Is it worth becoming a pharmacist anymore?

[LovePoisoned]

Hi guys, I have been doing a research recently, regarding marketing, pharmacy, and medicine. I am currently residing in Europe. From that thread and another one (dating back to 2013) I have drawn the conclusion that pharmacists are no longer 'highly' compensated. I judge on the fact that this career is no longer recommendable - tremendous student debts, too much unemployment, few development options. And then there was this baiting conflict between medical and pharma students regarding compensation/prestige. Can't pharmacists get employed as pharma marketing experts (recruiters, representatives, etc.), or is this a field for economists only? The market has said its word, in a world full of consumers the providers are the winners, I guess.
Have a nice day!

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[Lnsean]

Hi guys, I have been doing a research recently, regarding marketing, pharmacy, and medicine. I am currently residing in Europe. From that thread and another one (dating back to 2013) I have drawn the conclusion that pharmacists are no longer 'highly' compensated. I judge on the fact that this career is no longer recommendable - tremendous student debts, too much unemployment, few development options. And then there was this baiting conflict between medical and pharma students regarding compensation/prestige. Can't pharmacists get employed as pharma marketing experts (recruiters, representatives, etc.), or is this a field for economists only? The market has said its word, in a world full of consumers the providers are the winners, I guess.
Have a nice day!

No, those roles require personality, people skills, and charisma. Why would they hire pharmacists for that role? It is far easier to educate marketing people on a few products that they'll be responsible for than it is to hire pharmacists and teach them a personality trait.

Of course anything is possible. I know some people who are great at marketing who just so happen to have PharmDs. They work as medical liasons (which is your best bet since it usually requires advanced degree)...so it's possible...just not as common as you think. They went back for their MBAs too.

 

[lord999]

Hi guys, I have been doing a research recently, regarding marketing, pharmacy, and medicine. I am currently residing in Europe. From that thread and another one (dating back to 2013) I have drawn the conclusion that pharmacists are no longer 'highly' compensated. I judge on the fact that this career is no longer recommendable - tremendous student debts, too much unemployment, few development options. And then there was this baiting conflict between medical and pharma students regarding compensation/prestige. Can't pharmacists get employed as pharma marketing experts (recruiters, representatives, etc.), or is this a field for economists only? The market has said its word, in a world full of consumers the providers are the winners, I guess.
Have a nice day!

Well, it's different in Europe. Depending on the country, a Deutsche apotheker/in or a French pharmacist have very, very different career paths than the Americans. Hell, French pharmacists are actually the forensic and clinical pathologists there (a long MEDICAL specialty in the US) and are paid accordingly. A UK/Commonwealth pharmacist is not usually clinical, but has quite a number of other benefits dealing with the NHS or equivalent service. I won't make certain national jokes here, but they are the only sorry groups in the traditional European bunch mainly due to no jobs in their home countries (if you are a European, they are the countries that you do make the jokes about are the same ones that have bad healthcare practices). Also, 'highly' compensated is relative. I do not know of anyone at the full-time level in the US that make less than the median household national income in the US (~50k). Most pharmacists I know (and I know most of them in two states) make between $90k and $210k (and that's real takehome as salary only counts normal work).

You're also on the board which has a very extreme position on the subject. Most pharmacists think a lot less about their navels and just work. So, when you think of a horse, do you think about a pasture or glue? The unhappy ones on this board are correctly worried that there is a professional abattoir scenario upcoming in this business because we don't think. If I were them, I'd actually become the capitalist and own the abattoir (which is something I am doing on the side). Most of us on this board are thinking about the greener pastures than waiting for the inevitable stunner to the head. That crisis usually happens to most mid-career pharmacists who don't think about why they work after they make enough money to not owe anyone. But do we care about the profession, I'd say largely no. This is really a support group for those who are planning for the hard times knowing that the profession won't save them. You need to save yourself.

 

[PikminOC]

I have friends in pharmacy school who are looking at $100K cars and million dollar homes that they plan to buy few years after graduation. They've been told that ACA will provide more avenues for them to become primary care providers, which will eventually fetch them higher salaries ranging from mid $200K plus.

Now that it's 2016, how's that working out?

 

[PikminOC]

Not medicine, hopefully our leaders are smart enough to see what happened to law, pharm, etc and stop opening new schools.

The government regulates and pays for medical residency, so that number is relatively fixed. Doctors have no say in it. It's the government.

Nowadays many more people are graduating med school, Caribbean, etc, new schools popping up, but this just increases the competition for a fixed number of residency slots. Some people are sol.

 

[PikminOC]

Pharmacist salary is the next U.S. financial bubble. The entire system is broken and unsustainable. The Demand of pharmacy services is increasing but the conditions under which the service should be provided are so adverse that it is not economicaly viable for any company or independent. As in any bubble crisis, the bubble is in need to deflate and the whole system needs to reset from cero. In one hand you have big salaries for pharmacist and in the other you have the PBMs trying to squeez every penny out from the service. The bubble deflation is going to star with the job over saturation we are going to face within the next 2 or 3 years. New graduates are going to be desparate to acept jobs for 25.00 dolars per hour or less and the big chains are going to take advantage of that. I see future in pharmacy but not as shiny as it used to be. Those who have a job, try to keep good care of it and plan to stay out of debt for when the salary deflation become a reality. For those already studing under student loans, sorry there is not much you can do but to do what many americans are doing now, work 2 jobs in order to pay off the loans. Sadly the truth.

