Didn’t Match for Pharmacy Residency? 5 Powerful Steps to Win Phase II

Didn’t match for pharmacy residency? Take a breath… this is not the end of your story.

In this powerful bonus episode of Success in Doses, Dr. Saley Traore-Uwalaka breaks down exactly what to do next if you find yourself heading into Pharmacy Residency Phase II. Whether you're feeling disappointed, confused, or unsure where to start, this episode gives you both the mindset shift and the strategy you need to move forward with clarity and confidence.

Before jumping into action, we start by addressing one of the biggest misconceptions in the residency match process: Phase II is NOT made up of “leftover” candidates or low-quality programs. In fact, many strong residency programs intentionally enter Phase II for strategic reasons, and they are actively looking for the right candidates.

Then, Dr. Saley walks you through 5 critical steps to position yourself for success in Phase II, including:

• How to process Match Day emotions without getting stuck
• How to identify what went wrong in Phase I (application vs interview performance)
• How to strategically improve your CV, letter of intent, and references
• Why seeking feedback from programs is your biggest competitive advantage
• How to stay bold, focused, and aligned with your non-negotiables

This episode is both real and practical. If you’re ready to stop spiraling and start moving with intention, this is your next step.

Thank you for supporting the show. Follow @successindosespod

career advancement, negotiation skills, pharmacists, personal development, confidence, asking for what you want, mindset shifts, professional growth, self-advocacy, boldness

