"intelligent people should not do pharmacy"

[t3h50]

I found this comment on another site that had a discussion going on about pursuing pharmacy as a profession:

"I started off in retail, chasing the money as a lot of people do, then got bored of the management crap and moved on to locum work. That paid very well (£55,000) for a 50 hr week but was deeply unsatisfying. I needed to find another avenue but without a PhD entry into an industry placement was impossible and with a mortgage to pay, stepping backwards into hospital pharmacy (£26,000) was not an option.
I am now a Pharmacy advisor within the NHS working a 40 hr week for £40,000. I work flexible hours, get an excellent pension and don't need to worry about arranging locum cover wehn I'm on holiday as I used to do in retail.
The professional benefits of meeting with doctors and developing guidelines and offering advice on prescribing make you feel much more useful. On the negative side a lot of what we do is to save money but then we have an NHS and need to protect it.
I would like to do something else although I've never found what it is. For now however this job offers security, a good wage, pension, flexibility and multi-disciplinary learning. What more could you ask for? you may think??
The answer... a challenge!
I agree fully with the comments on this site which said ingelligent people should not do Pharmacy. Don't get me wrong, you need some, and determination to get through the 5 yrs of study but in my eyes you just need to be good at remembering things nothing more.
If I had my time again I would be a journalist or architect as I have more of an interest in these subjects. For now though I get to go home at 5 and not have to worry too much about the future. The grass is always greener... lets wait and see."

-----

The reason why I took an interest to this comment is because my mom has been telling me again and again: "Pharmacy work is so much clerical (routine) work. You're such a smart girl. You could be pursuing something that would make much better use of your intelligence and potential. Are you going to be content doing this type of work for the rest of your life?" While I appreciate the fact that my mom thinks I'm a "smart girl" and capable of "great things", her lack of full support is really causing me to struggle with my decision to go into pharmacy. Before I move ahead with it, I want to make sure that it's what I really want to do. I've shadowed at CVS, and it really discouraged me because I did not like what I saw at all (assembly line sort of work, little patient interaction aside from answering some questions, same thing over and over for hours and hours, didn't really feel like healthcare to me [i guess because it is a business]). However, I recently shadowed a hospital pharmacist and liked it a lot better (only for 3 hrs though so probably didn't get a full picture).

So what do you think? Would someone who excels in school (or is "intelligent") find that pharmacy isn't enough of a challenge? If so, can other perks of being a pharmacist still lead to happiness despite a lack of challenge (for example, if you enjoy helping patients, or if you're genuinely interested in science/drugs/pharmacology/etc)? I understand that "intelligence" or good grades in school do not necessarily = good pharmacist. I also understand that good pay does not necessarily = happy career.

"intelligent people should not do pharmacy"

Any thoughts?

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[Passion4Sci]

Do a PGY residency and work in a clinical, dynamic, pt-oriented setting, problem solved.

Not every RPh needs to, or wants to, or has to, work at CVS/Wags/insert big box retailer here.

EVERY JOB HAS A CLERICAL COMPONENT. Even the coolest job I ever had, a human intelligence collector-linguist, had some degree of paperwork.

I interrogated, and shot (usually not sequentially), people for a living and still had to do paperwork!

Your mom has an oversimplified, pedestrian view of pharmacy and unless she's a professional and in a related field I'd be careful before taking her advice.

I disagree that "intelligent" people should not do pharmacy.

 

[delano2000]

I found this comment on another site that had a discussion going on about pursuing pharmacy as a profession:

"I started off in retail, chasing the money as a lot of people do, then got bored of the management crap and moved on to locum work. That paid very well (£55,000) for a 50 hr week but was deeply unsatisfying. I needed to find another avenue but without a PhD entry into an industry placement was impossible and with a mortgage to pay, stepping backwards into hospital pharmacy (£26,000) was not an option.
I am now a Pharmacy advisor within the NHS working a 40 hr week for £40,000. I work flexible hours, get an excellent pension and don't need to worry about arranging locum cover wehn I'm on holiday as I used to do in retail.
The professional benefits of meeting with doctors and developing guidelines and offering advice on prescribing make you feel much more useful. On the negative side a lot of what we do is to save money but then we have an NHS and need to protect it.
I would like to do something else although I've never found what it is. For now however this job offers security, a good wage, pension, flexibility and multi-disciplinary learning. What more could you ask for? you may think??
The answer... a challenge!
I agree fully with the comments on this site which said ingelligent people should not do Pharmacy. Don't get me wrong, you need some, and determination to get through the 5 yrs of study but in my eyes you just need to be good at remembering things nothing more.
If I had my time again I would be a journalist or architect as I have more of an interest in these subjects. For now though I get to go home at 5 and not have to worry too much about the future. The grass is always greener... lets wait and see."

