Chicago Job Market
Started by FuturePharm21
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I would put OC as # 1 and SD possibly as #2
Oh Chicago pizza, how I miss thee
Now you made me crave some deep dish.
It's pretty much impossible to get as job in a major metro right now without really good connections and a favor.
Hmm, when you say Chicago, do you mean the city itself, or the surrounding suburbs also (maybe 45 min or so out)?
Chicago and suburbs
Hey Future!
So I'm a recent grad in Chicago area. I can't speak on behalf of the market as a whole as I'm not a Pharmacoeconomist! But, I speak to LOTS of people from all the schools graduating, and my class mates and mentors/preceptors and have my personal experience, so here goes.
So I worked for Target for 3 years in Pharm school. Expecting the job market would be horrible, Target held interviews for 2012 positions in October 2011. Positions were filled by the end of October 2011 for 2012. As far as I was told, 9 positions for the entire Chicago area were offered and have been filled.
Walgreens had a hiring freeze up until very recently. One of my classmates who has worked for them for 11 years, was NOT offered a job. Few positions were offered, no 40 hour positions were offered as far as I know, most were 24-32 hours.
CVS was the big winner in the Chicago area, they offered more jobs than anyone I know of 8-10 of my class mates alone who got jobs (with high salaries) in the Chicago area. The salaries I hear from a classmate I trust was up to $128k per year (that was his salary).
Other companies followed suit offering very few jobs.
Overall, the market is definitely one of the worst in the country. This is expected to get exponentially worse, as 3 new pharmacy schools have yet to have graduates graduate within 30 miles of the Chicago area so the total amount of schools within the Chi-town metropolitan area will be 6 by 2016.
A bright side to Chicago is that it probably leads the nation in pushing for Pharmacists as residency certified and increases its residency positions exponentially each year. I dont know if this will necessarily lead to more jobs, but again, its something good about Pharmacy in Chicago.
I do know several of my classmates that have gotten jobs, its about half and half. Half in Chicago, half outside of Chicago (or Illinois in general). Most of them who have gotten jobs have known someone to give them the job (i.e. maybe they had a great rotation and the people were impressed so they were offered the job from the rotation they did with them).
Anyways, hopefully this helps!
So I'm a recent grad in Chicago area. I can't speak on behalf of the market as a whole as I'm not a Pharmacoeconomist! But, I speak to LOTS of people from all the schools graduating, and my class mates and mentors/preceptors and have my personal experience, so here goes.
So I worked for Target for 3 years in Pharm school. Expecting the job market would be horrible, Target held interviews for 2012 positions in October 2011. Positions were filled by the end of October 2011 for 2012. As far as I was told, 9 positions for the entire Chicago area were offered and have been filled.
Walgreens had a hiring freeze up until very recently. One of my classmates who has worked for them for 11 years, was NOT offered a job. Few positions were offered, no 40 hour positions were offered as far as I know, most were 24-32 hours.
CVS was the big winner in the Chicago area, they offered more jobs than anyone I know of 8-10 of my class mates alone who got jobs (with high salaries) in the Chicago area. The salaries I hear from a classmate I trust was up to $128k per year (that was his salary).
Other companies followed suit offering very few jobs.
Overall, the market is definitely one of the worst in the country. This is expected to get exponentially worse, as 3 new pharmacy schools have yet to have graduates graduate within 30 miles of the Chicago area so the total amount of schools within the Chi-town metropolitan area will be 6 by 2016.
A bright side to Chicago is that it probably leads the nation in pushing for Pharmacists as residency certified and increases its residency positions exponentially each year. I dont know if this will necessarily lead to more jobs, but again, its something good about Pharmacy in Chicago.
I do know several of my classmates that have gotten jobs, its about half and half. Half in Chicago, half outside of Chicago (or Illinois in general). Most of them who have gotten jobs have known someone to give them the job (i.e. maybe they had a great rotation and the people were impressed so they were offered the job from the rotation they did with them).
Anyways, hopefully this helps!
James --
Thanks for the ground report. It'll help other pre-pharms.
Thanks for the ground report. It'll help other pre-pharms.
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We don't need any exponential increase in residency positions. There are enough slots to supply the vacancies. There aren't new health system pharmacist jobs to accommodate increasing pharmacy residents. The only area of increased demand is in qualified educators for the new diploma mills. And I say that with a deep pain on my side. And I emphasize "qualified."
Might just be gas
No, not just. In addition to.
Agreed. Now, if anything, there is a 'flight to residencies', when only 5-6 years ago it was difficult to fill spots, you now have at least double the number of applicants for the number of open spots. This cannot be good, as this only further contributes to the problem by delaying the incremental increase of grads over the past several years as more have gone into residencies and have been effectively deferred from the job market a few years (much like the PharmD switch had a similar, but much farther reaching, effect). This will not harm the market that much, but will be attributable to 10-20% greater pressure/diminishment of the availability of positions in the coming years. And, as Z stated above, there just aren't positions being created for the incoming grads (maybe some in Onc and ID), but for the most part clinical positions are being highly scrutinized in the present economic climate (several positions were eliminated from attrition at my instituition, or maybe not entirely 'eliminated' but they won't be filling them until the dust has settled on healthcare reform and CMS reimbursement changes).
