Goodbye Retail

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ValeRx

ValeRx

Not Retail
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Official resignation letter has been submitted. 23 days to go. Should I set an Advent Calendar?
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You guys hear that? Job opening! Where are all you unemployed pharmacists?
 
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DagS132 said:
You guys hear that? Job opening! Where are all you unemployed pharmacists?
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I mean there are jobs. Heck, I see openings on Indeed every day. The problem is for every job opening, there are 500 applicants. I don't know the exact number but I bet there are 2-3 pharmacists for every job right now... whereas PAs, for every PA there are about 5-6 jobs available...
 
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VictorOfHungerGames said:
I mean there are jobs. Heck, I see openings on Indeed every day. The problem is for every job opening, there are 500 applicants. I don't know the exact number but I bet there are 2-3 pharmacists for every job right now... whereas PAs, for every PA there are about 5-6 jobs available...
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They need a lot of people where I work. Some days have 15 OT shifts available that nobody can cover.
 
LivingMyBestLife said:
Nice i heard inpatient is okay. Did you consider LTC? I heard LTC is the golden goose in terms of low stress per income.
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Eh, I did a LTC rotation and absolutely hated it. No coverage when you go on vacation so you had to do all of the work you'd miss either the week before or after. At least where I was.
 
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ValeRx said:
Eh, I did a LTC rotation and absolutely hated it. No coverage when you go on vacation so you had to do all of the work you'd miss either the week before or after. At least where I was.
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I don’t see how that would be possible. So the scripts just pile up for a week until they got back from vacation? Impossible lol
 
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ValeRx said:
Eh, I did a LTC rotation and absolutely hated it. No coverage when you go on vacation so you had to do all of the work you'd miss either the week before or after. At least where I was.
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Uh what? Are you sure your rotation was at a LTC? You can't fill scripts a week in advance. Do you have a crystal ball to predict new orders?? You sure as hell can't fill them a week after they're due either!
 
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LivingMyBestLife said:
Nice i heard inpatient is okay. Did you consider LTC? I heard LTC is the golden goose in terms of low stress per income.
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I have to agree with this. Night shift at LTC pharmacy is awesome. Answer the phones maybe 5-6 times on a BUSY night. Had I known it was like this I would have left retail YEARS ago. Didn't even take a pay cut to switch (the chain I worked for were cheap bastards...)
 
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Xenophylia said:
I have to agree with this. Night shift at LTC pharmacy is awesome. Answer the phones maybe 5-6 times on a BUSY night. Had I known it was like this I would have left retail YEARS ago. Didn't even take a pay cut to switch (the chain I worked for were cheap bastards...)
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Completely agree. I answer phones way more but it's still awesome. Don't think I'll ever leave my job unless I'm laid off.
 
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Yeah, there's always a problem with being laid off. Nursing homes are very fickle and will leave/ break contract over nothing. We had a pharmacist who was here 18 years laid off last month. We are also coming off a failed merger which didn't help things financially. But night shift is sort of secure simply because no one wants it....
 
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mentos said:
Completely agree. I answer phones way more but it's still awesome. Don't think I'll ever leave my job unless I'm laid off.
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I'm hoping I can ride this job out till retirement. Could never do retail again after this. That's the one thing about this- it sort of ruins you for ever doing retail again....
 
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Xenophylia said:
I'm hoping I can ride this job out till retirement. Could never do retail again after this. That's the one thing about this- it sort of ruins you for ever doing retail again....
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Yup life is infinitely better after leaving retail. I used to dread going to work, now I actually look forward to it.
 
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mentos said:
Yup life is infinitely better after leaving retail. I used to dread going to work, now I actually look forward to it.
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And I'm sure there are a lot of pharmacists that can't imagine not dreading going to work. Just a few short years ago I was one of them, since retail was all I knew for 16 years.... But it's good I started this at the twilight of my career, since I'm ruined now for anything else....
 
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mentos said:
Uh what? Are you sure your rotation was at a LTC? You can't fill scripts a week in advance. Do you have a crystal ball to predict new orders?? You sure as hell can't fill them a week after they're due either!
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The pharmacist I shadowed for my LTC rotation was one of the pharmacists that went to the nursing homes, etc and did the quarterly or monthly checks on patient charts.
 
