ASHP PPS 2026: How Personnel Placement Service Interviews Work

The Personnel Placement Service (PPS) is an interview event held over four days during the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting and Exhibition. Hiring managers from across pharmacy use it to interview candidates for residencies, industry fellowships, full-time positions, and faculty roles.

According to ASHP's Personnel Placement Service page, the event has two parts that work together: the PPS Online Application Portal and the PPS in-person hall. Your Midyear Meeting registration gives you access to both, as long as you select the free PPS add-on when you register.

To practice answering interview questions out loud before December, Confetto runs AI mock interviews for <a href="/pharmacy-residency">pharmacy residency interview prep</a> and fellowship interviews, with follow-up questions based on your answers. Start your free week.

Here is the scale of the event from ASHP's official PPS overview:

• Industry fellowships: More than 50 fellowship sponsors participate, representing over 50% of PharmD industry fellowships.
• Residency programs: 150 residency programs conduct interviews inside the hall.
• Health institutions: Hiring managers from more than 300 health institutions attend from across the country.
• Two-part structure: You apply and schedule interviews in the online portal between September and December, then meet employers in person inside the PPS hall in Orlando.

Starting in 2026, PPS is free for all registered Midyear Clinical Meeting attendees across student, resident, and practitioner categories. You must select PPS during your Midyear Meeting registration to opt in.

ASHP also migrated to a new PPS Online system powered by Web Scribble Solutions for 2026, which opens earlier than in past years on September 16, 2026. If you have questions about your registration or the portal, ASHP directs candidates to email pps@ashp.org.

If you are also applying through the Match after Midyear, see our <a href="/articles/phorcas">PhORCAS application and Match guide</a> for how the formal residency application timeline lines up after December.

PPS and the Residency Showcase both happen at the Midyear Clinical Meeting, and the difference comes down to format and who is hiring.

The Residency Showcase is a large hall of booths where residency programs talk with interested candidates on a first-come, first-served walk-up basis. It is included with your Midyear registration and needs no reservations or appointments. PPS requires a separate (free) registration, covers jobs and industry fellowships in addition to residencies, and runs by pre-scheduled, private interviews.

ASHP publishes clear guidance on which event fits each group of attendees:

PPS happens in two stages: online preparation starting in September, and live interviews in December.

In Part 1, you use the PPS Online Application Portal. Once you opt in to PPS during your Midyear registration, you sign in to set up your account using the exact same credentials you used to register for the Midyear Meeting. Completing your PPS registration lets you view the job board and apply for open positions. It also places your online profile and CV into the candidate database so employers can find you and reach out.

Between September 16 and the Midyear Meeting in December, you schedule your in-person interviews with employers.

In Part 2, you attend your interviews inside the PPS hall in Orlando from December 6 to December 9. When you arrive at an employer's booth for a scheduled slot, a representative greets you in the front area of the booth and walks you behind a curtain to conduct your private interview.

Even if you do not see the exact job you want posted on the board, ASHP notes that participating still lets you introduce yourself face-to-face to hiring managers from hundreds of pharmacy employers in one place.

• Opt in during Midyear registration: Select the free PPS add-on when registering for the meeting.
• Set up My Account: Sign in to PPS Online using your Midyear credentials to upload your CV to the candidate database and apply for open positions.
• Check in at the booth: Review the 2026 PPS Floor Plan, meet the employer representative in the front greeting area of their booth, and step behind the curtain for your interview.

Because PPS interviews take place behind a booth curtain over a short, pre-scheduled slot, your answers need to be short and easy to follow in a noisy hall.

We wrote the practice questions and example answers below for the three main groups at PPS: residency candidates, industry fellowship candidates, and job seekers. For a full list of clinical and behavioral prompts, read our guide to <a href="/articles/pharmacy-residency-interview-questions">pharmacy residency interview questions with answers</a>.

Question 1 (Residency): "Tell me about yourself and why you requested a PPS interview with our program."

