Is it worth becoming a pharmacist anymore?

Started by student12399
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Ackj said:
I don't do starbucks either. Stains your teeth and burns the wallet. But I certainly don't plan on buying too quickly, no idea where in the world I will be in the next few years, so certainly can't have a house tie me down to one spot. But I figure it will take a while to save toward it, so might as well start now. When there is more in that savings account, maybe I'll consider getting a financial guy. Don't think anything outside of a casino can turn a mere $1000 into a house.
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🙂 Good. I go w/ the guy cuz he earned my trust.😏:shy::smug::smuggrin:I rarely spy on him much any more.😵 The thing is I lack passion for the:yawn: market. I want to follow pharmacy :woot:so I do. Like the others mentioned there are other ways and that is great as long as you keep up and are satisfied with the result. 🤣
 
I think this field has finally reached its market saturation. But at the same time there are old pharmacists retiring so the younger generation can fill the spots.

I do agree when the cost of schooling is More than your projected salary , it would not make sense to choose that career.
 
:LOL::LOL: even you america ???????
oh, my god ... what should i say about pharmacist in my home ???
 
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subieazndoll said:
I think this field has finally reached its market saturation. But at the same time there are old pharmacists retiring so the younger generation can fill the spots.

I do agree when the cost of schooling is More than your projected salary , it would not make sense to choose that career.
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Do you know why so many boomer pharmacists aren't retiring? They're trying to paying for their kids' college. What a vicious quandry we have.
 
grumps said:
Do you know why so many boomer pharmacists aren't retiring? They're trying to paying for their kids' college. What a vicious quandry we have.
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I've said this before, but one of the pharmacists I know always says, "Pharmacists don't retire, they die."
 
BeLikeBueller said:
I've said this before, but one of the pharmacists I know always says, "Pharmacists don't retire, they die."
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I thought the punchline was "lose their potency" but yeah, I know of quite a few pharmacists who are 60+ with no plan of retiring anytime soon.
 
DON'T GO TO PHARMACY SCHOOL! BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE! I'm a P3 now so I'm in too deep to quit, but man I wish I had gotten better advice or did more research about the job market. Definitely my fault. I have talked many people out of going to pharmacy school. It's no longer a good career. I'm going graduate with 150K in debt and who knows where I'll find a job. I definitely won't find a job in San Diego, where all my family and friends live. I'll probably be miserable thousands of miles away in a s*** area. I should have sucked it up and gone to med school. That's my advice to you. Go to med school or become a PA. Just trying to be real with some of you young folks thinking of applying.
 
I have friends in pharmacy school who are looking at $100K cars and million dollar homes that they plan to buy few years after graduation. They've been told that ACA will provide more avenues for them to become primary care providers, which will eventually fetch them higher salaries ranging from mid $200K plus.
 
BeLikeBueller said:
As a student soon to come face-to-face with the current job market, my answer would be "probably not."

If you try to be a good student, you will work your butt off in pharmacy school, thinking you're going to get out and change the world. Then, when you start getting close to graduation, you begin to realize that rather than hoping to change the world, you're just hoping to land a job so that you can pay your loans off. The example I give everyone... In a major hospital near my school, one staff pharmacy position had (I think) 150 + applications. So imagine competing for a job in a market where there are 150 applicants for one position. Now of course it isn't this bad everywhere, but from what I've heard, if you're looking at any major market, getting a job is a long shot. But I'm still a student, so I will ultimately defer to the practicing pharmacists on the job market.

If you are really truly interested in health care, go nursing, PA, or MD. Nursing and PA will likely be able to write their tickets with the coming changes in healthcare though, so keep that in mind.

You have to keep in mind that almost all jobs have crappy prospects right now, it's just that with pharmacy, you're tacking on a lot of additional loans. So as someone above said, it's definitely a risk vs. benefit thing...
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This is a good post and pretty much sums up how I feel about the job market. I thought pharmacy would be a great career in health care, one where you could really make a difference and have the flexibility to live wherever you wanted in the U.S., all while making a great income.

