Future pharmacist

[Jayy17]

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I am looking into becoming a pharmacist and I have a few concerns and questions about the career field I was thinking of working at Walmart as one too

1.what the typical take home pay?
2.how does vacation, sick, and personal time off work?
3. How would it be if I were to be a pharmacy manager at Walmart?
4. What if I tried opening my own business?
5. Do they have set schedules can I please have insight on a day in the life of a pharmacist?
6. How long does it usually take to pay off student debt?
7. I'm really all about being able to explore and spend time with family so I'd like to know how far ahead do you usually have to put in to take off and how do your sick days work?
8. Which is better salaried or hourly?
9. How flexible are the hours?
10.whats the best route to obtaining the degree, should I go ahead and pursue my bachelors degree?
11.Is it a rewarding careers
12.Is it really saturated
13.What about becoming an independent pharmacist
14.what are the starting salaries for pharmacists



What about being a pharmacy manager? What are the benefits



Being able to have a life outside of work and not having to work ridiculous amounts of hours and is really essential to me. That's why vacation time, sick time and personal time are also really important along side salary.

 

[bp2313]

Seriously? Another thread?

 

[Jayy17]

Seriously? Another thread?

Don't come on here being negative I'm not the one. Either answer the questions or move around.

 

[radio frequency]

Honestly, if you can't answer these questions yourself with a Google search and some math, I'm not sure we can help you...

 

[deleted205891]

You won't have to work "ridiculous amounts of hours", but most places are not flexible in terms of giving you leave. Most chains start you as a floater, where you'll basically work whenever they want you to, no questions asked...be it days, evenings, weekends, driving 100 miles away, etc... Many hospitals aren't that flexible either. My last job I had to put in Christmas Eve or Black Friday exactly one year in advance if I wanted those holidays off. For vacations, I had to plan them about half year in advance. My current job is M-F 8:430 no weekends or federal holidays and I can go on vacation whenever I want as long as I have vacation days, but this is the exception rather than the norm.

I answered that question since that seemed important to you. For other questions, please use google.

 

[Amicable Angora]

Don't come on here being negative I'm not the one. Either answer the questions or move around.

The reason why you are getting negative feedback is because

#1 your questions are easily found and common
#2 the market is in a tragically awful state

 

[y0ssarian87]

You won't have to work "ridiculous amounts of hours", but most places are not flexible in terms of giving you leave. Most chains start you as a floater, where you'll basically work whenever they want you to, no questions asked...be it days, evenings, weekends, driving 100 miles away, etc... Many hospitals aren't that flexible either. My last job I had to put in Christmas Eve or Black Friday exactly one year in advance if I wanted those holidays off. For vacations, I had to plan them about half year in advance. My current job is M-F 8:430 no weekends or federal holidays and I can go on vacation whenever I want as long as I have vacation days, but this is the exception rather than the norm.

I answered that question since that seemed important to you. For other questions, please use google.

Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[gwarm01]

Don't come on here being negative I'm not the one. Either answer the questions or move around.

Hah, basically every thread by a pre-pharm says this. The new generation is so used to the idea of being positive and supporting. Well, my generation is full of cruel and hateful people and we think it's fun to cut people down. Deal with it, buddy!

To answer some of your questions, I found it to be difficult getting time off working at the hospital. People would complete for time off, especially during popular seasons. You had to put your request through six months in advance and hope someone else didn't beat you to it.

 

[kwakster928]

Who ever answers the OP's questions deserves a substantial career consulting fee.

 

[DesiRX]

1. Right now I take home about $2800 per paycheck after taxes, benefits etc. I am aggressively trying to catch up on my 401k to meet the max by the end of the year, so I am contributing 25% of my paycheck which is the maximum amount my company lets me contribute per paycheck.

2. Put in a request and hope that it gets approved. I haven't put in vacation yet so I don't know first-hand the details.

3. I don't work for Wal-Mart.

4. I wouldn't open my own business until I have a comfortable nest egg and no student debt/mortgage. Reimbursement is razor thin. Some insurers pay less than a dollar over the cost of very common drugs.

