How Did You Escape Retail?

[croquemonsieur]

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[npage148]

Move to someplace not saturated. Apply to everything. Be willing to take a garbage shift (overnights)

 

[pharmdit]

Work on your interview skills and polish your resume. I applied for a staff pharmacist at a LTC pharmacy and was not chosen for a lack of relevant experience. However they liked me enough from the first interview that they asked me to come in to interview for an informatics position and I got the position. I think the main reason I got called back was because I made a good first impression.


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[owlegrad]

I applied to a bunch of places. The two interviews I got were both on the strength of a recommendation of someone who worked at the site. So hit up your network for leads.

 

[297point1]

I applied to a bunch of places. The got two interviews and they were both on the strength of a recommendation of someone who worked at the site. So hit up your network for leads.

You mean to say you aren't working for Big Red anymore? When did this happen?

 

[mustang sally]

I didn't go into retail in the first place, because everyone said it's too hard to get out once you do.

However, that's not very helpful so do what I did as a new grad...be willing to move wherever and do whatever job/shift you can find as mentioned above.

 

[owlegrad]

You mean to say you aren't working for Big Red anymore? When did this happen?

No I gave up the Red Devil if you can believe it! I am working in LTC now. I don't love the being on call and certain other aspects but it is sooooo much better than retail.

 

[beautifulrobot]

Network as much as you can - reach out to former classmates, go to a professional conference, get in touch with your school's career services if the school has them. Other than that, just be willing to move around the country and/or be willing to take a pay cut. You could also consider government jobs. For example, IHS has 42 job announcements for pharmacists on usajobs.gov right now, and the majority of those positions don't require a residency or prior experience. Occasionally pharmacist job announcements with the BOP (Bureau of Prisons) will pop up on usajobs.gov as well, but those don't come up as often. If you are seriously considering a job with IHS or BOP, DM me and I can give you some more information. For someone with no residency or clinical experience, you also have a decent chance at consumer safety officer jobs with FDA ORA (i.e. being an FDA inspector). FDA ORA just recently went through a hiring spree across the country, so you missed the boat on that one, but if that's something that interests you, you should keep an eye out on the FDA ORA recruitment roadshow.

 

[gwarm01]

I didn't go into retail in the first place, because everyone said it's too hard to get out once you do.

However, that's not very helpful so do what I did as a new grad...be willing to move wherever and do whatever job/shift you can find as mentioned above.

This was my exact thinking as well. All you ever heard was people complaining about retail work conditions, or getting burned out in five years and desperately trying to get a hospital job. I figured I'd cut to the chase and skip retail altogether. I applied to about 30 different hospital jobs. I went to Google to find every hospital within a 75 mile drive and applied to every open position. Tracked everything on a spreadsheet. I only got called in for three interviews, but I made damn well certain that I nailed those interviews. I got an offer for each one. Took the "dream job" of the three and it was the best choice I ever made and really opened a lot of doors for me. I had to work evenings, weekends, holidays for a good long while but I got a lot of quality experience.

You basically have to hustle and do whatever it takes, go wherever yo u

 

[cj98]

Be persistent about applying everywhere and also be aware that you're going to have to become very good at getting rejected. Consider moving to less saturated areas and be ready to accept weird shifts if you're going into a hospital. Stalk government websites and be prepared to take a paycut if considering these positions. Have a specific and well thought out reason for why you want a specific position, don't just give generic answers on cover letters, interviews...

 

[Rukn]

Retail is shi.t

I wouldn't blame you for leaving this"profession " if all you have is retail

 

[waiter]

how do you list references if you always worked retail?
don't want to list current retail references- they will know I'm searching elsewhere

 

[wagrxm2000]

Does no one here build relationships with their staff and up front? It always kills me how it seems 99% hate retail. Apparently everyone is in the bad stores or I'm just lucky enough to train my staff appropriately so we can multitask and chat throughout the day and enjoy what we do.

