To write a good pharmacist cover letter, show you can fill prescriptions safely and promptly. Express your interest in the hiring medical or retail facility, and cite your related skills like customer relations or pharmacy technician training.
This guide will help you write a cover letter that gets you interviews for your next job as a pharmacist.
Pharmacist Cover Letter Templates and Examples
- Entry-Level
- Mid-Career
- Senior-Level
How To Write a Pharmacist Cover Letter
A great pharmacist cover letter usually has five sections, outlined below. When possible, connect each section back to your defining skills and the employer’s hiring needs. The following advice and examples show what to include in your cover letter so it’s optimized for each pharmacist job.
1. Heading
At the top of the page, include your resume contact header, the date, and any contact details you have for your recipient. To set a clear focus, add the title “Pharmacist” to your contact header. You can then modify your title to align with each job posting. For instance, use “Hospital Pharmacist” if that’s closer to the role in question and reflects your background.
(Note: Feel free to omit this section if you send your letter as an email message and your contact information is part of your email signature.)
Example
Karina Sargent
Community Pharmacist | [email protected] | (345) 678-9012 | 321 Main Blvd., Fayetteville, AR 09876
March 11, 2024
Jameel Taylor
Senior Hiring Manager
CVS Health
(234) 567-8901
[email protected]
2. Salutation
Whenever you can, address your recipient by name – it’s the quickest way to signal you’re sending a job-specific letter and not a boilerplate. If you can’t find the recipient’s name, use a variation of “Dear Hiring Manager” so your greeting is still tailored somewhat to each job opening.
Examples
Dear Ms. White,
Dear Pharmacy Hiring Manager:
Dear Walgreens Hiring Manager:
3. “Hook” or introduction
To catch the reader’s attention, start your letter with a clear example or measure of your success as a pharmacist. What’s a key way you’ve improved patient care, order accuracy, or pharmacy operations? For instance, maybe you led an education initiative that raised awareness of safe medication usage. Choose a highlight you can then link to the main skills you offer a pharmacy.
Example
As a pharmacist at CVS, I guided my team to retain a 98% customer satisfaction rating for the last five years. Maintaining such a high customer rating was a difficult job that required dedication and a drive to provide the best possible experience for every customer.
4. Body paragraph(s)
Use the main section of your letter to tell why you’re drawn to this role or facility. For example, maybe it requires close training of pharmacy technicians, similar to your current job. Or the organization values community engagement, an area you’re eager to return to.
Following this explanation, cite two or three more of your main skills or achievements, possibly as bullet points.
Example
I understand you are looking for a knowledgeable individual with a talent for leadership and the determination to positively impact communities through high-quality health care. As a passionate professional with more than two years of experience as a community pharmacist, I have the attributes to excel in this position. My recent achievements include:
- Assisting with recruiting three new pharmacy assistants and providing training to improve their clinical and technical knowledge
- Reorganizing workflow systems to improve prescription preparation efficiency by 65% without compromising accuracy
- Receiving thanks from a parent for recognizing the signs of sepsis in their child when they visited for advice, resulting in prompt intervention and a full recovery
5. Call to action
Finally, request an interview for the position. Consider briefly restating your ability to prepare accurate prescriptions. To end your cover letter, use a simple closing like “Sincerely” or “Best regards” and then your name.
Example
I would love to discuss ways to improve customer relations at Walgreens. Please feel free to contact me with a time and date that would suit your schedule.
Kind regards,
James Logan, Pharm.D.
Pharmacist Cover Letter Tips
1. Show your skills in action
As part of your letter’s body text, add a short list of bullet points to show your success in key work areas for your field. In the pharmacist cover letter example below, see how a bullet-point structure lets the applicant impress and reveal more than if she’d used a general line like “My top skills include student precepting, pharmacy technician training, and service standards improvement.”
Example
My recent achievements include:
- Acting as a preceptor to five student pharmacists in the last two years, one of whom became a permanent staff member following their graduation
- Providing ongoing training for pharmacy technicians, leading to a productivity increase of 43% and error reduction of 76%
- Leading my team to provide the highest standards of patient care and service, earning a 99% patient satisfaction rating last year
2. Emphasize patient education
Pharmacists often must answer patients’ varied questions or advise customers on prescription doses or side effects. If your background and the pharmacy role you’re after reflect this theme, speak to it on your cover letter.
Example
Last year, I devised and delivered a community outreach initiative to help local residents with diabetes manage their conditions through healthy lifestyle choices. The project decreased hospitalizations due to uncontrolled blood sugar levels in participants by 34%. I hope to leverage my aptitude for patient education to empower service users at CVS Health.
3. Refer to the organization's goals
An effective cover letter doesn’t just give facts about your past, it also shows your excitement for the future. What strategic direction is the employer headed? Does the job posting reveal its short- or long-term business goals? Discuss those goals and how you see yourself advancing them, and you’ll give your cover letter the engaged and confident tone it needs to stand out.
Example
I noticed you want to improve customer relations at Walgreens Central Tampa, and I am the perfect addition to your pharmaceutical team. I have over eight years of experience in the industry in some of the busiest pharmacies in Tampa.
Pharmacist Text-Only Cover Letter Templates and Examples
- Entry-Level
- Mid-Career
- Senior-Level
James Logan
Pharmacist | [email protected] | (123) 456-7890 | 123 Main St., Tampa, FL 12345
January 01, 2024
Jessica White
Hiring Manager
Walgreens Central Tampa
(987) 654-3210
[email protected]
Dear Ms. White,
As a pharmacist at CVS, I guided my team to retain a 98% customer satisfaction rating for the last five years. Maintaining such a high customer rating was a difficult job that required dedication and a drive to provide the best possible experience for every customer.
I noticed you want to improve customer relations at Walgreens Central Tampa, and I am the perfect addition to your pharmaceutical team. I have over eight years of experience in the industry in some of the busiest pharmacies in Tampa.
Some of my proudest career achievements include:
- Process over 35,000 prescriptions each month with 97% accuracy for the past five years and zero harmful errors
- Raised customer retention by 22% by training pharmacists in proper customer relations
- Trained, mentored, and supervised 15 new pharmaceutical technicians
I would love to discuss ways to improve customer relations at Walgreens. Please feel free to contact me with a time and date that would suit your schedule.
Kind regards,
James Logan, Pharm.D.
Pharmacist Cover Letter Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the most important part of a cover letter?-
Any explanation you give for why the specific job opening or employer interests you. These details distinguish the cover letter from your resume and other application materials and can help you get past applicant tracking systems (ATS). They also set up a good interview discussion about how you fit the role and the facility’s work culture.
Are cover letters becoming obsolete? -
No. As long as hiring managers want to know why you want the job and don’t have time to get your (initial) answer by interview, a cover letter will be key to your job search.
What should my cover letter’s design look like?-
Your resume’s. Carry over all of that document’s basic format settings, like font style, line spacing, and page margins. When you style your cover letter like your resume, you make your application more cohesive and eye-catching.
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