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you didn't match, I want you to hear me when I clearly say this from the very beginning that this is not the end of your story. Full stop. Okay, so first things first, let's talk about today. Because I know exactly what today feels like. For some of you, today feels like a celebration. For others, it feels quiet, confusing, maybe even a little heavy. And if you didn't match, I want you to hear me when I clearly say this from the very beginning. This is not the end of your story. Full stop. This is not a reflection of your worth. And this is definitely not proof that you are not capable. What this is, is a moment. A moment that is asking one question of you. Are you willing to move forward differently? And if you are clear about the answer to that question, this can actually be one of the most powerful and profound and empowering moments of your professional career. Over the last eight years, I have had the privilege of working with residency candidates of all calibers, people that have been in practice for a couple of years that decided to come back, people that were final years, people that had tried residency before dropped out, and this was going to be their second attempt at finding a program that was a better fit for them. And the things I'm about to outline for you is after that exposure and experience of working with all of these different types of candidates, my observations about how you should strategically approach phase two with success. If you stay right here and you follow these steps, you're going to kick off phase two. And I'm not going to say 100%, but like 99.9% is almost guaranteed of success for you because these are some of the most major pitfalls that people just skip and they go right to the application process. Let's get into it. The first thing I want to talk about first and take care of right off the brink is to take care of the myth that seems to be taking hold and persisting about phase two. Phase two is not the leftover crew. Phase two is not about uh the all of the good picks have been selected and these are the folks that are left in the programs or not looking forward to or they're not interested. There are multiple reasons why candidates end up in phase two, but I don't even want to focus on that because I feel like people think that I'm trying to make them feel better when I try to contextualize for them how they could find themselves in phase two. Let's talk about the programs that are actually surfacing in phase two and why you could look at a phase two list and be blown away by the caliber of programs you'll find there. One of the most common reasons why a program would end up in phase two is because they have plenty of vacancies. They have a lot of positions and they were not able to fill all of them on first go. It's not a reflection of the quality of their program or the caliber of their program. It actually has nothing to do with what they have to offer. It's just they have so many programs and so many satellite campuses for their residency program, they were unable to fill all of them. So that's myth number one. The second thing is program could voluntarily decide that all of the people that they interviewed, they're not interested in them as candidates that they see that would do well in their program, right? There is a mismatch for whatever reason in their phase one candidate pool between what they know about their program as offerings versus what this candidate pool ended up being. They interviewed them and they decided that they were not going to rank certain candidates based on what they understand about their program and their program culture and identity. That could end up putting a program in phase two, and they are prepared for that, and they have a strategic plan of how to move forward in phase two to try to bridge that gap. And so it's really, really important that you understand that as a strong candidate that finds themselves face to face with phase two, there are really, really amazing programs out there that are also looking for you. The third reason why a program could be in phase two is close to the second one. They think that a better fit for their program is actually still out there. And they feel rather confident that they may be able to find that person in phase two. They're not going to just rank anyone in phase one and end up with a candidate that is a mismatch for all of the things that they know about themselves simply because they want to fill a vacancy, right? For a program, they are out there, they care deeply about fitness enough where they'd rather go without matching or having that vacancy filled than to just put someone there and then it's a miserable year for both parties, both for them and both for you. So as you are going through this process of trying to evaluate how the heck did I end up here, focus on the things that you can do right now to get your head back in this game. Before we get into the steps you need to take, it's imperative that you get your mental together. What happened today is a real thing. And so trying to blow right past what happened today and go right into action mode and not sit down with what just happened after all the hard work that went into it, that's not gonna be one of the recommendations. Let's get into these doses. I have five stat doses for you on where to start if you find yourself right here, right now, today, March 18th, and you think that phase two could be an option for you. Number one, you need to sit with the feels, really feel it. Understand that your emotions are a real component of who you are, right? It's really, really important that you don't dismiss how you feel about this moment. But what I also want you to understand about this moment is rejection could be the most powerful redirection you ever have. People telling you that you're not a great fit for who they are frees you up, positions you to come in contact with another place that is also looking for you. So, my first tip for you about how to begin your journey into phase two is to first of all feel the disappointment, feel the hurt, feel all of the emotions that this moment is going to have baked in with it, but don't stay there too long. What I don't want happening for you is you throwing yourself a pity party where you're the guest of honor and there's a blanket, you're wrapped up in it, there's ice cream, you're crying, and you're just you go so deep into the the negative self-talk that you can't even find your way back because big moments like this tend to try to take advantage of our insecurities and the the thoughts we have and our quiet moments of inadequacies. And it's like, see, I knew all along that I didn't have what it takes, I knew all along that I wasn't cut out for it. I knew all along that's what I don't want you buying into in this moment because it is false, it is not true. Thinking that the reason why a phase one match didn't happen for you, it's because you're not enough or you're not worth it, or they don't want you. And I need you to break up with those negative thoughts as quickly as possible because there is work to do. That's