-----

The reason why I took an interest to this comment is because my mom has been telling me again and again: "Pharmacy work is so much clerical (routine) work. You're such a smart girl. You could be pursuing something that would make much better use of your intelligence and potential. Are you going to be content doing this type of work for the rest of your life?" While I appreciate the fact that my mom thinks I'm a "smart girl" and capable of "great things", her lack of full support is really causing me to struggle with my decision to go into pharmacy. Before I move ahead with it, I want to make sure that it's what I really want to do. I've shadowed at CVS, and it really discouraged me because I did not like what I saw at all (assembly line sort of work, little patient interaction aside from answering some questions, same thing over and over for hours and hours, didn't really feel like healthcare to me [i guess because it is a business]). However, I recently shadowed a hospital pharmacist and liked it a lot better (only for 3 hrs though so probably didn't get a full picture).

So what do you think? Would someone who excels in school (or is "intelligent") find that pharmacy isn't enough of a challenge? If so, can other perks of being a pharmacist still lead to happiness despite a lack of challenge (for example, if you enjoy helping patients, or if you're genuinely interested in science/drugs/pharmacology/etc)? I understand that "intelligence" or good grades in school do not necessarily = good pharmacist. I also understand that good pay does not necessarily = happy career.

"intelligent people should not do pharmacy"

Any thoughts?

A little condescending don't you think?

 

[t3h50]

A little condescending don't you think?

Haha well...assuming it's all true, then yes.. but I'm just feeding out what actual pharmacists, who are much older, wiser, and experienced, have been saying in discussions.

 

[delano2000]

Haha well...assuming it's all true, then yes.. but I'm just feeding out what actual pharmacists, who are much older, wiser, and experienced, have been saying in discussions.

Well this is the pre-pharmacy section. If you are looking for the insight of actual pharmacists, then you should post your question in the pharmacy section (aka the big boys forum). Mike is the only pharmacist that posts in this section (occasionally).

 

[t3h50]

Do a PGY residency and work in a clinical, dynamic, pt-oriented setting, problem solved.

Not every RPh needs to, or wants to, or has to, work at CVS/Wags/insert big box retailer here.

EVERY JOB HAS A CLERICAL COMPONENT. Even the coolest job I ever had, a human intelligence collector-linguist, had some degree of paperwork.

I interrogated, and shot (usually not sequentially), people for a living and still had to do paperwork!

Your mom has an oversimplified, pedestrian view of pharmacy and unless she's a professional and in a related field I'd be careful before taking her advice.

I disagree that "intelligent" people should not do pharmacy.

Yeah, I realize that my mom might have an "oversimplified, pedestrian view of pharmacy", but then I ran across this discussion which had input from a lot of actual experienced pharmacists (from different types of pharmacy, not just retail) who either feel like they're just "going through the motions" or did a career change out of pharmacy, so I definitely didn't want to just ignore this concern. Thanks for the input.

 

[Passion4Sci]

Yeah, I realize that my mom might have an "oversimplified, pedestrian view of pharmacy", but then I ran across this discussion which had input from a lot of actual experienced pharmacists (from different types of pharmacy, not just retail) who either feel like they're just "going through the motions" or did a career change out of pharmacy, so I definitely didn't want to just ignore this concern. Thanks for the input.

It's a concern with any profession.

Lots of people go through "grass is greener" transitions in their lives, t3h50, I'm living proof of that (as are all the other non-traditionals on here, and abroad).

 

[Project2015]

Even the coolest job I ever had, a human intelligence collector-linguist, had some degree of paperwork.

I interrogated, and shot (usually not sequentially), people for a living and still had to do paperwork!

