P1 student on the right track?

[Sugoi Travis]

First year is coming to a close and I'm wondering if I'm starting off on the right foot (I'm pretty sure I am, but I need affirmation). Details are below. Keep in mind that I plan to do retail with a potential second job after graduation.

- working two jobs (25+ hours/week), where one is interning at a major grocery store (not a big 3 chain)
- national member of pharmacy organization X and soon-to-be national member of pharmacy organization Y
- passing all classes (mostly B's, very few C's)

For my internship, I am very well-liked by the pharmacy manager and the assistant manager, as well as the store manager. At the minimum, I get 20 hours there per week and if I pick up extra hours (which is quite common), I can easily reach 25-30 hours which would put my weekly work rate at around 30+/week.

Biggest question I have is if there is any glaring hindrance. I don't know how much of a negative impact having 0 community service hours and not being fully involved with my organizations (I go to the meetings, but that's about it). My goal is to land a job offer with my grocery store chain along with a potential per diem/staff position at a hospital (not 100% necessary, but would be nice to snag) my cousin works at, which leads into my next question; despite my cousin being very well connected with the hospital, are my lack of high grades, small organizational commitment and no residency too much of a hurdle to get over with getting a position there? Lastly, if anything seems unrealistic/off, feel free to say so. Thanks and if you're reading this sentence right now, then I appreciate the time you took in reading this post.

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[bobanderson214]

It's honestly too early to say anything about what can/can't affect you getting a job 3 years from now. A lot of things can and will change over that time. Seems like you're doing well so far though.

My advice would be to keep working and helping out at your grocery chain and stay on the good side of management, especially the DM in charge of hiring you. My guess is 3 years from now, you'll be very very hard pressed to get even a PRN hospital job straight out of school, without residency.

 

[Carboxide]

First year is coming to a close and I'm wondering if I'm starting off on the right foot (I'm pretty sure I am, but I need affirmation). Details are below. Keep in mind that I plan to do retail with a potential second job after graduation.

- working two jobs (25+ hours/week), where one is interning at a major grocery store (not a big 3 chain)
- national member of pharmacy organization X and soon-to-be national member of pharmacy organization Y
- passing all classes (mostly B's, very few C's)

For my internship, I am very well-liked by the pharmacy manager and the assistant manager, as well as the store manager. At the minimum, I get 20 hours there per week and if I pick up extra hours (which is quite common), I can easily reach 25-30 hours which would put my weekly work rate at around 30+/week.

Biggest question I have is if there is any glaring hindrance. I don't know how much of a negative impact having 0 community service hours and not being fully involved with my organizations (I go to the meetings, but that's about it). My goal is to land a job offer with my grocery store chain along with a potential per diem/staff position at a hospital (not 100% necessary, but would be nice to snag) my cousin works at, which leads into my next question; despite my cousin being very well connected with the hospital, are my lack of high grades, small organizational commitment and no residency too much of a hurdle to get over with getting a position there? Lastly, if anything seems unrealistic/off, feel free to say so. Thanks and if you're reading this sentence right now, then I appreciate the time you took in reading this post.

Overall, I think you're doing ok. The biggest thing you need to change is to AVOID Cs. Cut down on the working hours and get mostly Bs with a few As, or mostly As with a few Bs, and that will take you farther if you want to do a residency. Cs are bad.

 

[molyhelp]

….if anything seems unrealistic/off, feel free to say so.
.

Congratulations !!! You are one of the few good pharmacy students who have good retail experiences and you are doing good job which can imply that you internally enjoy this life as community pharmacist knowing that you fit and can tolerate this hardship of retail pharmacy. Keep up the good attitude.

As a pharmacy student,
some schools of pharmacy forced free internship for 8 hours a week,
Plus school load of
7 hours class time for 4 days = 28 hours a week.
Studying at home for 5 hours a day for 5 days = 25 hours a week,
Total is around 61 hours a week of intense brain work.
Are you doing that already? Plus 25-30 hours of paid work?
If you do, you are doing 86-91 hours of intense brain work a week?

Your school may be having totally different schedule. The point is: you need to know about secrets of how other students are doing to keep straight A.

Perhaps you have absolute extreme financial needs to make money even though you maxed out on student loan already. If you need money that much then, I guess C sometimes is acceptable.

If you do not have shortage of money now, then perhaps rethink working and focus on avoiding C or even B grades.

Please remember you will be making about 60 dollars per hour for 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year, making around 125000 dollars a year. You monthly income will be able to cover monthly bill of student loan. Plus, you will have option to pay based on your income: if you get part time job, your payment will be less. If you have no job, you can defer payment and pay nothing for 6 months....During that time, I emphasize applying for any pharmacist job at any town with the focus of working for survival and you will have a job.

Overall,
for pharmacy career, your income will be at least 3.7 million dollars in 30 years...
and
for pharmacy career, your student loan will be at most 300 thousand dollars or at the cap of max student loan.

Again, You monthly income will be able to cover monthly bill of student loan.

The alarm at this point is not about making money. The alarm is C grade in P1.

About building connections, be aware of this case in Los Angeles:
In a national chain, Regional Budget had money to hire intern which allowed a certain District Manager to hire over 20 interns for the District. However, by graduation time, only 2 pharmacist positions existed and therefore, the District Manager had no position for the rest of 18 students; they were not given an offer in Los Angeles. Some of students were very shockingly disappointed because they sacrificed study time and slaved during pharmacy school with the hope to get pharmacist job in Los Angeles within driving distance from home. In short, students lost this connection in Los Angeles and had to go to other companies or relocate to other districts.

You are banking on getting the job with this District? Please be aware. Given the current market right now, the pharmacist looking for job should please find job with willingness to relocate to different town or state.
Job exist right now in remote areas and tough areas in California, you will have a job if you are willing to take whatever job that is offered and willing to relocate and commit to a contract of 2 years or more...If you apply to a job and announce this magic statement, you will have a job next month.

Within the state that I have pharmacist license, I am willing to take any job you offer at any town, at any shift. Can I please have a job soon so I can contribute as a competent pharmacist?

We all want the job that is right next door to walk to work. Well, that's virtually impossible.
We all want the job that is 5 minutes from home so we can drive shortly, with loving coworkers, loving managers that will never demand more for the same hours. Even better, sometimes, give us more hours for the same work....
Those dreams are nice...but reality is harsh nowadays...Sorry...

The mindset of willing to take a job anywhere and accepting "work for survival" means you will have a job and will have money to pay bill. Such job is not the ideal job that you would like, but you will have a job to pay bills.

With that in mind, if money from student loan is reasonable to survive now, I would focus in studying more and working way less until I have solid A grades.
Why?
If I am having a few C in P1, what will happen to me in P2?
Ask around and you will know: P2 is going to be much harder with faster waves of attack in the form of nonstop exams about disease states and treatments and side effects.... More realistic knowledge for pharmacist, AND at the same time, that knowledge requires more study time and the complexity of exam in P2 year will be way harder than P1 year.

Also, remember, the stake will be higher. If you fail near the end of P2, you will lose a lot. You will not be able to transfer classes to other pharmacy school and you will still owe over 100 thousands in student loan for expenses of 2 years....Not having solid battle plan to win exams in P2 means taking a HUGH RISK.

You have to be ready by getting more studying skills and time management skills.

Sorry to bring you to current issue, if we stumble on C grades in P1, something is not at standard level in our battle plan. Is that something we can improve? Only you know your own weaknesses and strengths. We all know we only have 24 hours a day, with losing 8 hours for sleep, 2 hours for biological needs of food, shower, hygiene...., how do we study better? Again, P2 is going to be way harder...please be ready...