the first stat dose. The second stat dose is you need to evaluate the candidate that you were in phase one and categorize yourself very, very quickly. The reason why categorization is so critical as a step in this phase, it's because figuring out which category you fall in kind of lays its own next steps out in a way. In my experience, phase two candidates tend to come the most common, tend to be one of these categories. Category number one is going to be the candidates that had really few interviews. And by few, my cutoff and benchmark all these years, candidates that secure four to five interviews in phase one tend to match at an exponential, like 95% or better odds of a phase one match successfully and at like their top three programs, right? So if you are a candidate where you had less than four interviews, I want you to know that for phase two, I would put a lot of time and energy into restructuring your application packet because this is an indication, especially if you apply to at least eight to ten programs. And of those eight to ten programs, you had less than four interviews. You really need to re-evaluate the quality of the application packet you put forward. It is possible that your letter of intent was poor, it didn't connect, there was no real storytelling to weave for them and address clearly and concisely why you were interested in residency, why you are interested in doing a residency at this place. How did you make that decision? And how do you view residency as a critical, critical first step towards your professional goals? Were you able to actually outline what those goals are? Poor letter of intent could be a deal breaker for interview offers. The other thing could be that your references were either not strategic enough or your references were just straight up poor, right? So you need to really sit down and think and re-evaluate. Is there an opportunity for you to replace one or two of the references you used in phase one because you've had a really strong clinical rotation since you applied? And that person or those people would be willing to write a stellar letter of recommendation on your behalf of phase two. It is extremely important that you critically evaluate your packet for this. The third thing could be that your CV just was disorganized and difficult to understand in making a compelling case for how your experiences are a good fit for what you're saying your next professional goals are, right? CVs that are not well structured, CVs that are not doing a great job at emphasizing or demonstrating skill set, if your CV just reads like a checklist. These are all things you may need to rework right now if you are the less than four interview crew. I'm gonna tell you now, less than four interview, go back. It's your application packet. Something there needs to be reworked. Next category of candidate, it's gonna be the candidate that actually did get more than four interviews. You had five or six interviews, and you still find yourself in phase two without a match, right? This is the candidate where I am almost 100% confident that it is ineffective interviewing style. Because here's my proof: whatever packet you submitted, that packet was strong enough, it was good enough, it was structured enough, it was positive enough to secure you a really good number of interviews. And at the end of those interviews, you did not match. I want to tell you now, something went wrong at the interview. You need to focus on effective interviewing skills, you need to focus on effective case presentation, everything that happens on interview day. That's going to be the thing that I will have this cohort focus on because this is where things went away. Okay. That's the easy cohort. The third cohort that I tend to encounter is the brand new phase two candidate, the candidate for which, for all intents and purposes, phase two really is your phase one, right? You didn't make it at all in phase one, and you are applying brand new, like you're creating the forecast, you're doing everything brand new as a phase two candidate. And for this candidate, you just need to make sure because you have no frame of reference, you don't even have what this these other cohorts are going to get in the form of feedback, which is coming up next. But you have to do everything from scratch and make sure that you swing and swing big and making sure that you have a great packet together because things are going to move really, really fast. And if you've been preparing, you literally are ready to go the minute the portal opens. Okay. The last cohort that I really want to talk to now is there's a cohort out there that applied at phase one and they got zero interviews. The things that you need to focus on will be no different from the things that less than four interviews need to focus on. This cohort also, the problem is your packet. Something in your application packet is making you a candidate. The programs are really easy, feeling comfortable passing on. So I know that some people want to hear it explicitly, but these are really the phase two candidates that I tend to encounter the most. So if there is a different kind out there, definitely drop it in the comments. I'd like to know who you are to see how I may be able to give you targeted advice, right? So, dose number one is you need to first of all know where you fall in the scheme of everything so that you can make sure that you are focusing on the right things as you start this preparation. Once you know what category you are, now it's time to data collect. This is where the advantage really is in favor of the people that participated in phase one. It doesn't matter to what degree because the second dose is about you going out there and seeking feedback. It's data collection time. Very, very rarely in your professional career will you have the unique opportunity to find out how you can improve. And that feedback be targeted in a manner where they tell you fix this, fix this, change this. This is what we observe that kind of made us think that. This is a very unique opportunity. The people who match today, they won't have the benefit of this. But I think this is a quiet and untalked-about gift of phase two that no one talks about. Every program that you interviewed with, you should send them an email, be brief, and tell them that you were unsuccessful in securing a match at phase one, and you would love an opportunity to learn from a program you interviewed with, like theirs, if they have any feedback for you on anything that you may be able to improve. You are going to be really, really surprised by how much RPDs and RPCs or even preceptors you interviewed with, how much they will go above and beyond to try to give you some guidance and perspective about where you are, right? And I always tell people this we think that our personal brand is what we show people and what we tell people. Our personal brands are. Your personal brand is how people experience you in real time and real life. It's not some stuff you build online and you work on making sure what they see online translates when they meet you in person. The personal brand is all about how