Mastering the PharmD Fellowship Interview: Strategies for Success

Author: Rachel McGinn, PharmD

Views are my own and do not reflect my employer.

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If I had a penny for every time someone told me to practice, practice, practice my interview responses before fellowship interview season, I’d be a very rich woman. Let me be the first to tell you: practice your interview responses!

Fellowship season is high-stakes and high-stress. Don't let the single most important part of your application fall by the wayside. As someone who has both applied for fellowships and interviewed prospective fellows, I can tell you that many CVs and resumes look alike. It can be incredibly difficult to distinguish the strongest candidate from the weakest based solely on a document, especially when AI can now help create polished application materials. You should absolutely spend time developing a strong CV or resume, but preparing your interview answers should be just as important.

Your elevator pitch is the opening to every interview, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. When I prepared mine, I used the past, present, and future format. You don’t have to use that structure, but I found it worked well for me, and the "future" piece helped tie back to why I was there and what my goals were early in the conversation. You should be able to deliver your elevator pitch in your sleep, so practice it out loud multiple times.

A great mentor, Kailey Davies, once told me to think of four scenarios I wanted to highlight in every interview because they could be adapted to fit almost any question:

1. An example of teamwork

2. A time I disagreed with someone or handled a conflict

3. A time I balanced multiple priorities or deadlines

4. Something I am proud of that is not on my CV or resume

Once you have your four scenarios, ask someone to interview you using different types of questions. This will help you practice incorporating each example into multiple responses.

One important note: if a question doesn't fit any of your prepared scenarios, answer the question directly. No interviewer wants to listen to someone dance around the question without actually answering it.

To avoid getting stuck in that situation, review your CV and think through experiences from school, internships, work, or leadership roles that you can draw from. Keep a short list of experiences handy to review right before your interviews so those examples stay fresh in your mind.

Now that you have an idea of the types of answers you want to give, it's time to practice. I would simply search online for "fellowship interview questions" and work through them. For some people, it helps to write out responses once before speaking them. For others, that can make answers sound too rehearsed. Figure out what works best for you.

I sent a list of questions to family and friends and asked them to call me at random times while I was doing other things, like driving or washing dishes. That way, I knew I could answer questions even when I wasn't fully focused. Of course, you should also spend dedicated time preparing, but this more spontaneous interview style helped me because when I got nervous, answering questions felt like second nature.

At the end of the day, fellowship interviews are not about having the perfect answer to every question. They're about showing who you are, how you think, and why you're a good fit for the opportunity. The more you practice, the more confident and authentic you'll sound. You've already put in the work to build your experiences and earn the interview. Now make sure you're prepared to talk about them. Good luck, and remember: practice, practice, practice.