Sup Jack!

 

[Passion4Sci]

Yeah, I realize that my mom might have an "oversimplified, pedestrian view of pharmacy", but then I ran across this discussion which had input from a lot of actual experienced pharmacists (from different types of pharmacy, not just retail) who either feel like they're just "going through the motions" or did a career change out of pharmacy, so I definitely didn't want to just ignore this concern. Thanks for the input.

I'd also like to note that it appears as though that discussion you quoted is European (the currency notation is a tip-off?) and it's widely known that professionals in Europe are much different than they are here in the states, from medicine to law.

 

[delano2000]

Yeah, I realize that my mom might have an "oversimplified, pedestrian view of pharmacy", but then I ran across this discussion which had input from a lot of actual experienced pharmacists (from different types of pharmacy, not just retail) who either feel like they're just "going through the motions" or did a career change out of pharmacy, so I definitely didn't want to just ignore this concern. Thanks for the input.

PS. What you posted seemed to be from pharmacists in England. I am pretty sure that the pharmacy profession is regulated differently in many countries. Also, pharmacy has a lot of very intelligent professionals, as do many other professions, but there will always be people that hate their jobs or at least aspects of it. Essentially, choose a profession that you feel you would enjoy years down the road.

 

[Passion4Sci]

PS. What you posted seemed to be from pharmacists in England. I am pretty sure that the pharmacy profession is regulated differently in many countries. Also, pharmacy has a lot of very intelligent professionals, as do many other professions, but there will always be people that hate their jobs or at least aspects of it. Essentially, choose a profession that yors down the road.

Beat you to it, bucko.

 

[delano2000]

I'd also like to note that it appears as though that discussion you quoted is European (the currency notation is a tip-off?) and it's widely known that professionals in Europe are much different than they are here in the states, from medicine to law.

You beat me to it.

 

[delano2000]

Beat you to it, bucko.

There we go again.

 

[t3h50]

Yeah, the guy is from the UK. I was just using his viewpoints as an example. There were Americans, Egyptians, Canadians, etc chiming in as well.


Everyone has their freak out "crap what am I gonna do for the rest of my life" moments. It's just my turn.

 

[delano2000]

Yeah, the guy is from the UK. I was just using his viewpoints as an example. There were Americans, Egyptians, Canadians, etc chiming in as well.


Everyone has their freak out "crap what am I gonna do for the rest of my life" moments. It's just my turn.

I am confident that you will figure it out.

 

[Passion4Sci]

Yeah, the guy is from the UK. I was just using his viewpoints as an example. There were Americans, Egyptians, Canadians, etc chiming in as well.


Everyone has their freak out "crap what am I gonna do for the rest of my life" moments. It's just my turn.

You might need to go through a couple of iterations like everyone else, but you'll figure it out. One thing you need to be very vigilant of though is listening to doom and gloom. People love to come on the internet and hollar and scream about how crappy X is, whereas few people like to hollar and scream about how nice Y is.

I remember my first real "Holiday" job was a store called Mervyn's. It's now defunct, a result of the economy collapse. Anyway... At orientation, they said, "I want everyone to write down on this paper what they remember most about their last customer service experience". 19 out of 20 of us wrote down negative experiences. Why? As human beings, we catalog negative before positive, and as a whole, we are very much more vocal about negative than positive.

Therefore, take negativity with a grain of salt, OP.

 

[desklamp]

Yeah, the guy is from the UK. I was just using his viewpoints as an example. There were Americans, Egyptians, Canadians, etc chiming in as well.


Everyone has their freak out "crap what am I gonna do for the rest of my life" moments. It's just my turn.

you can get into the industry just fine with a pharmD in the states. i mean maybe not doing pharmacology drug discovery work, but in the clinical departments for sure, in management or otherwise.

you can do clinical research too.

pharmD isn't limited to retail, and though it's not med school, pharm school can pose enough of an "intellectual" challenge if you're going for residencies and fellowships. i promise you getting into a good residency will be challenging in itself.

but idk, if you want something extremely challenging and patient-oriented why not just go to med school? why'd you pick pharmacy?

 

[charfdorn]

Yeah, the guy is from the UK. I was just using his viewpoints as an example. There were Americans, Egyptians, Canadians, etc chiming in as well.


