You're really off the mark. I don't think you understand why you get underneath people's skin. I can't tell if you are intentionally twisting people's words to fit your narrative, or if this is really what you think people are saying to you. Allow me to address a few of your points and attempt to clarify where appropriate.
Regarding the Indeed job search site -- actually perform a search pharmacist jobs, briefly click through the first 5 pages of jobs (or more, if you want), and tell me how many of those job ads state that they are actually willing to hire pharmacists who don't have experience or haven't completed a residency...
I'm not going to take the time to do this, but I'm sure most of the hospital jobs are requiring it. Probably the same general rules as everywhere else.. city hospitals require PGY1 or experience, smaller or more remote hospitals ask but don't require it.
and among the job listings that DO state that new grads with no experience are considered, how many of them are in BFE? Practically all of them; I have lived in GA my whole life and saw pharmacist jobs in areas of middle/south GA I've never even heard of!
Listen up, Mr. BFE. You live in a self-described undesirable town in Georgia. It's the American Deep South. You don't get any more BFE than that! I don't know how well traveled you are, but you sound like you need to expand your horizons. You may be surprised at the wealth of culture and experience you may find. I'm still laughing that someone from Georgia considers the midwest to be BFE when there are so many large cities with great culture, good people, and plenty of things to do. I'd give you some slack if you lived in Atlanta, but just barely. Even ignoring Chicago, you have cool cities like Minneapolis and Milwaukee. Small but pleasant cities like Madison.
But I get it. It's not about the fact that my plan B career goals (AA/PA) lead to much better job prospects that offer overall more lucrative salaries, benefits, and PTO packages; instead, everyone wants to insist on refusing to acknowledge that yes, AAs really DO have more lucrative compensation packages than pharmacists and instead focus on the fact that I'm not re-enrolled in the program yet.
I think you'll find the majority of people here don't have their heads in the sand. The kneejerk reaction to any post asking if someone should go to pharmacy school is "NO, go be a PA."
People are focusing on your personal situation because you are making it personal. When the pharmacist from Georgia mentioned having a full-time job and PRN position, you didn't just say "cool, congratulations." You have to make excuses for why they are an outlier, suggest they aren't making much money, then brag that you are going to be making so much more than them. Can't you see why people might want to tell you to put up or shut up?
But that doesn't change the fact that AAs/CRNAs have better careers because of all the aforementioned factors. In fact, everyone's insistence on stating that I won't ever get accepted to AA school again is an ironic testament to the fact that anesthetists have more desirable careers than most pharmacists, because it's obviously competitive to get accepted to AA school for a reason!
Funny that you seem to dwell on one or two people saying you can't do it when most people have wished you good luck and encouraged you down that path. If this is how you conduct yourself offline I would seriously take time to reflect on what kind of person I want to be.
On the other hand, what if I said I wanted to re-apply to pharmacy schools? You know for a fact that I would absolutely get accepted to at least several pharmacy schools, and why? Because pharmacy school admissions is not competitive. And why isn't it competitive? Because "pre-health" applicants who actually have options no longer consider pharmacy to be a desirable career worth pursuing!
I agree. Pharmacy schools are really good at taking money and ruining lives. They'll gladly accept someone who they know is a poor candidate. They get your tuition money whether you pass the NAPLEX or not.
Posting here and saying "It doesn't matter how much better off you say AAs/CRNAs are than pharmacists, because at least the pharmacists here (well, some of them) actually have professional jobs and you don't" is kind of like visiting a restaurant with someone and saying "It doesn't matter, because the salad is good" in response to someone who says that the steak sucks. How does the salad being good change the fact that the steak sucks?
I see it more like someone bought a new car and was really proud of it, then you ride up on your busted bicycle and tell them it's ugly. It's rude and insulting. Not dissimilar to pre-pharm and pharmacy students coming on here and trying to tell us what it really means to be a pharmacist. You are in no position to insult anyone, and even if you were, why would you want to?
And yes, I understand that the 2nd/3rd years of pharmacy school are much more difficult than the first one; in fact, that's one of my reasons for quitting now. The next two years of pharmacy school would've been difficult because they would've required me to learn and apply more advanced clinical knowledge -- you know, the kind of clinical knowledge that pharmacists "practicing" outside of unicorn settings in CA and a few select other areas don't actually get to apply in real-life practice settings because insurance plans won't reimburse them for it?
Every pharmacist uses their clinical knowledge. Every hospital pharmacist makes clinical interventions. It's a part of our job. We just get paid a salary by the hospital instead of sending a bill to CMS. You don't have to live in CA to be a clinical pharmacist.
Jesus, what do you think pharmacists do anyway?
BTW, I think it's ironic that I'm definitely not the only one who is leaving pharmacy school for better opportunities. I'm not sure if you saw their posts (their username escapes me right now), but there is an AA student who has posted on here in a few recent threads who actually has several classmates who were previously enrolled in pharmacy school who left after their P1 year. There is also at least one current pharmacy student on here who said that a classmate dropped out to pursue general PA school. Gee, what does it say about pharmacy that we never hear any anecdotes about PA/AA students (or any other health professions students, for that matter) leaving their programs to pursue pharmacy?
Stop being dense. We told you not to apply to pharmacy school, we encouraged you to go back to PA school. Everyone knows pharmacy is in a slump right now. YOU KNOW THAT WE KNOW. Why do you insist on pretending like we are arguing against that idea? We showed you the manpower project, we showed you the BLS statistics. You probably saw the abysmal NAPLEX failure rates here too. Do you really have this internal narrative that we are all pharmacy deniers and you are going to set us straight? Are you just purposefully being obtuse?
I'm really starting to think you are just being a troll. Okay, here, let me write your next post for you: "Why am I a troll? Because I'm saying the pharmacy job market sucks? Because the BLS statistics back me up."
