Pros and Cons of Pharmacy

[VP_Pharm2004]

Please list all the pros and cons of working as a pharmacist. Also list the number of years you have experience working in this profession. Fulltime faculty members, pharmacy students, and pre-pharmacy students on this forum need not reply.

I'll start

Years of experience: 10

Pros:
Six figure salary

Cons:
Loan payments (now 150k+ average) - good luck buying a house and getting approved for a mortgage
Deplorable work conditions in retail (few tech hours, high expectations, rude patients, bitchy DMs, etc.)
Difficulty in finding another job (market saturation: 40+ applicants applying for 1 potentially available position)
Decreased starting salary, little or no pay raise
No room for growth or advancement (opposite of the BS sold by pharmacy schools)
Lack of pride and prestige (opposite of the BS sold by pharmacy schools)
Forced retirement - old farts (50+) getting forced out of a job or no longer considered good candidates

etc. etc. etc.

NEXT

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[JustAnotherRph]

I actually like my job, have room for growth and advancement, and have much pride in my work. Not all of us are in retail.

 

[VP_Pharm2004]

I actually like my job, have room for growth and advancement, and have much pride in my work. Not all of us are in retail.

Care to share your experience and the pros & cons?

Thanks

 

[JustAnotherRph]

Years experience: 10 years

Pros:
Work from home
Monday through Friday with holidays off
4 weeks of paid vacation/sick time/personal days per year
Many areas of growth and improvement
Constant learning experience
Highly respected by other medical professionals within the company

Cons:
High level of pharmacy school debt
At my previous employer, I had horrible health insurance coverage
Not so great stock options or 401k plan but they are acceptable

 

[Wheresmyaricept]

Please list all the pros and cons of working as a pharmacist. Also list the number of years you have experience working in this profession. Fulltime faculty members, pharmacy students, and pre-pharmacy students on this forum need not reply.

I'll start

Years of experience: 10

Pros:
Six figure salary

Cons:
Loan payments (now 150k+ average) - good luck buying a house and getting approved for a mortgage
Deplorable work conditions in retail (few tech hours, high expectations, rude patients, bitchy DMs, etc.)
Difficulty in finding another job (market saturation: 40+ applicants applying for 1 potentially available position)
Decreased starting salary, little or no pay raise
No room for growth or advancement (opposite of the BS sold by pharmacy schools)
Lack of pride and prestige (opposite of the BS sold by pharmacy schools)
Forced retirement - old farts (50+) getting forced out of a job or no longer considered good candidates

etc. etc. etc.

NEXT

Working in retail for 5 years. I would say a pro is the mostly fixed schedule and having to only work at least every other weekend (sometimes every third weekend depending on the store). I know some hospital pharmacists that have to rotate schedules every week and sometimes have to get up at 3 am. No thanks.

The majority of pharmacists in my district are "old farts" and some have been with the company for 20+ years. They're the ones that stick around. Even the ones that "retire" still work 2-3 days a week because it's not a bad job. These new grads flake out after a couple months.

I have plenty of people come up to the counter and value my opinion as the pharmacist. If you give someone more than 2 seconds of your time and actually help them, they might respect you a little more.

Starting salary is decreased because they anticipate losing new hires to other jobs. Once you reach full time and actually get a store, your pay is about where it should be. But if you've been here for 10 years, why are you concerned about starting salary?

There really isn't saturation where I am. We hire all year round. Probably hire about 20 new grads per year. Jobs are always available between the chains, and even independents need help. We just had 5 long time pharmacists leave for other jobs (other chains, marijuana dispensaries) so we hired some from another chain, recent grads that just got licensed after taking some time off, and even someone whose pharmacy shut down because he wasn't doing enough scripts to stay in business.

Working conditions could be better, but with reimbursement rates dropping and price of generics going up, how else is the company expected to make a profit? No profit means no job.

But it sounds like you're just a miserable person who makes your own work conditions extra miserable. I've worked in stores with no tech help that do 150 a day and I've worked in stores that do 500 a day with plenty of help. Your attitude heavily influences your own experiences.

 

[OSU2017]

VP, I've seen your posts bashing schools and students that don't meet your exacting standards.

If you're so high and mighty, with your infinite wisdom, why didn't you pursue a pharmacy career with good work conditions and marketable skills? There are segments in pharmacy with better opportunities for growth.

Were you perhaps too myopic to realize there's not much room for growth in retail?

Sounds like you put yourself into this current situation and have no one else to blame.

 

[PumpkinSmasher]

Years of experience: 4
In terms of my experience as a pharmacist, the following:

Pros:

• Weekdays 8 to 4, no call/nights/weekends/holidays
• Desirable metro area, where plan to stay longterm
• clinic/office environment so able to take lunch and a lot of schedule flexibility
• Autonomy as sole primary care pharmacist in clinic, no dispensing duties and no tech supervision
• Clinically challenging and respect among other clinicians in clinic
• Ability to really spend time with patients and build patient relationships through collaborative drug mgmt protocols
• Ability to build strong relationships with other providers in clinic
• Precepting pharm students
• 6 weeks sick/vacation plus holidays
• Great health benefits and retirement package
• Supportive medical/pharmacy directors

Cons:

• Ever increasing debt burden for today's pharmacy students
• Ever increasing saturation
• limited number of primary care pharmacist positions
• Growth within ambulatory role is limited, outside of being clinical coordinator

I do not recommend pharmacy as a career for undergrads. Although, I have been very lucky and I love the doors pharmacy has opened for me, I come to work with a smile and more often than not leave with one too I used to think, I did this all on my own through networking and hard work but I realize that there has been a substantial amount of luck as well and good timing to allow me to be where I am today.

 

[VP_Pharm2004]

If you're so high and mighty, with your infinite wisdom, why didn't you pursue a pharmacy career with good work conditions and marketable skills? There are segments in pharmacy with better opportunities for growth.

Were you perhaps too myopic to realize there's not much room for growth in retail?

Sounds like you put yourself into this current situation and have no one else to blame.

When I graduated, I was concerned about student loans and how I would pay them back in a timely manner. I wanted them paid off fast ideally. Thus, I didn't complete a residency. Retail seemed like the best option and I thought I would have a easier transition from a retail intern to retail pharmacist. At no point was I expecting a million new pharmacy schools to open up and have graduates flood the market. This has resulted in corporate greed... and retail work conditions are far worse than they've ever been. Obviously nowadays they can easily replace you with a new grad if you complain about tech help, increasing demands, etc.

If only I can go back in time...

 

[knight on horse]

Where are these amazing careers

Time to get me some no weekend jobs

 

[spacecowgirl]

Years: 8 (whoa!), 7 post-residency as hospital clinical pharmacist

Pros:
4 day week, done by 5 pm
Approx one weekend per month at reduced hours
Only 2 holidays/year
7 weeks PTO/year inclusive of the holidays I don't work
Nice salary, equal to or higher than retail (same per hour as my retail float)
Support from admin
Good relationship with doctors and nurses
Lots of autonomy
Lots of opportunity for growth within my position
Lots of flexibility - leaving for appointments, taking lunches every day even if it's not always when I want
Challenging - I learn every day
Wonderful pharmacists and techs as coworkers

Cons:
Call, but it's very manageable, I hesitate to list it as a con
Some "interesting" personalities to contend with
Glacial pace of change is frustrating
I'm getting a little tired of doing most of the precepting - not really a con of my job either, just burnout on my part
Student loan debt
I can't work from home in my jammies