they are, here they are:

#1: How to market yourself (aka personal branding)

Yes, you read that correctly!

Recruiters are moving towards recognizing the social and unique skills you bring to a workplace over your educational qualifications.

I mean, what differentiates you from others in the market? How do people know you're a standout candidate when everyone else has the same qualifications as you and nearly the same experience?

And I don't just mean your resume. I mean your social media presence, your ability to connect with others, etc.

Building your personal brand and online visibility opens you to connections, networks, and opportunities. It is incredibly important for progression up the career ladder.

#2: How to build a career portfolio

There must be some flow to your career journey.

If your resume identifies that you have been job-hopping and you have not elaborated on the reasons for this in your cover letter, well, you're out of the equation!

Your resume needs a storyline, with how one journey led to another and what you learned from each. If you didn't like a job and left in a short time, be upfront and discuss it so that at least you get an opportunity for an interview - don't thwart your chances early on.

It is equally important to have a road map of your journey, where do you want to see yourself in 10 years, and what career leaps you need to get there.

#3: How to cultivate coping skills that enable high performance

Whilst I understand this is largely up to the individual to do, no one told me there were times when I would be madly running around answering a phone, dispensing, checking, vaccinating, and responding to a disgruntled GP, all whilst a child is screaming their head off in the background.

They needed to teach us coping techniques at pharmacy school - honestly!

I would have performed a lot better if only I knew how I can take care of my mental health and recognize the initial signs of burnout. Or if they emphasized the importance of maintaining a work-life balance.

These things are essential to performing in such 'high-risk' environments.

And I don’t just mean in the dispensary, in life in general, without coping mechanisms, we are vulnerable to poor physical and psychological health. Combine this with being a health professional, who is listening to the patient’s health problems and remedying prescription shortfalls day-in and day out, and it can get draining.

Learn to fill your cup so you can give to others

#4: How to develop your interpersonal and soft skills

By these, I refer to skills like the ability to communicate and interact effectively with others, build and maintain relationships, understand and manage emotions, and work collaboratively.

In almost every pharmacy I worked in, in the first 10 years of my career, I saw a good example of the failure of interpersonal skills to manifest in the workplace.

I guess these are skills that you get better at with adulthood and life experiences, but I feel as though there were situations that I would have handled better if only I was aware of interpersonal skills when I graduated.

Here are some ways I have built these over time:

• Practice active listening: From the book— the 7 Habits of highly effective people “Seek first to understand, then be understood”.

• Develop empathy and understanding towards yourself and others— reflect on your actions and behaviour, and ask yourself why you acted/behaved a certain way in a certain situation. If you can’t understand yourself, you will never understand others.

• Build rapport in communication — find common ground in conversations, you agree on more than you think!

• Seek feedback — urgh, this may come across as the worst, but I have come to value and actively seek people’s constructive criticism, it is the best way to improve, as often we over-estimate our capabilities.

• Read PLENTY of books (audiobooks) to help nurture your interpersonal skills (my favourites are The 7 Habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey, and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

#5 The Importance of learning skills outside pharmacy

If you want to have a flourishing career, you must learn skills outside of pharmacy.

For example, here are some skills I have built in the last 3 years:

• Leveraging all sorts of technology to build courses

• Leveraging technology to automate several daily tasks

• Learning how to build a website and basic coding skills

• Learning how to build a personal brand

and so much more…

There are two key means to achieve the above:

• Don’t wait for someone to teach you, find the means to teach yourself, and keep failing, failure is key to success.

• Don’t be stingy, invest in yourself, invest in learning a new skill and build that side hustle, it could be the best thing you ever do.

Anyway, that’s my 30 minutes of writing for today, see you next time.

Katrina

P.S. If there is any point in this blog that you would like me to elaborate on, just click reply and let me know