Is Georgia oversaturated with pharmacists?

[PreAA]

I'm currently debating on whether to become a pharmacist or not, and I currently live in the southeast. After graduating pharmacy school in 2018, my preference (I know, go ahead and start laughing!) would be to live/work in GA, but not in Atlanta. Even though I haven't read or heard much about the state of Atlanta's job market, I'm presuming it's just as saturated as the job markets in most big cities. But how have the other GA cities been faring?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[BMBiology]

By the time you graduate everywhere will be saturated including rural areas. There is an article on this forum that predicts 30% unemployment of new grads by 2015.

 

[VCU07]

Forget about it. Sorry, just being honest. I live in Atl.

 

[CardinalGirl210]

I'm not going to say no way like everyone else....but I hope you are going to a pharmacy school in Georgia and working as a tech already. You really need to differentiate yourself from your peers - the jobs are just getting scarce.

 

[PreAA]

Forget about it. Sorry, just being honest. I live in Atl.

I figured that ATL was saturated, but what about the rest of the state? Is it like that everywhere?

 

[PreAA]

I'm not going to say no way like everyone else....but I hope you are going to a pharmacy school in Georgia and working as a tech already. You really need to differentiate yourself from your peers - the jobs are just getting scarce.

Actually I haven't started a program yet, and I have never worked as a tech. I had planned on getting an internship during my P1 year..... but would that not be enough?

 

[DiomedeaExulans]

Getting an internship during P1 or P2 year is very difficult because there are few internships available and lots of students wanting to get them. If you really want to go into pharmacy you should first get a pharmacy teach position and work as a tech alongside pharmacists for a while to find out if you would even like this career. Like the above posters said, by the time you graduate in 2018 both urban and rural areas will be saturated, so going into pharmacy just for the money is a poor investment at this point. Here is a link to the above-mentioned article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3687123/

 

[CardinalGirl210]

Actually I haven't started a program yet, and I have never worked as a tech. I had planned on getting an internship during my P1 year..... but would that not be enough?

I just wouldn't bank on it. Don't depend on the summer of your p1 year to get your experience - get it now. I just saw 2-3 posts from p1s saying that they are applying for summer internship and not having any luck. Better to start as a tech and be promoted to intern than to apply with 90 other p1s at your school and a couple hundred from other schools. You can get your foot in the door easier by going to a store telling them that you are going to pharmacy school and would like a part time time job as a tech. The test is really easy - I took it after 2 weekends of studying.

 

[PreAA]

Well, I have shadowed pharmacists before and can definitely see myself doing the work... it's the saturation issue that is making me nervous. But my situation is kind of unique; if I end up going to pharmacy school, it will be with one of the "distance" programs (e.g., Creighton, LECOM), so I'll be able to spend most of my time during the fall & spring semesters in the city I live in (which, thankfully, does not have a pharmacy school -- although there is one in a city about 45 mins away). However, I will have to spend each summer semester living on/near campus taking lab coursess, etc. But what I was thinking was that, during my P1 year (definitely no later than the fall semester of the P2 year), I would secure an internship position *hopefully* at a local hospital, nursing home, etc. It sounds, however, like this plan might not be a particularly good one to have, or that it doesn't have a very high probability of being successful.

Forgive me for asking a stupid question, but if it's hard to attain an intern position during the P1/P2 years, then when are most pharmacy students actually getting them, especially if most of their time during their P3/P4 years is consumed by rotations?

 

[DiomedeaExulans]

Like I said, a few P1 and P2 students will get those positions, but the competition is intense. P3s usually cannot commit to an internship because rotations start the summer after P3 year. P4s are too tied up in their rotation schedule to do them. Therefore the two chances that you get to attain an internship are your P1 and P2 year. Most of the internships I’ve seen are summer internships, so if you have to be on campus during that time, you may not be able to do an internship at all.
Here is how this plan worked out for me. I’m in the top 10% of a class from a reputable COP in the Midwest. I’m also involved in several organizations on campus. I thought it was going to be able to secure an internship during my P1 or P2 year and to gain practical experience, like you want to do. I applied to a bunch of places and got several interviews that I did well on. None of this materialized into a position. From what I’ve heard from my classmates, you typically have to know someone at the place you are applying to to have a fighting chance. Just at my school, 15-20 people would interview for the same spot, and that is not counting the students interviewing from the 4 other schools in the area. Keep in mind all that was 2-3 years ago. Since then, new schools have opened and a greater number of students have entered the competition.
Seriously, forget the internships and get a tech job. It doesn’t only give you exposure to what pharmacy is really like. It allows you to get a foot in the door with a potential employer. The earlier the better, and it’s best to do it BEFORE entering pharmacy school. Some companies have policies where pharmacy students working as techs have to be paid more than career techs, therefore, obtaining a position after enrollment will become more difficult, because you will become more expensive as well as constrained by your school schedule/responsibilities as to what hours you can work.
If I were in your shoes, I would consider other fields. I like pharmacy, but not so much that I’d be willing to risk being $200,000 in debt and without a job. The cost-benefit of going to pharmacy school is too disadvantageous at this point, IMO.

 

[VCU07]

I figured that ATL was saturated, but what about the rest of the state? Is it like that everywhere?

The problem is the saturation is pushing new grads further and further out. I have a friend that graduated last year...she lives in Atlanta, but has to work in Macon! The saturation is just going to get worse with PCOM graduating their first class this year. If they plan on staying in GA I don't know where they will find employment. Its very frustrating and the opportunities in pharmacy aren't what they were even a few years back.

 

[cjb56]

I wonder if these projections take into account the openings that arise due to the female pharmacists taking extended maternity leaves, dropping to PT or PRN status for a few years while raising kids, dropping out for a few years completely to raise kids, or dropping out permanently to raise kids? These openings may rise due to the higher percentage of women than men who are entering the pharmacist work-force each year. Maybe not, but it's a thought given that the M/F ratio in most schools leans heavy to F.

 

[PreAA]

Well, this sort of thing definitely sucks to hear. Is the situation going to be any better in AL? What are the chances that, by the time 2018 rolls around, the job market will have gotten so bad that many of these schools have closed or reduced the number of students they accept? Or to put it another way, could things start moving in the opposite direction over the next 4 years?

 

[Angela1234]

It doesn't make a world of difference for those of us with years of experience who are unemployed. My friends aren't employed either, and one of them has 10+ years hospital experience. I'm on unemployment.

 

[thephoenician88]

It doesn't make a world of difference for those of us with years of experience who are unemployed. My friends aren't employed either, and one of them has 10+ years hospital experience. I'm on unemployment.

angela are you still unemployed? geez

 

[Angela1234]

After searching for 8 months, I was finally able to find a job that paid really low wages as a pharmacist. The company closed the pharmacy down last month, putting 50 people out of work