Hi all,
Bear with me here as I bring you up to speed for my question. I am a current P2 in pharmacy school and am having some serious reconsiderations for my career path. In high school, I shadowed a pharmacist and thought 'well this isn't too shabby' and from those 3 hours I foolishly decided to go into a 2+4 early assurance program. I didn't know what I really wanted out of a career back then when I was 16/17; all I knew was that I wanted a nice high paying, well respected career with some decent job security. I was good at math and science, as well as communicating with others, so pharmacy was a decent pick. I got a job as a tech and didn't mind it. I had this job through the second half of high school and still work there now. I have always had some sort of engineering in the back of my mind (though it has come to the forefront recently), as I am passionate about working on problems and creating unique solutions. Moving forward, I did my 2 years undergrad and didn't think much about the quickly coming pharmacy school transition. The P1 year was mostly basic science/physiology which I didn't mind. I find myself now in the P2 year, doing a TON of therapeutics and drug therapy classes. I'll be honest, I really don't care much for it as I am now realizing most of pharmacy school is just memorizing. I am not using my creative problem solving/critical thinking abilities and it is incredibly frustrating to me. This is where I've gotten to thinking about different career paths from my current situation. My most likely path as of now is applying for fellowships to work in the industry and hopefully finding a fit doing something with strategic planning (I know this is broad but I need to do more homework on what industry pharmacists do day to day). I have considered going on (after pharmacy school) to get a PhD in some sort of pharmaceutical sciences, or possibly even dropping back into undergrad to finish my Chem BS, to then move onto something bigger. I don't know what my best option is, as I have already paid quite a bit to pharmacy school, and am a decent portion through it. If anybody has advice on what I should do, it would be greatly appreciated in my time of questioning.
Thank you (especially if you read this giant paragraph)
P.S. I am growing more and more away from anything retail. Being 100% honest, if I could restart college all over again, I probably would just do Chem Eng or something. My only problem is I feel so behind now just to get a Bachelor's degree when I am just as close to getting a Doctor of Pharmacy. If you think that industry has the potential to offer the same level of satisfaction (in terms of project completion/design) then please let me know! I do not want to do anything drastic if I don't have to!
Another FYI, I am 2 classes away from completing a BS in Pharmaceutical Studies, as I have worked on the required classes this year and last year.
Again, sorry for getting long-winded.
Thanks
Bear with me here as I bring you up to speed for my question. I am a current P2 in pharmacy school and am having some serious reconsiderations for my career path. In high school, I shadowed a pharmacist and thought 'well this isn't too shabby' and from those 3 hours I foolishly decided to go into a 2+4 early assurance program. I didn't know what I really wanted out of a career back then when I was 16/17; all I knew was that I wanted a nice high paying, well respected career with some decent job security. I was good at math and science, as well as communicating with others, so pharmacy was a decent pick. I got a job as a tech and didn't mind it. I had this job through the second half of high school and still work there now. I have always had some sort of engineering in the back of my mind (though it has come to the forefront recently), as I am passionate about working on problems and creating unique solutions. Moving forward, I did my 2 years undergrad and didn't think much about the quickly coming pharmacy school transition. The P1 year was mostly basic science/physiology which I didn't mind. I find myself now in the P2 year, doing a TON of therapeutics and drug therapy classes. I'll be honest, I really don't care much for it as I am now realizing most of pharmacy school is just memorizing. I am not using my creative problem solving/critical thinking abilities and it is incredibly frustrating to me. This is where I've gotten to thinking about different career paths from my current situation. My most likely path as of now is applying for fellowships to work in the industry and hopefully finding a fit doing something with strategic planning (I know this is broad but I need to do more homework on what industry pharmacists do day to day). I have considered going on (after pharmacy school) to get a PhD in some sort of pharmaceutical sciences, or possibly even dropping back into undergrad to finish my Chem BS, to then move onto something bigger. I don't know what my best option is, as I have already paid quite a bit to pharmacy school, and am a decent portion through it. If anybody has advice on what I should do, it would be greatly appreciated in my time of questioning.
Thank you (especially if you read this giant paragraph)
P.S. I am growing more and more away from anything retail. Being 100% honest, if I could restart college all over again, I probably would just do Chem Eng or something. My only problem is I feel so behind now just to get a Bachelor's degree when I am just as close to getting a Doctor of Pharmacy. If you think that industry has the potential to offer the same level of satisfaction (in terms of project completion/design) then please let me know! I do not want to do anything drastic if I don't have to!
Another FYI, I am 2 classes away from completing a BS in Pharmaceutical Studies, as I have worked on the required classes this year and last year.
Again, sorry for getting long-winded.
Thanks