Co-ops (cooperative education) occur typically in the second semester of sophomore year. However, depending on your major, the timeline of when you go off on co-op may vary. For pharmacy, there are typically three set co-ops: (one in the summer semester before the start of 3rd year, one in the spring semester of the 3rd year, and one in the fall semester of the 4th year). For the three pharmacy co-ops, one is required to be in an institutional setting, one is required to be in a community setting and one is an elective so you can choose from any area that interests you. For the first co-op, it is understandable students are often nervous because it is probably the first time the student is preparing a resume, dressing for the interview and then actually going through the interview process.
For pharmacy students, you take an introduction to profession of pharmacy class in the second semester of the second year. This class not only exposes you to different aspects of pharmacy but also prepares you for your first co-op. You learn how to format your resume, how to dress for the interview, how to prepare for the interview and etc. Besides the class helping me, I talked to my co-op advisor often to get my resume checked and discuss the options in the application process. I also went to a mock interview practice held by upperclassmen that helped me to see what areas I could improve on before the actual interview. Looking back, I think the best advice I can give is to not get anxious when you hear your friends getting interview callbacks. Everyone gets callbacks for interviews at different points in the process, some get it really early and some get it really late but bottom line is, students do get matched to a co-op position.
For me, I happened to be lucky and get a callback from Brigham and Women’s Hospital early in the process, saving me from the stress of the waiting game. Since the hospital was one of my top choices, I was elated to get the interview callback. After my interview, I was able to land the position and accepted the offer of working in the Operating Room Pharmacy. There I interacted primarily with the healthcare staff including anesthesiologists, nurses and surgeons and dispensed medications used during surgeries. I was able to learn a lot of brand/generic names and the usage behind the medications. Given that I only had exposure to community pharmacy settings, I learned a lot from my experience working in an institutional setting. For my second co-op, I am in the process of finalizing an international co-op to South Korea so stay tuned for more updates! :)
** If you want to read more about what co-op is, the link is http://www.northeastern.edu/coop/ **
