Career advice

[arachni]

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I graduated from pharmacy school in May 2012, but I have not been able to find a pharmacy job in Upstate New York or western Mass. (I am licensed in both states.) There seem to be way too few jobs and way too much competition. I have a background in computer science and I'm working part time doing that, and I would ultimately like to go into healthcare IT. If I pursued a full time programming job in this area, I could make good money... but I really feel like my pharmaceutical clock is ticking!! I am very much afraid that if I don't get a pharmacy job ASAP, it's kissing my opportunity goodbye because I have this huge gap on my resume where I haven't practiced pharmacy. Can anybody weigh in on this? If I back off the pharmacy job search and do programming, will I ever be able to get back into pharmacy?

I've only recently been applying to jobs in states I am NOT licensed in, in hopes there is more of a need elsewhere and more people willing to give a chance to someone with no experience (and not even fresh out of school anymore) and who needs to reciprocate. By "recently," I mean the past couple of months. Are there areas that have opportunities? Am I likely to be successful if I just keep at it?

 

[bacillus1]

Start per diem. After a few months to a year something full time may open up. Meanwhile, you can keep your part-time programming job.

 

[awval999]

Problem is that it is already "too late". Someone is going to question why you haven't found a job in 18 months. I would go the computer science/programming route and keep an eye out for pharmacy IT. I would also really consider applying for a PGY1/2 pharmacy infomatics residency this application cycle. There's a few out there. If you have good experience in computer science you may be able to land one of these residencies, you could play it off that IT/computer science is your passion and that's why you haven't found a pharmacy job yet.

 

[boriqua]

the job market is only going to get worse. why haven't you been able to find a job in the past 18 months? you need to go out and try to make friends with people who own pharmacies. The day of random pharmacist hires are dead. now a good portion of hires are from somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody.

 

[Ackj]

You are licensed in two full states, not just those limited regions you mentioned. The fact that you are looking in two states means you're open to moving, right?

 

[farmadiazepine]

craigslist. i swear by it. i personally worked in ~10 independents since I started checking it out.

 

[arachni]

Thank you for the feedback everyone. I am going to go the CS route, although I'm going to try to get something healthcare related. The idea of trying for a residency is one that interests me; we'll see how it goes. Yes, I'm open to moving but wasn't in the past... I think I waited too long to search nationally, especially since job searching is not a skill I have any talent in. I'll also take a look at craigslist.

 

[samisab786]

I graduated from pharmacy school in May 2012, but I have not been able to find a pharmacy job in Upstate New York or western Mass. (I am licensed in both states.) There seem to be way too few jobs and way too much competition. I have a background in computer science and I'm working part time doing that, and I would ultimately like to go into healthcare IT. If I pursued a full time programming job in this area, I could make good money... but I really feel like my pharmaceutical clock is ticking!! I am very much afraid that if I don't get a pharmacy job ASAP, it's kissing my opportunity goodbye because I have this huge gap on my resume where I haven't practiced pharmacy. Can anybody weigh in on this? If I back off the pharmacy job search and do programming, will I ever be able to get back into pharmacy?

I've only recently been applying to jobs in states I am NOT licensed in, in hopes there is more of a need elsewhere and more people willing to give a chance to someone with no experience (and not even fresh out of school anymore) and who needs to reciprocate. By "recently," I mean the past couple of months. Are there areas that have opportunities? Am I likely to be successful if I just keep at it?

have you considered Southcoast Mass? It's far from Western Mass, but I think there may be some opportunity there. I am doing a rotation at one site here and they said the are always looking. There are at least 3-4 pharmacists there who are doing health informatics and one tech who is considered the "IT tech". I see what they do sometimes and it really seems like a good mesh b/w pharmacy and computer science and your computer background would really help in that situation