ValeRx said:
The pharmacist I shadowed for my LTC rotation was one of the pharmacists that went to the nursing homes, etc and did the quarterly or monthly checks on patient charts.
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Yeah that's totally different from what we're talking about. We work in what's basically a warehouse that delivers drugs out to nursing homes, hospitals etc. There's no customers and no insurance to deal with. We mostly sit in a comfy chair and verify orders, and occasionally answer the phone to speak with nurses and doctors. Most scripts are refills. It's very easy and low stress. We don't physically fill anything, the techs do all that.
 
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mentos said:
Yeah that's totally different from what we're talking about. We work in what's basically a warehouse that delivers drugs out to nursing homes, hospitals etc. There's no customers and no insurance to deal with. We mostly sit in a comfy chair and verify orders, and occasionally answer the phone to speak with nurses and doctors. Most scripts are refills. It's very easy and low stress. We don't physically fill anything, the techs do all that.
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Ahhh ok. The company that I went to for rotation definitely had those guys but I saw them maybe once on my first day of orientation there.
 
ValeRx said:
Ahhh ok. The company that I went to for rotation definitely had those guys but I saw them maybe once on my first day of orientation there.
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That person would be the consultant pharmacist. I don't know how you could do a rotation and not know that, but ok. In Florida you have to have extra credentials to be a consultant pharmacist and that involves extra CE. But not every state requires anything extra to be a consultant.

Personally I don't think I would like consulting but it still has to beat retail.
 
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Xenophylia said:
Yeah, there's always a problem with being laid off. Nursing homes are very fickle and will leave/ break contract over nothing. We had a pharmacist who was here 18 years laid off last month. We are also coming off a failed merger which didn't help things financially. But night shift is sort of secure simply because no one wants it....
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Ain't that the truth. We just lost a client over nothing. I personally was literally calling all their nursing stations everyday to see if they were having any issues, if there were any OTCs they wanted that we were out of I would buy them from Walgreens and send them STAT, if they had lost any medication cards I would send them free replacements, we were doing everything humanly possible to retain their business and they still left us. I seriously wonder where they think they will get service as I just can't imagine it will be possible.

The worst part is they are like the third client we have lost in the past year. None of them were huge clients but it adds up so now if we don't find some new business it is probably going to mean layoffs.
 
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ValeRx said:
Official resignation letter has been submitted. 23 days to go. Should I set an Advent Calendar?
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congrats - it is a great feeling! I count my lucky starts everyday I got out before everything was saturated
 
VictorOfHungerGames said:
I mean there are jobs. Heck, I see openings on Indeed every day. The problem is for every job opening, there are 500 applicants. I don't know the exact number but I bet there are 2-3 pharmacists for every job right now... whereas PAs, for every PA there are about 5-6 jobs available...
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Most of the jobs you see on Indeed are fake openings. I am not just saying this without first hand experience.

But, not everything is fake off course...
 
Xarelto-10 said:
Most of the jobs you see on Indeed are fake openings. I am not just saying this without first hand experience.

But, not everything is fake off course...
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Well, some what true. Several directors of pharmacy told me that HR has to post them by policy even though they have no intention of hiring. Most of hiring are done internally. So I suppose you're gonna have to learn how to "weed out" the true posting vs the fake ones. haha. Another obstacle... sigh... life as a pharmacist sucks...
 
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owlegrad said:
I don’t see how that would be possible. So the scripts just pile up for a week until they got back from vacation? Impossible lol
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There are other aspects of LTC that make vacation very difficult. Consulting for example - if you have 20 homes with ~45-60 beds, and you want vacation ... it is not easy to get coverage
 
owlegrad said:
That person would be the consultant pharmacist. I don't know how you could do a rotation and not know that, but ok. In Florida you have to have extra credentials to be a consultant pharmacist and that involves extra CE. But not every state requires anything extra to be a consultant.