5. You set your schedule with your partner. Most pharmacists alternate schedules. For a day in the life of a pharmacist, look around the board.

6. It depends how aggressively you pay it off. Look up the avalanche or snowball method for tackling student debt. I owed $155k straight out of school, brought it down to 130k till now. All my loans had somewhat similar interest rates, so I paid off the small <$8k loans, so I have four $30k-ish loans to pay off. I set them to auto-pay for a total monthly payment of $1600. Every once in a while I'll put in a couple grand to bring it down. I could be more disciplined in paying off my loans though. Out of school I was gung-ho about putting in $5k-$6k towards loans and live like a student, but I like to live a little now.

7. I haven't taken a day off since I started working as a pharmacist (my choice for the most part). I'm pretty sure if I give good notice (1-3 months) I could get it approved. My sick days are lumped together with my PTO.

8. I am working hourly right now and time and a half is awesome. However, I miss being salaried back when I worked at CVS. It gave me a peace of mind just knowing I have to show up to work and work, and not have to count hours etc. I've been averaging about 37-39 hours for the past couple of weeks. Every once in a while I'll work 42 or 43 hours, so it keeps it balanced when accounting for overtime.

9. I'm a pretty flexible person when it comes to scheduling, so I don't really have an opinion on flexible hours. As long as I show up to work and have days off every once in a while, I am happy.

10. Work as a technician first while you do your pharmacy pre-requisites and see if you like it enough to spend up to 8 years in school. Otherwise go for it.

11. I like what I do. I've always liked retail jobs, especially when I worked at Starbucks, so retail pharmacy was a good fit.

12. Yeah, so get used to the idea of relocating to find the job you want. I was lucky to live in an area with a good demand for pharmacists. However, there was a big change between the time I started school and the time I got out. I thought I had a guaranteed job at my previous employer when I was a technician, but I was wrong and had to apply at other places.

13. I think working for an independent would be nice, but good luck finding a job. They're hurting the most these days.

14. I graduated last year and started off full-time (40 hours) making $69/hr at CVS in a very low cost-of-living area with good demand for pharmacists. I never interned or worked for them as a technician before I was hired. I was promoted to PIC a couple of months later and was bumped to $72/hr. I have since left CVS, but the salaries are comparable around that range.

15. I liked being a manager. There are additional responsibilities dealing with compliance that make it a little scary since the board of pharmacy will be going after your license and not the company you work for.

$69 an hour as staff with cvs??? whoa, what area are you in..if you dont mind me asking..


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[rph3664]

Jay, how old are you? I get the impression that you're probably still in high school. Anyway, get a job in a pharmacy and go from there.

 

[Humble Sloth]

I am looking into becoming a pharmacist and I have a few concerns and questions about the career field I was thinking of working at Walmart as one too

1.what the typical take home pay?
2.how does vacation, sick, and personal time off work?
3. How would it be if I were to be a pharmacy manager at Walmart?
4. What if I tried opening my own business?
5. Do they have set schedules can I please have insight on a day in the life of a pharmacist?
6. How long does it usually take to pay off student debt?
7. I'm really all about being able to explore and spend time with family so I'd like to know how far ahead do you usually have to put in to take off and how do your sick days work?
8. Which is better salaried or hourly?
9. How flexible are the hours?
10.whats the best route to obtaining the degree, should I go ahead and pursue my bachelors degree?
11.Is it a rewarding careers
12.Is it really saturated
13.What about becoming an independent pharmacist
14.what are the starting salaries for pharmacists



What about being a pharmacy manager? What are the benefits



Being able to have a life outside of work and not having to work ridiculous amounts of hours and is really essential to me. That's why vacation time, sick time and personal time are also really important along side salary.