 

[owlegrad]

I'm just lucky enough to train my staff appropriately so we can multitask and chat throughout the day and enjoy what we do.

Good humble brag bro.

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[EML9255]

if you cant break out of retail completely in teh meantime i would try for an independent or smaller grocery chain

i just left wag a few weeks ago for a grocery chain and it is night and day

 

[Lnsean]

if you cant break out of retail completely in teh meantime i would try for an independent or smaller grocery chain

i just left wag a few weeks ago for a grocery chain and it is night and day

Jobs at grocery chains are also hard to come by because of low turn overs

 

[Rukn]

Does no one here build relationships with their staff and up front? It always kills me how it seems 99% hate retail. Apparently everyone is in the bad stores or I'm just lucky enough to train my staff appropriately so we can multitask and chat throughout the day and enjoy what we do.

the people I work with are so lazy and don't know the difference between left and right

 

[Lnsean]

the people I work with are so lazy and don't know the difference between left and right

It's a type of complacency

 

[wagrxm2000]

the people I work with are so lazy and don't know the difference between left and right

It should only take two years to keep the good ones and drop the bad ones. First review will document their problems, if they haven't improved the second will put them on an improvement plan, if still after 2 months there's no improvement they get fired.

You really don't have to wait even that long if the rxm does the job correct. Improvement plans can be started earlier. I would probably wait for at least one review though.

Walgreens now has the dh which makes it easier to find the good ones so you can hand pick the better workers up front instead of hiring people you don't know how hard a worker they are.

In the end its all on the pharmacist, a bad pharmacist will not motivate their staff to work hard and the pharmacy will be a mess.

 

[beautifulrobot]

In the end its all on the pharmacist, a bad pharmacist will not motivate their staff to work hard and the pharmacy will be a mess.

Yep, a lot of pharmacy students don't realize that in almost any job they will have as a pharmacist they will have to manage and lead people. The quicker they realize this, and take steps towards becoming good leaders, the better off they will be. Also it would be nice if pharmacy schools instilled some leadership skills into their students...

 

[noharmpharm]

Took a chance and lucked into a clinical LTC gig from retail when I was a new grad a few years ago. Still going strong in LTC.....and unlike dispensing I don't work weekends or holidays. Its definitely possible...and of course didn't need a residency.

 

[Rukn]

It should only take two years to keep the good ones and drop the bad ones. First review will document their problems, if they haven't improved the second will put them on an improvement plan, if still after 2 months there's no improvement they get fired.

You really don't have to wait even that long if the rxm does the job correct. Improvement plans can be started earlier. I would probably wait for at least one review though.

Walgreens now has the dh which makes it easier to find the good ones so you can hand pick the better workers up front instead of hiring people you don't know how hard a worker they are.

In the end its all on the pharmacist, a bad pharmacist will not motivate their staff to work hard and the pharmacy will be a mess.

If you work in the hood that all goes to hell and you just try and survive with what you are given

So much turnover that half this stuff doesn't even apply

Ultimately it's going to be hard to motivate people to work and take the crap that comes with he job for such little pay

 

[Rukn]

It's a type of complacency

can't blame them too much

half the staff is new

 

[Sine Cura]

Really to thrive in retail you have to have the motivation to want to learn on your own, actually retain information and apply that information, and move scripts efficiently. Those who expect to be spoon-fed everything will never be more than mediocre and/or lazy. This applies to both pharmacists and techs.

 

[Dr Wario]

The truly best way to escape retail is to become financially independent, the crap any job throws at you stinks a lot less when you know you can walk away. If we had more pharmacists that had control of their finances instead of being slaves to their next paycheck, we would have a lot of power to improve working conditions and patient care.

Would it not be amazing if we could stop making threads like this and come together as a community of healthcare providers that actually have the best interest of the patients at heart instead of being slaves to shareholders that have absolutely no idea why we exist?