Hey amicable, yes. I have found a job, and very thankful for that. As for Chicago State, yes, I did go there. Great education, but the lifestyle of the student is in my opinion the worst thing about the school. Class 8-5 and very stressful curriculum. Again, in my opinion, education taught in class is exceptional though, but the long hours are unnecessary and really need to be strongly considered before going to the school. Also we matched more people percentage wise for residency this year than any other school in Illinois after only our first year.
Congrats! I know we haven't conversed on here directly James, but I've seen you on here for years, so I'm glad to hear you got something right out the gate👍
Oh cool, I'm glad you found a job. Hopefully I will find one too upon graduating (next 4 years). I don't know if I should do residency, because a pharmacist friend of mine didn't find a hospital job after the residency and had to go to retail, at a time when most of his classmates have had 1 year experience in retail.
One thing I'm not sure about is starting work first then doing the residency later. Do you know if the residency has to be done only after graduating or any pharmacist can do one regardless of what time he/she graduated?
does anyone in the chicago area have a part-time or per diem job in addition to a full time job??? i'm asking cuz im looking....
Tongie: Thanks very much! Nice to see people rooting from you, even from afar..
Hey Amicable, yea residency can be done at anytime, its not uncommon to see people who went and worked for 1-2 years go back and apply and attain a residency. Just be knowledgable about your options before making a decision as a residency is still not meant for everyone to complete depending on what career path you decide to take. I'm sure you'll get all the info necessary as you start your career to make a wise decision. Best of luck!
That's disgusting. This is how pizza is supposed to be:
Just like everything else in New York. Bland, overrated, and proclaimed by the yolkels from Manhattan to be the best thing ever.
Lombardi's - Pathetic.
Di Fara - Meh.
Totonno's - Mediocre.
Then I just stopped caring. Those are supposed to be some of the best. They just sucked. Pizza in suburban Philly is better. Which is just sad. Of course, that's because they actually offer it in Sicillian style rather than "1mm of bland crust with a teaspoon of sauce and a few speklings of cheese" like you get in good ol NYC.
So I'm applying for jobs this summer and I work as a pharm intern at Walmart in St Louis but I will gladly switch companies if I can get a job in Chicago. How is the job market now? I'm graduating in May 2014 and want a 40 hour job that pays at least 90 grand....
Well isn't that the starting salary for recent pharm grads? I mean I don't want to work for 60 more hours and earn less than 100 grand when I have so much debt to pay and I entered the field 6 years ago when the profession was in demand and most had full time positions around 120 grand....
Anyone have recent input?
Anyone have recent input?
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Actually one of the best pizzas I had was in Philly, pizzeria near Jefferson called Brookyn pizza or something.
WVU, hit me up next time you go to NYC. Lombardis used to be good but their quality has gone down making them a tourist trap.
I like Di Fara but the wait is insane.
There are other great pizzerias like Luzzos in the village, Grimaldis in Brooklyn, Nick in Forest hill, etc. What I am trying to say is avoid the travel guides and ask the locals.
A good pizzeria is hard to find. Most people dont appreciate good pizza. For example, I ve been to many pizzerias where the pizza comes out oily, indicating that bad cheese was used (oil and water dont mix, so the oil comes out when cooked). At difaras, the oil on the pizza is from the fragant olive oil they drizzled on at the end which adds another level of taste.
That's disgusting. This is how pizza is supposed to be:
👍 75 cent/dollar pizza all the way. haha
Does anybody who work for Wags have any insight on this? Is POWER affecting it???
I know that CVS is expanding in most metro areas. I think the number is about 3-5 stores per major metro area/region. This translate to about 12 pharmacist positions. In addition, there are probably another 25 openings for store growth, retirements, maternity leaves, etc meaning that we are hiring 40 grads this year. Pretty scary considering that in NYC alone, we are churning out 1000 grads a year, not including grads from 5 other pharmacy schools in our state.
In 2010, we opened/acquired 183 stores and 162 stores in 2011. In 2012, it went down to only 150 stores. I can only imagine the trend going down. The reason why is that the company is more focused on clinics this year. If they spend money on clinics, it is harder to get money to open new stores. This might change because commercial real estate is cheap. Banks are losing money, Borders went bankrupt, many major retail chains like Best Buy and Barnes and Nobles are closing stores, and our profit margins are bigger from more generics in the market. My 2 cents...
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2 bros by LIU? Lol
No one answered my question.....
How is the job market in Chicago and Midwest?
How is the job market in Chicago and Midwest?
Bump