do people experience you and what you want that experience to be. Giving you feedback in a process like this is an unbelievable and unique opportunity for you to find out how people experience you. Because we don't go on interviews hoping that people just get to see the worst versions of who we are. No. All of the work you do when you're preparing for an interview is to make sure that you are presenting yourself well. And sometimes, because things are so natural for you, there are things that you're going to give off that you have no idea you're giving off. And other times, it's just that what you are saying that you are interested in, that you are passionate in, that you want to grow in, this place that you interviewed in does not have the infrastructure to give you that. They would be doing you a disservice by deciding that they are going to take you on when they know that they don't have what it takes to move your career forward. And you want to be grateful for that. This part about seeking feedback requires courage. It requires big courage because you're gonna send these emails. Some of them will be answered, some of them won't be answered. But in my experience, these programs are eager to give you a little bit of guidance on what they experience and how they experienced you, and how perhaps they may have made some of that decision, right? Again, I can't say this is enough. Your brand is not what you think it is, it's not what you've decided to convince yourself it is, it's how people experience you. I cannot say that enough. Interviews, processes like match or a huge, huge wake-up call in the difference between what we believe our personal brands are versus what it actually is, right? So this feedback step, I don't recommend that you skip for that reason. Now that you have the data, right? So you reach out to the program and they tell you X, Y, and Z, let's talk about how you move with that data. Dose number three is it's go time. You need to be bold, you need to be very, very, very bold, right? And so what that means is if there is a program that surfaces in phase two that you interviewed with, this is a little uncomfortable, but this is where the boldness component comes in. If this is a program you genuinely wanted to go to, you genuinely felt like this was a place you could see yourself growing, I would recommend that you step up and you step up boldly and contact them and let them know that you are in phase two. Not only do you want feedback from them about what may not have made you a good fit for their program, but you are still interested in them if that is the case. But what I don't want you to do in this situation is have an emotional response to seeing a program that you interviewed with in phase two, and you deciding in that moment that what you're gonna do is to completely avoid them and not engage with them. There is a lot that they can share with you that could really, really be helpful. Dose number three is not a whole lot. I think it's just really don't run away from the programs that you feel rejected by. Their feedback still matters. I don't want you to fall into the trap of they didn't want me. You gotta stay focused. We are in action mode. It's about information and data, and that could be uncomfortable for a program that decided that they weren't gonna rank you and they're not in phase two. You still want to contact them, connect with them, and see what you can learn from them. Because fear is a huge, huge, huge part of this process, match in general. The last dose that I have for you is about your non-negotiables. The thing that I don't want you to do through this process is adjusting your non-negotiable because you are afraid that you could be facing a postgraduate career this cycle without a residency position. If every other weekend staffing was something that you thought was too excessive and something that you were not interested in, I need you to keep that same energy at phase two. I don't recommend you adjusting your non-negotiables because you're in phase two. If there was ever a time to be selective, it would be now. If you decide that you had a non-negotiable in phase one that just doesn't seem that important now, like there's an on-call schedule in phase one, that for you was a no-go. But today, you actually maybe or not that opposed to it. That's an attitude realignment, right? That's not necessarily tossing the whole thing out of the window. But what I want to caution you against is throwing your complete non-negotiable list and bucket out of the window because you want a residency so bad. Let me tell you from experience, you are going to find yourself trying to survive the longest year of your life, miserable, unable to perform at the highest level you can, because you are so focused on just surviving the place. You're going to skip and miss out on all of the learning opportunities and experiences because you are so miserable. This is why the last dose of success for this tip is that your non negotiables were your non negotiables for a reason. If that list was developed based on reflection and you took time to really figure out based on who I am, I'm not interested in working every other weekend. I am more interested in programs that have weekend staffing models that are every third or every fourth or fifth weekend. I think that that would be manageable. I don't want you to believe that you need to toss that out of the window now that you are in phase two. It's not desperation hour. It really is not. Okay. Now, this episode is a bonus. It wasn't really meant for a dive in. I have done so many workshops on phase two and phase two success that addresses some of these things in detail that you can find on my YouTube channel, Resi Prep360. Please go on there. I will continue to have my inboxes available to you. What I want you to understand about where you are today is that yes, rejection doesn't feel good. This is really hard. But I, in all of my years of doing this, this can be some of the most amazing thing that has ever happened to some people because they actually end up discovering and matching with programs in phase two that they had no idea existed. And these programs were a far better fit for what their professional goals were than in phase one. As always, I am rooting for you and rooting for your success. I am, I genuinely am. If you are not following me on TikTok, go ahead and do that.360. I'm on Instagram with the podcast at SuccessIndoses, as well as Resi Prep360. DM me your questions. DM me what you're unsure about. I am here to see you through this and I am here to support you through this. But I just thought I'll drop this quick bonus episode for you guys that's going to be published on March 19th at 5 a.m. And the reason for that is I'm hoping you've taken the day to come up for air. And what you're looking for this morning is direction on where to start. As always, I am grateful for your time and choosing me as a person to partner with in any capacity to participate in your math journey, in your match journey, and moving you forward towards your goals and professional careers. I wish you all the best and have a wonderful day.