 

[doublehh03]

Does no one here build relationships with their staff and up front? It always kills me how it seems 99% hate retail. Apparently everyone is in the bad stores or I'm just lucky enough to train my staff appropriately so we can multitask and chat throughout the day and enjoy what we do.

Do nearly 4000 scripts on 250 tech hours. Doesn't matter how great everyone is, everyone is hustling to get the tasks done. And still you will fall behind.

 

[owlegrad]

Do nearly 4000 scripts on 250 tech hours. Doesn't matter how great everyone is, everyone is hustling to get the tasks done. And still you will fall behind.

No you just need to motivate your staff! Stop being such a whiny windy!

 

[Rukn]

No you just need to motivate your staff! Stop being such a whiny windy!

Yeah just look how much they make

 

[Dr Wario]

Do nearly 4000 scripts on 250 tech hours. Doesn't matter how great everyone is, everyone is hustling to get the tasks done. And still you will fall behind.

To be fair, this is probably a 24 hour store, try 4500 when you are at the ghetto store open normal hours and fill 80+ CIIs per day.

 

[wagrxm2000]

I stand corrected apparently everyone here is at the high script stores or ghetto stores. I can't help you there but there are way more stores with normal script counts that don't have an excuse.

I'd leave retail too before going to a high script count store.

 

[WVUPharm2007]

I went from a crazy inner city, high volume store to floating about an hour outside Philly. It's like every day is easy mode. I've had exactly 1 bad day in three weeks. I'm so happy I'm no longer high-volume exclusive. GTFO of those sweat shops, peeps. I don't mind going to work every day at these 250 rx/day on Monday stores they got up here. And the expectations are so low. If you actually do something in addition to just verification, they think you are amazing. If you "lower" yourself to actually helping with QP, they shower you with praise and demand you come back. It's like bizarro world CVS, guys. ****.

 

[Lnsean]

Do nearly 4000 scripts on 250 tech hours. Doesn't matter how great everyone is, everyone is hustling to get the tasks done. And still you will fall behind.

Umm no...I'm going to need an action plan on why your metrics aren't up to par and how you plan to improve.

 

[doublehh03]

Umm no...I'm going to need an action plan on why your metrics aren't up to par and how you plan to improve.

To be honest with you, I rarely do action plans whether I meet target or not. My main focus is customer service b/c I care about taking care of the people who come into my pharmacy. But when it gets hectic, even the joy of talking to customers for more than 10 seconds you lose lol.

To be fair, this is probably a 24 hour store, try 4500 when you are at the ghetto store open normal hours and fill 80+ CIIs per day.

Yes we are 24 hours. Many days we have 3 techs peak hours and a station is always empty (whether it's drop off or production b/c we have to help lines lol).

But your situation seems worse. I hope you get at least 400+ tech hours MINIMUM with that volume at regular hours. I'm pretty strict with C2s. If we do more than 10 C2s a day, that's excessive lol.

 

[Lnsean]

To be honest with you, I rarely do action plans whether I meet target or not. My main focus is customer service b/c I care about taking care of the people who come into my pharmacy. But when it gets hectic, even the joy of talking to customers for more than 10 seconds you lose lol.



Yes we are 24 hours. Many days we have 3 techs peak hours and a station is always empty (whether it's drop off or production b/c we have to help lines lol).

But your situation seems worse. I hope you get at least 400+ tech hours MINIMUM with that volume at regular hours. I'm pretty strict with C2s. If we do more than 10 C2s a day, that's excessive lol.

More than 10 c2s a day means it's excessive? Let's be real here. I don't believe this.

 

[iphetamine]

Work on your interview skills and polish your resume. I applied for a staff pharmacist at a LTC pharmacy and was not chosen for a lack of relevant experience. However they liked me enough from the first interview that they asked me to come in to interview for an informatics position and I got the position. I think the main reason I got called back was because I made a good first impression.


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That's great! But what "triggered" them to call you for an informatics position? Did you tell them you're good with tech or have development/programming experience?