I like my job. I like my income (though it would be so much better if I didn't have to make these tedious loan payments every month).

I don't really like where I live. It feels like I live in the dead zone, though I try to make the best of it and be grateful that I have a decent job.

I didn't match to a residency, so it seems a lot of jobs are closed off to me. Certainly the unicorn jobs are.
 
medicinegal said:
I have friends in pharmacy school who are looking at $100K cars and million dollar homes that they plan to buy few years after graduation. They've been told that ACA will provide more avenues for them to become primary care providers, which will eventually fetch them higher salaries ranging from mid $200K plus.
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Is that true? in the mid $200K plus which not even reached by some current primary MDs . I suspect ACA is inflating the numbers. Think about it, the whole purpose of having allied health to become pseudoMDs and providing care is to lower the cost which can be translated into lower salary to hire a non-MD to do the same task. Just a thought.
 
medicinegal said:
I have friends in pharmacy school who are looking at $100K cars and million dollar homes that they plan to buy few years after graduation. They've been told that ACA will provide more avenues for them to become primary care providers, which will eventually fetch them higher salaries ranging from mid $200K plus.
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your friends sound like idiots
 
Another thing worth noting.. many people make their value/worth decisions independent of financial concerns.

Some people (like myself) just *really* want to be pharmacists because they enjoy it. For us, salary to debt ratio isn't as important. When I did cost/benefit analysis for the student loan plan, pharmacist starting salaries were in the mid to high $30's .. so making 50% more than I expected originally is gravy.

Pharmacy isn't worth it if you are in it for the money. Its definitely still worth it if you enjoy and are good at it.
 
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type b pharmD said:
Another thing worth noting.. many people make their value/worth decisions independent of financial concerns.

Some people (like myself) just *really* want to be pharmacists because they enjoy it. For us, salary to debt ratio isn't as important. When I did cost/benefit analysis for the student loan plan, pharmacist starting salaries were in the mid to high $30's .. so making 50% more than I expected originally is gravy.

Pharmacy isn't worth it if you are in it for the money. Its definitely still worth it if you enjoy and are good at it.
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Very good post! Regardless of the money I enjoy what I do 🙂
 
fauxden said:
your friends sound like idiots
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LOL I agree! They belong to some pharmacy honor society though, Rho Chi. 😛 I went to one of their meetings where the "expanded" role of pharmacists was thoroughly discussed. And they bought it!
 
benjee said:
Is that true? in the mid $200K plus which not even reached by some current primary MDs . I suspect ACA is inflating the numbers. Think about it, the whole purpose of having allied health to become pseudoMDs and providing care is to lower the cost which can be translated into lower salary to hire a non-MD to do the same task. Just a thought.
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ACA is not doing that. Their pharmacist professors are!
 
Here in Vegas the pharmacists I work with have atleast 2 -3 jobs one full time and per diem on weekends! To get into the profession u have to know people these days.
 
subieazndoll said:
Here in Vegas the pharmacists I work with have atleast 2 -3 jobs one full time and per diem on weekends! To get into the profession u have to know people these days.
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at least 2-3 full-time jobs plus per diem on the weekend? That's 80-120 hours a week plus per diem hours. You know there's only 168 hours in a week right?
 
BMBiology said:
at least 2-3 full-time jobs plus per diem on the weekend? That's 80-120 hours a week plus per diem hours. You know there's only 168 hours in a week right?
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No you misunderstood. it's "2-3 jobs ONE full time and per diem on weekends". reread the post.
 
MatCauthon said:
Lol. I paid over 41k in my loans last year. If you want to be aggressive you can wipe out that loan real quick.
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Amen to that. I was super aggressive too 70k in one year. I've been done, just stashing it away at this point. lol
 
BenJammin said:
I really don't understand all the depressing comments. Is the job market hard? Yes but so is every other job in America. If you're going into a profession for the sole reason that you'll be guaranteed a job then you're probably someone I would avoid trying to hire.
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Not medicine, hopefully our leaders are smart enough to see what happened to law, pharm, etc and stop opening new schools.
 