Everyone has their freak out "crap what am I gonna do for the rest of my life" moments. It's just my turn.

My grandfather was one of the three smartest people I knew, and he was a career retail pharmacist.

Plenty of intelligent people do pharmacy. It's not as stressful as medicine but still a rewarding career, pays well, engages the critical apparatus, and deals with people. There are a lot of good things about it. If you want to stay away from too much clerical work, don't work for a retail chain. You can find jobs that are not mind-numbingly dull if you look for them. Research areas like consulting pharmacy, hospital/clinical, nuclear, home IV, and managed care.

 

[rxlynn]

Interesting - I've had a similar discussion with friends from
pharmacy school. If you have a passion for drugs and really devote yourself to the profession of pharmacy, then I think you will find that it is plenty intelluctually challenging. On the other hand, if you turn into a pharmacist who just wants to do the
minimum to get by, never reads a journal, never goes to a professional meeting, etc. then that's probably the type of pharmacist your mom is thinking of.

As other posters noted, practice site matters a LOT. Do what you need to do in school to give yourself additional experience and skills so that you will have options beyond CVS, Walgreens, R-A. And, it sounds sort of obvious or trite, but you should always attempt to do the best job you can. While in school you will have exposure to a lot of pharmacists. Be the student that everyone has good things to say about - you never know who might help you find the job you want.

 

[desler]

It's not about whether or not a profession has a clerical component or if it's dull or not, it's about whether the profession requires an intelligent brain to adequately perform their job, and in the case of pharmacy, you don't. IMO a studious and passionate person of average intelligence could be a great pharmacist, but never a great lawyer or a great engineer. You can bring up hospital pharmacy all you want but in the end, retail pharmacists and hospital pharmacists essentially do the same thing; just because one does less paperwork doesn't mean one is using more brain power.

But I don't believe intelligent people shouldn't do pharmacy. They can do whatever they want.

 

[rxlea]

It's not about whether or not a profession has a clerical component or if it's dull or not, it's about whether the profession requires an intelligent brain to adequately perform their job, and in the case of pharmacy, you don't. IMO a studious and passionate person of average intelligence could be a great pharmacist, but never a great lawyer or a great engineer. You can bring up hospital pharmacy all you want but in the end, retail pharmacists and hospital pharmacists essentially do the same thing; just because one does less paperwork doesn't mean one is using more brain power.

But I don't believe intelligent people shouldn't do pharmacy. They can do whatever they want.

Hmmm. how much pharmacy experience do you have?

 

[Passion4Sci]

My guess is 1 year as tech and still completing pre-requisites.

 

[SHC1984]

It's not about whether or not a profession has a clerical component or if it's dull or not, it's about whether the profession requires an intelligent brain to adequately perform their job, and in the case of pharmacy, you don't. IMO a studious and passionate person of average intelligence could be a great pharmacist, but never a great lawyer or a great engineer. You can bring up hospital pharmacy all you want but in the end, retail pharmacists and hospital pharmacists essentially do the same thing; just because one does less paperwork doesn't mean one is using more brain power.

But I don't believe intelligent people shouldn't do pharmacy. They can do whatever they want.

There are days in retail when customers would come in and ask very diffcult/hard to answer questions. The pharmacist will be require to answer every single question of every patient. You have to be intelligent to be able to answer everyone's questions.

 

[whatbout2morrow]

It's not about whether or not a profession has a clerical component or if it's dull or not, it's about whether the profession requires an intelligent brain to adequately perform their job, and in the case of pharmacy, you don't. IMO a studious and passionate person of average intelligence could be a great pharmacist, but never a great lawyer or a great engineer. You can bring up hospital pharmacy all you want but in the end, retail pharmacists and hospital pharmacists essentially do the same thing; just because one does less paperwork doesn't mean one is using more brain power.

But I don't believe intelligent people shouldn't do pharmacy. They can do whatever they want.

So basically you are saying that your major is pre-pharmacy rather than engineering or pre-law because you consider yourself unintelligent?

 

[beeny]

.