 

[pharmdit]

That's great! But what "triggered" them to call you for an informatics position? Did you tell them you're good with tech or have development/programming experience?

I'm not too sure. I had nothing on my resume indicating that I had relevant experience. They probably figured a young guy would pick up on the tech things quickly, which I believe I have. It's funny that they skipped over me for a staff position due to a lack of experience, yet now I'm part of operations management.


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[bobisnew]

Provide some tips, advice and hope for pharmacists trying to break into different practice settings. Share your story!

I've applied for residencies more than once, so I won't be doing that again.

I'd really like to make a career out of pharmacy, but if I can't find a job outside of retail, I'm going to walk away from the field and not look back.

Diversify your experience. Apply to hospital/LTC/Specialty Pharmacy jobs as per diem, be persistent. If stuck in retail - take or participate in initiatives, become manager, lead district/national projects and then incorporate it into your CV. Apply vigorously. Learn how to be a good manager of business and people. Network. Consider certifications, which do help.

It took me a while to get out of retail, note the grass isn't always greener. I managed a great team and a poor team, the people you work with and make work efficient and enjoyable make a huge difference.

I went from retail Graduation>Retail (RPhRXM)>hospital per diem (still there)>Managed Care>industry over the course of 5 years or so. Still working to be where I want be and will take some time.

 

[Carol is Alpha]

Provide some tips, advice and hope for pharmacists trying to break into different practice settings. Share your story!

I've applied for residencies more than once, so I won't be doing that again.

I'd really like to make a career out of pharmacy, but if I can't find a job outside of retail, I'm going to walk away from the field and not look back.

Sweetheart, here's your career. We grade grovelers have been chumps. Taking on debt to be over-worked retail slaves. What????
https://www.seekingarrangement.com/how-it-works/

So would this be a 1099 situation? Would I need an errors and omissions policy?

 

[SeekerofTruth]

Network as much as you can - reach out to former classmates, go to a professional conference, get in touch with your school's career services if the school has them. Other than that, just be willing to move around the country and/or be willing to take a pay cut. You could also consider government jobs. For example, IHS has 42 job announcements for pharmacists on usajobs.gov right now, and the majority of those positions don't require a residency or prior experience. Occasionally pharmacist job announcements with the BOP (Bureau of Prisons) will pop up on usajobs.gov as well, but those don't come up as often. If you are seriously considering a job with IHS or BOP, DM me and I can give you some more information. For someone with no residency or clinical experience, you also have a decent chance at consumer safety officer jobs with FDA ORA (i.e. being an FDA inspector). FDA ORA just recently went through a hiring spree across the country, so you missed the boat on that one, but if that's something that interests you, you should keep an eye out on the FDA ORA recruitment roadshow.

Hi Giga, I don't know if you can see this but I wanted to message you however I am blocked from doing so. Can you message me about IHS/BOP please?

 

[Rukn]

More than 10 c2s a day means it's excessive? Let's be real here. I don't believe this.

at the place I'm at we do like 20 gfd drugs a day


gfd drugs for walgreens are oxy, dilaudud, methadone ... the most addictive narcotics

 

[crossurfingers]

I went from a crazy inner city, high volume store to floating about an hour outside Philly. It's like every day is easy mode. I've had exactly 1 bad day in three weeks. I'm so happy I'm no longer high-volume exclusive. GTFO of those sweat shops, peeps. I don't mind going to work every day at these 250 rx/day on Monday stores they got up here. And the expectations are so low. If you actually do something in addition to just verification, they think you are amazing. If you "lower" yourself to actually helping with QP, they shower you with praise and demand you come back. It's like bizarro world CVS, guys. ****.

In my experience I actually found it a little bit more difficult when I floated at some of the slower stores because they cut tech help a lot. I find myself doing double duty trying to do tech duties and rph duties. I've been on shifts by myself with no tech help at a "slow" store and it was the worst. I didn't know where anything was and had no one to ask. The best store I've been to is a slow 24 hour store. They still have adequate techs because they are 24 hours but they were the slowest 24 hour store in the area so it was still manageable.

