There are various areas in industry that I see pharmacists employed in. Here's a breakdown:
MSL - hard to get into from retail, but more likely from clinical to med info to MSL. great benefits, good lifestyle, a lot of travel, good pay...but also one of the weakest in terms of job stability. However, once you have MSL experience under your belt...it's considerably easier to get the next MSL job if you do get laid off. I know several MSLs that have gotten laid off due to the product going off-patent or not succeeding in phase 3 trials. I don't think any of them were that worried and were able to land their next MSL opportunity without too much trouble.
Med Info/Med affairs - totally possible for a retail or clinical pharmacist to go into, but connections or good interviewing skills help a lot. HEOR is a bit hard to get into without a fellowship.
Drug Safety/PV - used to be one of the likely areas for a retail pharmacist to get into , but that was when case processing was done in-house at most companies. Now, the trend has been to outsource case processing to vendors in India, Philippines, or other countries. Therefore, now it's considerably harder to get into a US company with retail experience since they need more experienced people. But it's not impossible. As a matter of fact, I've seen PharmDs with only an industry rotation get hired almost straight out of school. Connections made during rotations can make a huge difference.
Regulatory - hard to get into without a fellowship. However, if you do get in it's a good trajectory. Regulatory people often have the potential to go very high in the organization and it's very possible to top out at $230k+/year. If you have experience in regulatory strategy, you will be highly sought after and companies will be willing to pay good money for someone who has experience getting drugs approved.
Clinical Operations - pretty hard to get into without a fellowship. Essentially a project management position which always translates to many areas.
QA Auditing - hard to get in straight from retail, but a common pathway is from drug safety or clinical operations. Drug Safety/Clinical QA auditors are usually highly sought, pretty good pay, flexible schedule, and possibly tedious at times, and a lot of travel. A lot of these people eventually set up a private consultancy company.
Sales - these days, pharmacists usually don't go into sales
There are other areas but these are the ones I tend to see PharmDs in the most often. If it's what you want, don't give up. Just because you're experience is in retail, doesn't mean you don't have a shot. My personal experience in the industry has been...the lifestyle is great and only gets better. It does get busier the higher you go up but it also feels more personally fulfilling and flexible. On Sunday nights, I actually look forward to going to the office the next day. I never felt that way when I was in retail. That said, I don't think it's for everyone. Corporate politics exist without a doubt. Some people have a knack for that and relish playing that game. Some people can't stand it. Also, in the office there it's a somewhat consistent environment from day to day (in terms of the people you're around and their emotions). I have friends in retail that have stated that they couldn't stand that and appreciate the "realness" of retail - where people get mad, happy, sad, etc.
In terms of compensation (since that seems to be a common curiosity), I would have to say that in industry the limit is up to you. But keep in mind that compensation is usually inversely proportional to work-life balance. Is your limit 40 hours a week or 70 hours a week? It's easy to answer that when you're 28 and single. But consider how you'll feel from ages 40-60. That'll be when you're peak earning potential comes. If you're willing to work long hours at 55 years of age, willing to travel the on 14 hour flights at a moment's notice, and willing to relocate halfway around the world for years at a time....you can certainly make over $200k or well over. Some people do. Some people decide at 40 that they're ok with staying in the $150-180k range for the rest of their career with the obligatory annual raise and bonus...without extra sacrifice to work-life balance. Of course there are other considerations when you get to that age...like how far is work from your home, how flexible are they in letting you work at home so you can stay with your kid, health benefits, etc.
