What can a 1st year pharmacy student do to prepare for a possible future in industry? I'm in Los Angeles so there is Allergan, Amgen, and Baxter nearby....and probably smaller companies I am unaware of.
I'm in a pickle because I am not 100% sure I want to go into industry but I do want to explore the option. All the hospital internships around here hire 1st years and you have to promise to work for them all summers and breaks for the next 3 years because they're structured internships with projects, rotations to different departments, etc. I am also considering clinical but not sure which is why I brought this up. Retail *seems* like it would be fun for a few months (just the initial excitement of having people walk up to your counter and talk to them) but I can imagine myself getting bored with it after a while. I like industry because I'm project-oriented and I like the business aspect of it plus being involved with new drugs sounds exciting. I think I'm realizing that pharmacy is very task-oriented...you do same tasks everyday....but I'm more creative and want to have more flexibility and input in my work. Should I just focus on industry and look for industry summer internships? The thing is I need a certain amount of intern hours for the boards and it has to be in a pharmacy setting.
Also, my school has a joint PharmD/MS in Reg Sci...is this useful? You finish in same amount of time, you just take some classes during one or two summers and the program hooks you up with an internship (albeit unpaid b/c it counts for units) one summer. Is this worth an additional 30K? Thing is I am not that interested in reg sci...more interested in the more "clinical" roles pharmacists have in industry. But it seems like a lot of PharmD students at my school sign up for this degree with no intention of going into reg sci, it's just kind of an intro into industry, and a lot of industry professionals are in the program so it's great networking.
P.S. Sorry one last thought, would it be helpful to volunteer in research lab and get research experience? Specifically with a PharmD professor who does clinical pharmacology studies?
Thanks for your input