 

[wagrxm2000]

In my experience I actually found it a little bit more difficult when I floated at some of the slower stores because they cut tech help a lot. I find myself doing double duty trying to do tech duties and rph duties. I've been on shifts by myself with no tech help at a "slow" store and it was the worst. I didn't know where anything was and had no one to ask. The best store I've been to is a slow 24 hour store. They still have adequate techs because they are 24 hours but they were the slowest 24 hour store in the area so it was still manageable.

Your suppose to ask where everything is at before the tech leaves and if there's no tech there should be a list that tells you everything. Just leave a note with a suggestion for next time.

I'm at an average script store and can't even count the amount of times where I see a note saying they couldn't find the fridge log or know where to file the scripts. Just ask.

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

It should only take two years to keep the good ones and drop the bad ones. First review will document their problems, if they haven't improved the second will put them on an improvement plan, if still after 2 months there's no improvement they get fired.

You really don't have to wait even that long if the rxm does the job correct. Improvement plans can be started earlier. I would probably wait for at least one review though.

Walgreens now has the dh which makes it easier to find the good ones so you can hand pick the better workers up front instead of hiring people you don't know how hard a worker they are.

In the end its all on the pharmacist, a bad pharmacist will not motivate their staff to work hard and the pharmacy will be a mess.

Hate to break it to you, but you answered your own question.
You don't hate the corporate, retail stuff because you fit in.

Please don't take it as an insult

 

[wagrxm2000]

Hate to break it to you, but you answered your own question.
You don't hate the corporate, retail stuff because you fit in.

Please don't take it as an insult

Where was the insult and why do I fit in? Is it because I know what I'm doing?

 

[Momus]

The right question to ask is "how did you escape pharmacy?"

 

[CetiAlphaFive]

Where was the insult and why do I fit in? Is it because I know what I'm doing?

What I meant was that you posted basically an excerpt from a training manual, and posted "it's all on the pharmacist" with a completely straight face.

I have no doubt that you know what you're doing. The argument I'm making is that the things you're talking about doing aren't the practice of pharmacy.

If you like being an assistant manager, more power to you. Nothing wrong with being good at managing techs.

It seems there are easier ways to do that than a Pharm.D., though.

 

[wagrxm2000]

What I meant was that you posted basically an excerpt from a training manual, and posted "it's all on the pharmacist" with a completely straight face.

I have no doubt that you know what you're doing. The argument I'm making is that the things you're talking about doing aren't the practice of pharmacy.

If you like being an assistant manager, more power to you. Nothing wrong with being good at managing techs.

It seems there are easier ways to do that than a Pharm.D., though.

You got my title wrong, pharmacy manager.

 

[Lnsean]

You got my title wrong, pharmacy manager.

Are we this childish? Not that hard to be rxm at walgreens.

Besides, he's not that far off...you're really just an assistant manager. The real manager is the store manager up front. You're still under him.

 

[wagrxm2000]

Are we this childish? Not that hard to be rxm at walgreens.

Besides, he's not that far off...you're really just an assistant manager. The real manager is the store manager up front. You're still under him.

I'm being childish? He said assistant to belittle my position so naturally I had to correct him.

Oh and my store manager hasn't told me what to do since the day I arrived at the store. What's interesting is I'm giving advice out to help with up front. While anyone can be an rxm, very few do it well. I say all the time what it comes down to is training, a well trained staff will be adequately staffed and the day will go smoothly. What's the response I get? Either that I'm full of myself, its not possible with turnover, or what no one wants to say which is they are too lazy. The truth hurts.

Its amazing how easy it is to hit a nerve with people. No one wants to hear that a retail pharmacist loves his job when they dread going to work everyday.

 

[Sine Cura]

You did say you'd leave retail before taking over a high script count store. That's not being lazy (suggesting people who hate retail aren't putting the requisite effort in or work at bad stores), that's smart.