THIS week's contribution is from Centaine Snoswell, Pharmacy and PhD Candidate, University of Queensland: Negotiating for professional opportunities - If you're an early career pharmacist, you may wonder about when you can start negotiating for professional opportunities. The answer is, it's never too early, and you're never too junior. The caveat to this of course is that you must be clear about what you want and be reasonable enough to compromise.
If you are junior you may not have the immediate opportunity to work in the area that you are interested in. Being reasonable means that you need to be willing to compromise within reason on your requests for opportunities or experience.
Decide whether you are willing to volunteer for extra work, research projects, or committees. If you can manage volunteer commitments on top of your normal job requirements this is a great way to network and gain experience.
Be factual instead of emotional. If your request is declined ask for feedback on how you could achieve what you want in the future but be respectful of the no. Getting angry and saying "it's not fair" probably won't change the situation, and it will likely make you look unprofessional.
Remember that everyone starts somewhere. If you're not sure where you want to go, ask the more senior people around you what made them choose their specialty and ask them how they got there.
The above article was sent to subscribers in Pharmacy Daily's issue from 28 May 18
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