 

[rxlea]

In my experience there is a lot of following orders in pharmacy, particularly retail. Your job is to follow the orders of the doctors, the patients (to some extent), and definitely your authority figures in the retail pharmacy food chain. A pharmacist has to be intelligent to catch dosing mistakes, answer patient questions, etc but mostly pharmacists are there to take orders from everyone around them and do it with a smile even when they don't make much sense.

You and the bucko up there have a very limited perspective of pharmacy.

 

[Its Z]

my mom has been telling me again and again: "Pharmacy work is so much clerical (routine) work. You're such a smart girl. You could be pursuing something that would make much better use of your intelligence and potential.

"intelligent people should not do pharmacy"

Any thoughts?

Your mom is absolutely correct.. I chose pharmacy because I'm nowhere near intelligent. And no pharmacists I know are intelligent.

Now...what does your mom do?

 

[t3h50]

Your mom is absolutely correct.. I chose pharmacy because I'm nowhere near intelligent. And no pharmacists I know are intelligent.

Now...what does your mom do?

The original question posed doesn't have much to do with whether or not pharmacists are intelligent. Intelligence can be defined in so many ways (book smart, street smart, quick learner, 4.0 student, etc) and obviously there are intelligent people in many different fields. It doesn't really matter as long as you do your job well and you enjoy your job. Now, if you want to use this thread to discuss with others whether the pharmacist job requires a greater level of intelligence, go right ahead (as some others have done).

However, my original question has more to do with whether an "intelligent" person can be content doing pharmacy for the rest of his life, taking into consideration that an "intelligent" person might believe that he is intellectually/academically capable of achieving any profession that involves intellect (either in general or related to a subject that he excels at). The guy's viewpoint that I posted in the OP believes that you need intelligence and determination to learn the material required to become a pharmacist, but he says that "intelligent people should not do pharmacy" because in the long run they might get bored and seek a greater challenge. This is from an actual pharmacist. Obviously my mom doesn't know much about pharmacy, but she is in no way implying that pharmacists are unintelligent.

What I want to know is: Is it a challenge? Would you get bored? Is it intellectually stimulating (everyday? sometimes? how about after 40 years?) Would you ever have urges to switch to a different career based on the belief that you are capable of doing something else that might be more of a challenge? (Thanks to the people who already responded with their opinions on this matter.)

 

[charfdorn]

The original question posed doesn't have much to do with whether or not pharmacists are intelligent. Intelligence can be defined in so many ways (book smart, street smart, quick learner, 4.0 student, etc) and obviously there are intelligent people in many different fields. It doesn't really matter as long as you do your job well and you enjoy your job. Now, if you want to use this thread to discuss with others whether the pharmacist job requires a greater level of intelligence, go right ahead (as some others have done).

However, my original question has more to do with whether an "intelligent" person can be content doing pharmacy for the rest of his life, taking into consideration that an "intelligent" person might believe that he is intellectually/academically capable of achieving any profession that involves intellect (either in general or related to a subject that he excels at). The guy's viewpoint that I posted in the OP believes that you need intelligence and determination to learn the material required to become a pharmacist, but he says that "intelligent people should not do pharmacy" because in the long run they might get bored and seek a greater challenge. This is from an actual pharmacist. Obviously my mom doesn't know much about pharmacy, but she is in no way implying that pharmacists are unintelligent.

What I want to know is: Is it a challenge? Would you get bored? Is it intellectually stimulating (everyday? sometimes? how about after 40 years?) Would you ever have urges to switch to a different career based on the belief that you are capable of doing something else that might be more of a challenge? (Thanks to the people who already responded with their opinions on this matter.)

Oh, I see.

The more intelligent you are the more likely you are to become bored doing the same thing every day. Many sectors of pharmacy are like this; some are not. Retail pharmacy is extremely repetitive. 30 Lipitor, 30 Lipitor, 30 Lipitor, 180 Percocet, 120 Vicodin, 180 Percocet, 30 Lipitor, 6 Cipro, 30 Lipitor, 45 Lipitor?.... etc.... but a lot of jobs are that way, and there aren't enough non-repetitive jobs to go around for all the intelligent people out there. Is it so boring that you shouldn't do pharmacy as an intelligent person? Absolutely not.