Personally I don't think I would like consulting but it still has to beat retail.
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It beats the hell out of retail. However it requires someone who is highly comfortable and skilled at communication. This is why a lot of pharmacists either can’t or won’t do the job.
 
JustFillIt said:
There are other aspects of LTC that make vacation very difficult. Consulting for example - if you have 20 homes with ~45-60 beds, and you want vacation ... it is not easy to get coverage
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Glad I don't work in consulting. I get a 7 day vacation every other week! And I take my paid time off for 3 weeks off in a row whenever I want.
 
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mentos said:
Glad I don't work in consulting. I get a 7 day vacation every other week! And I take my paid time off for 3 weeks off in a row whenever I want.
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My old job - I was with them for 20 years (I started when I was 16)...

I had 7 weeks of paid vacation. It was spectacular.. starting over with 2.5 weeks was depressing.
 
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JustFillIt said:
My old job - I was with them for 20 years (I started when I was 16)...

I had 7 weeks of paid vacation. It was spectacular.. starting over with 2.5 weeks was depressing.
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Why did you switch?? 7 weeks is unheard of now! Most jobs only start with 2 weeks, at least you started with 2.5.

.
 
VictorOfHungerGames said:
What about PAs?
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I believe some PA who is a YouTuber has said PA is getting saturated in metro cities. A PA has to do a residency to stay qualified and competitive. But the NP saturation is way worse in metro cities. A NP and PA can still find a job in the BFE
 
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mentos said:
Why did you switch?? 7 weeks is unheard of now! Most jobs only start with 2 weeks, at least you started with 2.5.

.
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Haha the company I worked for went out of business.
 
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...and Hello Bureaucracy. As stated elsewhere, if there are openings in VA that are actually hired, someone in management or the environment is either a screwup or a mess. It's going to be tough, you have to make it a point to survive three years. I wish you the best of luck surviving career-conditional status.
 
lord999 said:
...and Hello Bureaucracy. As stated elsewhere, if there are openings in VA that are actually hired, someone in management or the environment is either a screwup or a mess. It's going to be tough, you have to make it a point to survive three years. I wish you the best of luck surviving career-conditional status.
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In the case of the hospital here, two people retired and one person was promoted to a newly created management position.
 
TateThePharmacist said:
Welcome to.......the promised land

Haha actually depending on the VA it may be a pretty crappy job. But I can bet it's probably better than 90% of retail jobs.
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What is wrong with the VA? I know it depends on location but I always heard it was a sweet gig.
 
mentos said:
That's what happens when they give 7 weeks vacation LoL.
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I got 20 years of good work out of that job. I couldn’t be happier with how things worked out.
 
Xenophylia said:
Yeah, there's always a problem with being laid off. Nursing homes are very fickle and will leave/ break contract over nothing. We had a pharmacist who was here 18 years laid off last month. We are also coming off a failed merger which didn't help things financially. But night shift is sort of secure simply because no one wants it....
Click to expand...

Any chance your company will be hiring for night shift positions around this June/July and would be willing to consider new graduates?
 
mentos said:
What is wrong with the VA? I know it depends on location but I always heard it was a sweet gig.
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I was referencing the terrible locations that have been in the news. There are some locations that are a pretty sweet gig though.
 
mentos said:
Why did you switch?? 7 weeks is unheard of now! Most jobs only start with 2 weeks, at least you started with 2.5.

.
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not unheard of in the hospital setting- I am at 7 - go to 8 weeks soon - one hospital in my area starts at 7 (wife works there)
 
VictorOfHungerGames said:
I mean there are jobs. Heck, I see openings on Indeed every day. The problem is for every job opening, there are 500 applicants. I don't know the exact number but I bet there are 2-3 pharmacists for every job right now... whereas PAs, for every PA there are about 5-6 jobs available...
Click to expand...

can you show me where you get those stats?
 
AlwaysContrary said:
can you show me where you get those stats?
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It is true for jobs in desirable areas. My friend is in a hiring position and says they get at least 400 applicants each time there's a job posted. But they always give the job to an internal PRN Rph or someone through nepotism. So those 400+ applicants waste their time applying.
 
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