A few years ago I applied to Wal-Mart to work in their pharmacy so I could get some experience before applying to pharmacy school. I had an interview at a Wal-Mart pharmacy set up nearby. The morning of my interview, the pharmacist called me up and told me that he could not interview me because my application was "non-competitive" (I believe that is the term he used). He told me that he had no idea what it meant. He was just told by the store manager that I was "non-competitive" and could not be interviewed.

I had a friend ask a manager at HER store what that could mean. She said her manager would pull up my application in the general system and get back to her. Well, the manager did get back to her and said she couldn't explain why I was not allowed to come in for an interview.

So, my question is, what happened? Before you answer, you should know that I had just graduated with a Master's degree at the time. I'm wondering if they thought I would request more than $8 - $10 in pay. I just wanted the experience. I also applied to 2 separate stores (each about 1 hour away from the other), so I don't know if that could be it. The pharmacy at the other store never even called me for an interview though, so that couldn't be it. I have also been interviewed and worked for another pharmacy chain and a hotel chain, so I can't see it being an identity theft issue where someone with my name pops up in their system as being someone they shouldn't hire. I'm just confused.

Oh, by the way, I did get the pharmacy experience from another pharmacy, got into pharmacy school, and now work for a retail pharmacy chain as a pharmacy intern. I expect to graduate with my Pharm.D. in about 2 years. So, no, not getting hired by Wal-Mart was not the end of my world. It's just funny that retail pharmacies will hire me, but Wal-Mart won't. Guess they don't hire just anyone.