 

[Passion4Sci]

Any intelligent person should want to work at Rite-Aid and make the WALL GREEN

 

[ShadowRX]

Any intelligent person should want to work at Rite-Aid and make the WALL GREEN

I do want to make my WALL GREEN. Lining it with money, along with the other ornate items I might buy with my high-paying job.

 

[PharmDWanabe]

Working a 'challenging' job has its downsides too. I would become so involved in my 'challenging' work that I missed meals, worked 12-16 hour days, became caffeine driven, and overall robotic. I realized that in my life I was "running on fumes" and this was a great way to get results at work, but a horrible way to live life or raise a family. What I learned in the end is that you really have to be honest with yourself (which may be difficult) and ask why you want job X.

Parents are sometimes the least useful people when making these decisions. If yours are like mine, they give priority in their decisions to everything I put low on the list: prestige and money.

My parents have a very pedestrian view of pharmacy too and I really couldn't care less if they think they have less to brag about at their next majong game.

But most importantly...
In no way do I think a career in pharmacy squanders any gifts.

 

[Trankuil]

Yeah, I realize that my mom might have an "oversimplified, pedestrian view of pharmacy", but then I ran across this discussion which had input from a lot of actual experienced pharmacists (from different types of pharmacy, not just retail) who either feel like they're just "going through the motions" or did a career change out of pharmacy, so I definitely didn't want to just ignore this concern. Thanks for the input.

There is a lot of negative vibe on this forum. I wouldnt base my decision solely on what people say online. There is some great information on these forums and I love them, but be sure to take some things with a grain of salt. A very small small percentage is represented here.

 

[Passion4Sci]

There is a lot of negative vibe on this forum. I wouldnt base my decision solely on what people say online. There is some great information on these forums and I love them, but be sure to take some things with a grain of salt. A very small small percentage is represented here.

Deja vuuuuuuuu.

I remember my first real "Holiday" job was a store called Mervyn's. It's now defunct, a result of the economy collapse. Anyway... At orientation, they said, "I want everyone to write down on this paper what they remember most about their last customer service experience". 19 out of 20 of us wrote down negative experiences. Why? As human beings, we catalog negative before positive, and as a whole, we are very much more vocal about negative than positive.

Therefore, take negativity with a grain of salt, OP.

 

[Trankuil]

Deja vuuuuuuuu.

I hadnt read that far down yet okay!?!?!?

 

[SHC1984]

Working a 'challenging' job has its downsides too. I would become so involved in my 'challenging' work that I missed meals, worked 12-16 hour days, became caffeine driven, and overall robotic. I realized that in my life I was "running on fumes" and this was a great way to get results at work, but a horrible way to live life or raise a family. What I learned in the end is that you really have to be honest with yourself (which may be difficult) and ask why you want job X.

That's what I am saying. I don't see why anyone would want a challenging career if the money is the same as a regular career. If the pay is exactly the same I would choose the career that is the least stressful. why would anyone want MORE stress for the same amount of pay?

if a pharmacist gets 100K a year no matter what, then why choose to take on more responsability? Let the physican take all the work if they want it. Why fight with them to get rights to prescribe? LOL...that isn't going to increase your salary, so just let them do it. One less thing I will have to do for the SAME salary. Same with the immunzations, just let the physicans do it. It isn't like its going to increase your salary anyways.

 

[koercive]

Everyone forgets that there's many paths in pharmacy that don't involve traditional work. An intelligent person will recognize and pursue opportunites that fit their liking whether it's retail, industry, clinical, etc. People (especially the general public) only see and hear about one or two cases of people hating their job and making assumptions/generalizations about the entire profession.

 

[Its Z]

I would like to know of work that's not so routine driven?

Because I'm fairly unintelligent, I chose pharmacy...

I get to my office at around 8 ish.. usually unshaven..hair scruffy.. well, it's a home office so no once can see me and since I don't use an iphone 4... I turn my computer on then crawl over to kitchen to grind coffee beans and make a large pot of coffee on my 18 year old braun coffee maker.

Then I check emails.. typically all different information and requests. I get random phone calls from directors, clinical managers, and RVP about different stuff. Then some random gossip phone calls from colleagues on "hey have you heard..."

I respond to emails, check financials for different hospitals...read some studies...put together reports and presentations...snack on food...drink more coffee...post on SDN... and next thing you know, It's 5pm..

