Alright guys plssss dont roast me, I am just curious (and concerned for my future) cause I see these job saturation and unemployment comments a lot on this site. If these are true then how come schools that I am looking at like RU, Ohio State, Michigan, UMaryland, Albany, etc. advertise such a high employment after graduation rate (without accounting for those who go into fellowships and residencies).
I've always said in pharmacy, after graduation you can either have the job you want or you can live where you want. (This is a generality, before everyone chimes in that this isn't the case for them). Then after putting in some work, I feel that you can have the job you want where you want.
Here are some of the issues I've seen in the short time that I've been a pharmacist, and some things to consider as you are looking to get into the field:
How much you take out in student loans should never exceed how much you'll make in your first year out of school. The number of pharmacy schools that fit this rule of thumb is dwindling. Going to a private pharmacy school would be the equivalent of taking out 100k in student loans to be an elementary school teacher. Doesn't make a lot of sense does it?
Pharmacists make a lot of money, and are paid hourly. Due to that, most pharmacists that I know really like the money and work over 40 hours per week. This eats into the creation of more jobs. If a pharmacist works 40 hours a week at one job, then works another 20 at another job that cuts down on the amount of full time work available. And of coarse any company would be happy to do this since you don't have to pay benefits to a prn employee. If they can take a full time job and split it into two prn positions that they don't have to pay benefits for? It's a no brainer!
Another thing to consider is how many pharmacists are in the specific state that you want to live in and how many pharmacists are being pumped out by the schools in that state? Say there's 6000 pharmacists in your state, and there's 250 new pharmacists graduating every year in your state. Do you really feel like there will be an increase of ~4-5% of pharmacists jobs, EVERY SINGLE YEAR? Be that between new jobs created or by retiring pharmacists (which again, pharmacists really like money so few retire early).
As for the constant pessimistic view of the pharmacy profession constantly spouted on this forum, I think there's a few reasons for that. If you actually choose to go this path, you'll be required to take multiple professional development courses in school. I always thought they were so stupid, but after reading some people on SDN I've realized why they're required lol. On top of that, it used to be that people with the worst attitudes wouldn't get fired because there was such a shortage of pharmacists. Well now there isn't, so you can't be a bad worker or bad with the patients/coworkers and still get that paycheck every two weeks. These people tend to be really vocal. Also take some time to lurk on some of the other forums on SDN, you'll see that a lot of the complaints you read on the pharmacy sub forums aren't exclusive to pharmacy.
One of the biggest things I want to warn you about though is that it really was extremely hard for me to get my first job after pharmacy school. I sent out somewhere in the range of 300 applications to get the job I currently have. I was able to get that coveted inpatient position out in BFE. With inpatient experience on my resume, I'm on easy street now though. I make really good money, and have gotten several offers since then. That being said, the time between graduation and starting my job I seriously questioned whether pharmacy was a good idea or not. Give me another 6 months to forget that whole experience and I'm sure I'll be telling everyone that it was a great decision haha.
Anyways, best of luck in your decision.