Now that it's 2016, what do you think?

 

[jjkz]

Another thing:

While on my APPE rotations, I noticed loan repayment programs are virtually limitless for nurses, PAs, physicians. Pharmacist loan repayment programs are a handful.

I don't understand, aren't the same loan repayment options (IBR, REPAYE, etc) available to all students with loans regardless of course of study?

 

[jjkz]

DON'T GO TO PHARMACY SCHOOL! BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE! I'm a P3 now so I'm in too deep to quit, but man I wish I had gotten better advice or did more research about the job market. Definitely my fault. I have talked many people out of going to pharmacy school. It's no longer a good career. I'm going graduate with 150K in debt and who knows where I'll find a job. I definitely won't find a job in San Diego, where all my family and friends live. I'll probably be miserable thousands of miles away in a s*** area. I should have sucked it up and gone to med school. That's my advice to you. Go to med school or become a PA. Just trying to be real with some of you young folks thinking of applying.

In 2017, do you still feel the same way? We're u able to find employment in your desired city of San Diego? I'm a prepharmer whose just got accepted into two pharmacy schools...heavily contemplating to go to pharmacy or not.

 

[ldiot]

I really don't understand all the depressing comments. Is the job market hard? Yes but so is every other job in America. If you're going into a profession for the sole reason that you'll be guaranteed a job then you're probably someone I would avoid trying to hire.

Nobody is saying that they deserve a guaranteed job... people are just looking for security. Going six figures into debt is a risk. And I realized this post is ancient.

 

[gwarm01]

I think a lot of people feel depressed early in their career these days because you are sold a false bill of goods by your school. It's difficult to process that the job you spent four years preparing for isn't the job you'll actually be doing. I remember feeling a lot of disappointment when I first started.

 

[GrapePropel]

~320k of loan debt,

Woahhhhhhhhh what the heck! Did you go to a steak house eatery every night and have hookers and an oz of cocaine for dessert every night? How is it possible to even get that much debt for a pharmacy school even if you didn't get any scholarship for undergrad, i'm so confused. O.O You realize that with interest you will be extremely lucky if you pay that debt off before 70 year old, right?

I always thought 200,000 USD was near the max one could borrow for 4 years undergrad + 4 years pharm school. I went to community college for undergrad and worked so my undergrad was free.

 

[GrapePropel]

I think a lot of people feel depressed early in their career these days because you are sold a false bill of goods by your school. It's difficult to process that the job you spent four years preparing for isn't the job you'll actually be doing. I remember feeling a lot of disappointment when I first started.

A ton of pharmacists i have talked to feel this way. I'm confused though. Like they worked as Techs. Didn't they see what the pharmacist did everyday? how could their idealized perception of what a pharmacist does not have been corrected by the reality of seeing what a pharmacist does everyday at work?

 

[PharmtoCS]

I always thought 200,000 USD was near the max one could borrow for 4 years undergrad + 4 years pharm school. I went to community college for undergrad and worked so my undergrad was free.

Go to a private school for undergrad followed by one of the extremely overpriced schools in California. You can easily exceed $400k in this case.

 

[GrapePropel]

Go to a private school for undergrad followed by one of the extremely overpriced schools in California. You can easily exceed $400k in this case.

How can people be this irresponsible with money? Do they literally do no research or cost-benefit analysis? Incredibly lazy people. If you spend more than 200,000 USD on your pharmacy education you are probably a reckless person and unfit to be a pharmacist.

 

[PharmtoCS]

How can people be this irresponsible with money? Do they literally do no research or cost-benefit analysis? Incredibly lazy people. If you spend more than 200,000 USD on your pharmacy education you are probably a reckless person and unfit to be a pharmacist.

Because they can pay off $400k in 3 years. $400k/$133k salary = 3 years. (oops, forgot about living expenses, taxes, interest on loans, etc.)

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[GrapePropel]

Because they can pay off $400k in 3 years. $400k/$133k salary = 3 years. (oops, forgot about living expenses, taxes, interest on loans, etc.)

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One way they could make money is to team up with other unemployed pharmacists and make their own pharmacy school. They they can get money from their new student's tuition to pay off their own federal loans. Their new students after gradtuating could go on and each start their own schools to get their own students so they can make money off them. Oh wait this already started happening ten years ago.

 

[PharmD.girl]

Loans aside... I love being a pharmacist! I do have to say that I long for the time when I graduated school, had at least 10 offers, was able to obtain a position very close to home with my first choice company and had a $20k sign on bonus to boot. If you love learning about pharmacology and want to make a significant improvement in your patient's outcomes- go ahead and do it! Even with the job market now, I would still do it all over again. (My only regret is getting foot and ankle surgery that left me unable to stand from severe tarsal tunnel syndrome and RSD, causing me to have to resign from my beloved PIC position in retail and leave my patients for a desk job.)