Good thing I chose this painfully boring and dull routine of work..

Wait...that's jut 50% of my work. Then when I'm not in the office, I put on my suit and tie then hit the road and visit my hospitals... usually meet with administrator for 15 minutes... then BS with DOPs and Clinical managers for an hour...if I can convince them for me to buy them lunch, then more better. But since they're busy people, I have a rule..not to take up too much of their time. If I'm visiting other hospitals... I usually stay overnite at a hotel.. it gets old though... I usually eat dinner alone...go back to the hotel then run some more reports etc.. then I can't wait to get home.

I'm glad because of my unintelligence I ended up getting into pharmacy to do monotonous routine clerical work.. I travel to exotic states ... now that's gotten a little old too.

all hail to routine clerical pharmacy work!

 

[desklamp]

Hmmm. how much pharmacy experience do you have?

lol evidently not enough to know what "clinical pharmacist" actually entails. maybe he's thinking of the staff pharmacist.

that aside, people really need to be educated on the field of pharmacy, or else the field needs a huge overhaul into a better direction.

it seems everyone i talk to (myself included, before I applied) just equates "pharmacist" with CVS and Walgreens.

 

[desklamp]

The original question posed doesn't have much to do with whether or not pharmacists are intelligent. Intelligence can be defined in so many ways (book smart, street smart, quick learner, 4.0 student, etc) and obviously there are intelligent people in many different fields. It doesn't really matter as long as you do your job well and you enjoy your job. Now, if you want to use this thread to discuss with others whether the pharmacist job requires a greater level of intelligence, go right ahead (as some others have done).

However, my original question has more to do with whether an "intelligent" person can be content doing pharmacy for the rest of his life, taking into consideration that an "intelligent" person might believe that he is intellectually/academically capable of achieving any profession that involves intellect (either in general or related to a subject that he excels at). The guy's viewpoint that I posted in the OP believes that you need intelligence and determination to learn the material required to become a pharmacist, but he says that "intelligent people should not do pharmacy" because in the long run they might get bored and seek a greater challenge. This is from an actual pharmacist. Obviously my mom doesn't know much about pharmacy, but she is in no way implying that pharmacists are unintelligent.

What I want to know is: Is it a challenge? Would you get bored? Is it intellectually stimulating (everyday? sometimes? how about after 40 years?) Would you ever have urges to switch to a different career based on the belief that you are capable of doing something else that might be more of a challenge? (Thanks to the people who already responded with their opinions on this matter.)

Isn't your job (for the most part) what you make of it? Can you really define an entire career field as intellectually stimulating, or not? Well okay, in some cases perhaps, such as working in research, or being a doctor. But take careers like "engineer" and "lawyer" as someone was quick to point out. You can be a low level engineer that crunches numbers every day, or an engineer that is primarily responsible for designing cutting edge biomedical technology. I don't even want to talk about lawyers, because the majority of the people I know in law school are ******ed. But even so, to be a top tier law school graduate and function as a "good" lawyer, there's a lot of logic involved there.

Even in research, which was the field I used to work in, the hierarchy ranges from lowly tech to the guy who is first author of almost every single paper coming out of the lab.

Pharmacy is just like every other doctorate-level career. You can be a drone, and sit behind a counter filling out prescriptions, in which case, no, you probably would not find that to be intellectually challenging. But you can become part of a health care team working to optimize medication efficacy, even making recommendations to the doctors based on their diagnoses. Or you can do clinical research to improve hospital function and care, direct clinical trials at a pharmaceutical company...work at the CDC...a lot of things that require critical thinking.

I mean honestly, you should be looking at the "career ceiling" to determine the potential of careers, not the subject itself. Like if you're a garbage man, the best you can become is what, garbage manager...or if you're a burger flipper the best you can become is a burger...manager. So maybe yeah, avoid those kinds of jobs if you value intellectual stimulation.

Anyway, I said it before, but yes, I think a reasonably intelligent person can be happy in the field of pharmacy. I assume by "intelligent" you aren't talking about MENSA level genius who wants to be president of the world and win the nobel peace prize and can do 2000000320402343 calculations per second while curing babies of being ridiculously loud and obnoxious at the worst possible times. and also aids.