"I am a fourth-year pharmacy student at the University of Kentucky, and over the past year my acute care rotations confirmed that I want to train at a large academic medical center with strong infectious diseases and critical care services. During my medicine rotation in October, I managed vancomycin and aminoglycoside dosing for a 24-bed unit and worked with the stewardship pharmacist to de-escalate broad-spectrum antibiotics at the 48-hour mark. That experience showed me how much I enjoy daily rounding with an interprofessional team and defending clinical recommendations with primary literature. I requested a PPS interview with your program because your PGY1 structure includes required rotations in both medical ICU and infectious diseases consults, plus a longitudinal teaching certificate with the college of pharmacy. Before I submit my final applications, I wanted to meet your team in person and learn how your residents balance longitudinal research with staffing weekends." Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented.

Question 2 (Industry Fellowship): "Why are you pursuing a medical affairs fellowship instead of going straight into clinical practice?"

"On my oncology clinic rotation this fall, I spent three weeks helping our clinical pharmacist review new phase 3 trial data to update our health system's treatment pathways for non-small cell lung cancer. What stood out to me was how much a clear, balanced scientific exchange with a medical science liaison helped our team understand the trial's subgroup outcomes and safety monitoring. I love clinical reasoning, and I realized I want to apply that skill at the population level by translating trial data for clinicians and bringing real-world clinical questions back to the development team. Your two-year medical affairs fellowship gives fellows hands-on rotation blocks in medical information, field medical strategy, and publication planning, which is the exact foundation I need to build a career in oncology medical affairs." Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented.

Question 3 (Full-time pharmacist / faculty): "What does your ideal first 90 days in this role look like, and how do you handle handoffs during high-volume shifts?"

"In my first 30 days as an evening clinical staff pharmacist, my priority is learning your order verification workflows, institutional dosing protocols, and how the central pharmacy communicates with the ICU and emergency department teams. By day 60, I want to be fully independent on central and decentralized shifts, including managing pharmacokinetics consults and code responses without slowing down queue turnaround. By day 90, I would look to join one medication safety or antimicrobial stewardship committee project where an evening-shift perspective helps close workflow gaps. For shift handoffs during high-volume hours, I keep a running structured sign-out organized by unit and urgency: active drips or pending therapeutic drug levels first, unresolved prescriber clarifications second, and operational supply issues last. That way the incoming pharmacist knows within two minutes what needs action in the next hour." Example answer written by our team. The applicant is invented.

• More practice questions to rehearse out loud (written by our team):
• Residency (PGY1/PGY2): Walk me through a clinical intervention you made on rotation where the team initially pushed back. How did you handle it?
• Residency (PGY2 specialty): What gap in your PGY1 training are you hoping our PGY2 program will fill?
• Industry fellowship: Tell me about a project where you had to manage competing deadlines across two different teams.
• Industry fellowship: Take a complex clinical trial or poster you worked on and summarize the takeaway for me in 90 seconds.
• Full-time pharmacist / faculty: Tell me about a workflow or medication safety improvement you implemented with nursing or medical staff.
• Questions to ask at the end of your booth interview: "What characterizes the candidates who have been most successful in this role over the past two years?" and "What are the next steps and timeline in your hiring or interview process after Midyear?"

A curtained booth inside a loud convention hall is a tough place to say an answer out loud for the first time. Rehearsing your opener, your rotation stories, and your "why this program" pitch on a timer helps you stay calm and conversational when you sit down across from a program director or fellowship team.

Confetto lets you practice pharmacy residency, fellowship, and job interviews out loud with an AI interviewer that asks follow-up questions on your answers and gives rubric-based feedback after every session. Start your free week.

Why are you interested in our PGY2 program, and what makes you ready to transition from your current PGY1 into this specialty?

• ASHP Midyear 2026: Personnel Placement Service (PPS)
• ASHP CareerPharm: 2026 Personnel Placement Service Packages