Career Fair Helps UMSOP Students Turn Connections into Careers

Event connects student pharmacists with employers and opportunities across community practice, industry, and health systems.

By Pam Carder
March 20, 2026

Student pharmacists at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy (UMSOP) took a proactive step toward their professional futures on March 11 during the School’s Career Fair, now a biannual event connecting students with employers across the pharmacy field.

Bringing together organizations representing community pharmacy, health systems, industry, and regulatory agencies, the event provided students in all four professional years with opportunities to network, learn about career pathways, and explore internships, residencies, fellowships, and full-time employment options.

“This event is for students across all four years of the PharmD program who are interested in internships, residencies, fellowships – or for those who want to network and go directly into employment after they graduate,” says Troy Parker, MBA, associate director of career development and placement at UMSOP. “It’s a great opportunity for students to further explore what they want to do with their degrees.”

Throughout the academic year, Parker works to build and strengthen partnerships with employers through outreach and collaboration, including coordination with the School’s Experiential Learning Program. These relationships help expand opportunities that benefit both student pharmacists and workforce partners.

He also encourages students to take a strategic approach to career preparation. “Even early in the program, students should focus on networking,” Parker says. “By the second year, many are looking for internships. In the third year, they begin thinking more intentionally about their career paths – whether that means pursuing a residency, fellowship, or entering the workforce.”

Internships, he notes, can be especially valuable for helping students explore different practice settings such as clinical care, industry, and community pharmacy. Some structured programs allow students to gain full-time experience during the summer and continue working during the academic year, helping them build professional skills while meeting licensure requirements.

The Career Fair also offers students insight into employer expectations and hiring processes. By initiating conversations early in their training, students can begin forming professional relationships that support both experiential learning placements and postgraduate opportunities.

“The Career Fair brings together hospitals in the local area as well as organizations like AstraZeneca, the FDA, and Johns Hopkins,” says Sarah Mughal, a third-year student pharmacist. “It’s a great way to learn about different opportunities, understand hiring processes, and start building connections early in our pharmacy school journey.”

The impact of these connections is reflected in strong student outcomes. Following last year’s Career Fair, approximately 86 percent of participating students secured placements that included internships, residencies, fellowships, or full-time positions.

For fourth-year student pharmacist Cameron Isaacs, the Career Fair has come full circle. Isaacs first attended a few years ago and has now returned as a representative of the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA), where he will begin a fellowship on the performance measurement research team after graduation.

“This is actually where I first learned about the organization two years ago,” Isaacs says. “It’s a great event to meet different people and discover the opportunities that exist in the pharmacy space. I ended up in the right place — and this event was definitely the start.”

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