1.what the typical take home pay?
>0.00 USD per a year because you will not be able to find a job because there will be zero (actually negative pharmacist positions available by the time you graduate)
2.how does vacation, sick, and personal time off work?
You won't have to worry about this because you won't be able to find a job
3. How would it be if I were to be a pharmacy manager at Walmart?
PIC get a slight increase in salary for a disproportionate amount of added stress
4. What if I tried opening my own business?
You would most likely fail like 80% of the independent pharmacies that fail. Independents are on their way out and small biz fail all the time
5. Do they have set schedules can I please have insight on a day in the life of a pharmacist?
You will be a corporate slave that will beg for any available hours in severely understaffed pharmacies in very poor areas of town
6. How long does it usually take to pay off student debt?
60*6 = 360 + 40k interest = 400k in debt. you will earn 60k a year so 40k after taxes so you will be able to pay 10k a year off so 400k/10k = 40 years. If you get your degree at 24 you will pay off student loans at the ripe age of 64, just in time to get your social security check
7. I'm really all about being able to explore and spend time with family so I'd like to know how far ahead do you usually have to put in to take off and how do your sick days work?
Sick days? LMAO what do you think this profession is? you will be lucky to have any vacation days in 2020. Maybe 5 a year
8. Which is better salaried or hourly?
depends on pay rate
9. How flexible are the hours?
as flexible as a steel beam
10.whats the best route to obtaining the degree, should I go ahead and pursue my bachelors degree?
best route is community college for 1 year, PCAT and then 3 year program. you can get a pharmD in 4 years for under 120k
11.Is it a rewarding careers
no
12.Is it really saturated
yes
13.What about becoming an independent pharmacist
see #4
14.what are the starting salaries for pharmacists
in 2020 when you get your pharmD the starting salary will be around 60k a year because you will only be able to get 20 hours max a week.


What about being a pharmacy manager? What are the benefits
benefits are highest stress and a shorter life

 

[hye345]

1.what the typical take home pay?
>0.00 USD per a year because you will not be able to find a job because there will be zero (actually negative pharmacist positions available by the time you graduate)
2.how does vacation, sick, and personal time off work?
You won't have to worry about this because you won't be able to find a job
3. How would it be if I were to be a pharmacy manager at Walmart?
PIC get a slight increase in salary for a disproportionate amount of added stress
4. What if I tried opening my own business?
You would most likely fail like 80% of the independent pharmacies that fail. Independents are on their way out and small biz fail all the time
5. Do they have set schedules can I please have insight on a day in the life of a pharmacist?
You will be a corporate slave that will beg for any available hours in severely understaffed pharmacies in very poor areas of town
6. How long does it usually take to pay off student debt?
60*6 = 360 + 40k interest = 400k in debt. you will earn 60k a year so 40k after taxes so you will be able to pay 10k a year off so 400k/10k = 40 years. If you get your degree at 24 you will pay off student loans at the ripe age of 64, just in time to get your social security check
7. I'm really all about being able to explore and spend time with family so I'd like to know how far ahead do you usually have to put in to take off and how do your sick days work?
Sick days? LMAO what do you think this profession is? you will be lucky to have any vacation days in 2020. Maybe 5 a year
8. Which is better salaried or hourly?
depends on pay rate
9. How flexible are the hours?
as flexible as a steel beam
10.whats the best route to obtaining the degree, should I go ahead and pursue my bachelors degree?
best route is community college for 1 year, PCAT and then 3 year program. you can get a pharmD in 4 years for under 120k
11.Is it a rewarding careers
no
12.Is it really saturated
yes
13.What about becoming an independent pharmacist
see #4
14.what are the starting salaries for pharmacists
in 2020 when you get your pharmD the starting salary will be around 60k a year because you will only be able to get 20 hours max a week.


What about being a pharmacy manager? What are the benefits
benefits are highest stress and a shorter life

It's hyperbolic posts like these (AKA the ones I bolded) that make pre-pharmacy students automatically disregard the more realistic warnings (AKA the rest of what you wrote).

 

[Humble Sloth]

It's hyperbolic posts like these (AKA the ones I bolded) that make pre-pharmacy students automatically disregard the more realistic warnings (AKA the rest of what you wrote).

That wasn't even an embellished prediction though... There will be zero jobs for OP when he gets his pharmD in 2022