OK, let’s say you’re at a place where you are motivated to make a change from your current position and you’ve applied for many jobs online.

Ten, twenty, fifty… who’s counting?

You’ve heard nothing back, at this point, of substance.

::Radio Silence::

What you may not be thinking about is the volume of applications that are rolling in for this job posting (could be upwards of hundreds), and how your resume is going to stand out amongst this virtual crowd.

How can you break the silence and start hearing back from recruiters or hiring managers?

The one thing missing from your resume is a thorough gap analysis of where you are now and where you want to ultimately end up.

Enter: the SWOT team.

A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) is a common business strategy to evaluate an organization/departments’ current status and look towards the future to determine the best path forward.

The SWOT can also be helpful in visualizing your path and further analyzing what the next step of your career looks like in the context of your current situation, reality, and potentially unforeseen external factors.

A SWOT analysis template looks like this:

Strengths and Weaknesses are internal factors that you can control while Opportunities and Threats are external factors that are out of your control. Under each category, you should fill out at least three qualities/characteristics/issues that affect your current situation, for example:

Strengths:

• What am I good at?
• What self-assessments have I completed?
• What have others turned to me for help with?

Weaknesses:

• What doesn’t make me a good fit for this position?
• What do I avoid?
• What feels like a struggle at work?

Opportunities:

• What experience is listed on job postings I’m interested in that I don’t have?
• What changes in the profession am I interested in?
• What connections would be helpful in my job search?

Threats:

• What is the job market like in my area?
• What is holding back pharmacists from expanding into this practice setting?
• What are the barriers in this area of practice?

Once your SWOT analysis is complete, you can then identify gaps between where you are now and where you want to be. Creating an actionable list of goals can get you to that next step of your career.

I remember during my MBA training when our professor required we complete the SWOT analysis exercise on a personal level… I wasn’t sure how it would pan out. Turns out, this was a game changer. I know view my career from a new perspective and plan accordingly, we have helped many pharmacists do the same.