 

[beeny]

You and the bucko up there have a very limited perspective of pharmacy.

I don't know about the other one, but this bucko has worked in hospital, retail and home care settings. I actually have quite a variety of pharmacy experience over a period of 3 years.

 

[IndustryPharmD]

Your mom is absolutely correct.. I chose pharmacy because I'm nowhere near intelligent. And no pharmacists I know are intelligent.

Shall I take personal offense to that, or just consider that you don't really know me?

 

[Its Z]

Shall I take personal offense to that, or just consider that you don't really know me?

Define "know"... "know" as in biblical "know?"

Then "No" I don't "Know" you..

 

[KARM12]

Define "know"... "know" as in biblical "know?"

Then "No" I don't "Know" you..

What is considered an exotic state?

 

[UofK]

Isn't your job (for the most part) what you make of it? Can you really define an entire career field as intellectually stimulating, or not? Well okay, in some cases perhaps, such as working in research, or being a doctor. But take careers like "engineer" and "lawyer" as someone was quick to point out. You can be a low level engineer that crunches numbers every day, or an engineer that is primarily responsible for designing cutting edge biomedical technology. I don't even want to talk about lawyers, because the majority of the people I know in law school are ******ed. But even so, to be a top tier law school graduate and function as a "good" lawyer, there's a lot of logic involved there.

Even in research, which was the field I used to work in, the hierarchy ranges from lowly tech to the guy who is first author of almost every single paper coming out of the lab.

Pharmacy is just like every other doctorate-level career. You can be a drone, and sit behind a counter filling out prescriptions, in which case, no, you probably would not find that to be intellectually challenging. But you can become part of a health care team working to optimize medication efficacy, even making recommendations to the doctors based on their diagnoses. Or you can do clinical research to improve hospital function and care, direct clinical trials at a pharmaceutical company...work at the CDC...a lot of things that require critical thinking.

I mean honestly, you should be looking at the "career ceiling" to determine the potential of careers, not the subject itself. Like if you're a garbage man, the best you can become is what, garbage manager...or if you're a burger flipper the best you can become is a burger...manager. So maybe yeah, avoid those kinds of jobs if you value intellectual stimulation.

Anyway, I said it before, but yes, I think a reasonably intelligent person can be happy in the field of pharmacy. I assume by "intelligent" you aren't talking about MENSA level genius who wants to be president of the world and win the nobel peace prize and can do 2000000320402343 calculations per second while curing babies of being ridiculously loud and obnoxious at the worst possible times. and also aids.

Well said.

 

[Its Z]

What is considered an exotic state?

Tropical island considered US Territory.

 

[IndustryPharmD]

Define "know"... "know" as in biblical "know?"

Then "No" I don't "Know" you..

Texans and their Bibles.

 

[rxlea]

I don't know about the other one, but this bucko has worked in hospital, retail and home care settings. I actually have quite a variety of pharmacy experience over a period of 3 years and I stick by my assessment of the profession.

Oh, interesting. What do you do at the hospital?

 

[IndustryPharmD]

Speaking of intelligence... one certainly doesn't need to be very intelligent to get through pharmacy school or to work in many pharmacy jobs. Anal-retentive detail-oriented is more like it. But if you ARE intelligent (and have common sense AND determination, which is not a very common combination), then you can go very far with a pharmacy degree.

There are no degrees that guarantee intellectually stimulating jobs. And what is intellectually stimulating to one person, may bore another to tears. If you are intelligent, your degree doesn't limit you in any way, but rather becomes just another tool in your toolbox. If you aren't... well, no degree is going to cure that.

 

[Its Z]

Speaking of intelligence... one certainly doesn't need to be very intelligent to get through pharmacy school or to work in many pharmacy jobs. Anal-retentive detail-oriented is more like it. But if you ARE intelligent (and have common sense AND determination, which is not a very common combination), then you can go very far with a pharmacy degree.

There are no degrees that guarantee intellectually stimulating jobs. And what is intellectually stimulating to one person, may bore another to tears. If you are intelligent, your degree doesn't limit you in any way, but rather becomes just another tool in your toolbox. If you aren't... well, no degree is going to cure that.

Did you just call me boring?