EMDO2018 said:
Not medicine, hopefully our leaders are smart enough to see what happened to law, pharm, etc and stop opening new schools.
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Yeah...you'd think the accrediting body for pharmacy schools would get with it, but clearly not...


It seems like docs could afford a few more stateside schools though? Y'all are just in trouble because of foreign medical graduates, it seems. Heard about the predictions for the match next year 🙁
 
We Don't need any more new med schools, as the number of US MD/DO schools are increased FMG's will be pushed out of the match. Thankfully, program directors prefer us grads. There have been 9 MD schools and 5 DO schools that opened up in the past 6. years.
 
EMDO2018 said:
We Don't need any more new med schools, as the number of US MD/DO schools are increased FMG's will be pushed out of the match. Thankfully, program directors prefer us grads. There have been 9 MD schools and 5 DO schools that opened up in the past 6. years.
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I didn't know there had been that many in such a short period of time...yeah, y'all better slow it down.

It's all about the money though...they realize there is money to be made in gouging students who want to go into career fields that have traditionally been very desirable.
 
student12399 said:
Like the title asks, what do you guys think? Any pre-pharm/pharm students or actual pharmacists have any say? I'd love to hear it!
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Pharmacist salary is the next U.S. financial bubble. The entire system is broken and unsustainable. The Demand of pharmacy services is increasing but the conditions under which the service should be provided are so adverse that it is not economicaly viable for any company or independent. As in any bubble crisis, the bubble is in need to deflate and the whole system needs to reset from cero. In one hand you have big salaries for pharmacist and in the other you have the PBMs trying to squeez every penny out from the service. The bubble deflation is going to star with the job over saturation we are going to face within the next 2 or 3 years. New graduates are going to be desparate to acept jobs for 25.00 dolars per hour or less and the big chains are going to take advantage of that. I see future in pharmacy but not as shiny as it used to be. Those who have a job, try to keep good care of it and plan to stay out of debt for when the salary deflation become a reality. For those already studing under student loans, sorry there is not much you can do but to do what many americans are doing now, work 2 jobs in order to pay off the loans. Sadly the truth.
 
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lamasacrerx said:
Pharmacist salary is the next U.S. financial bubble. The entire system is broken and unsustainable. The Demand of pharmacy services is increasing but the conditions under which the service should be provided are so adverse that it is not economicaly viable for any company or independent. As in any bubble crisis, the bubble is in need to deflate and the whole system needs to reset from cero. In one hand you have big salaries for pharmacist and in the other you have the PBMs trying to squeez every penny out from the service. The bubble deflation is going to star with the job over saturation we are going to face within the next 2 or 3 years. New graduates are going to be desparate to acept jobs for 25.00 dolars per hour or less and the big chains are going to take advantage of that. I see future in pharmacy but not as shiny as it used to be. Those who have a job, try to keep good care of it and plan to stay out of debt for when the salary deflation become a reality. For those already studing under student loans, sorry there is not much you can do but to do what many americans are doing now, work 2 jobs in order to pay off the loans. Sadly the truth.
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I couldn't agree with you more. However, people on these pharmacy forums will choose not to believe a word and claim that you are a troll. 😉
 
lamasacrerx said:
Pharmacist salary is the next U.S. financial bubble. The entire system is broken and unsustainable. The Demand of pharmacy services is increasing but the conditions under which the service should be provided are so adverse that it is not economicaly viable for any company or independent. As in any bubble crisis, the bubble is in need to deflate and the whole system needs to reset from cero. In one hand you have big salaries for pharmacist and in the other you have the PBMs trying to squeez every penny out from the service. The bubble deflation is going to star with the job over saturation we are going to face within the next 2 or 3 years. New graduates are going to be desparate to acept jobs for 25.00 dolars per hour or less and the big chains are going to take advantage of that. I see future in pharmacy but not as shiny as it used to be. Those who have a job, try to keep good care of it and plan to stay out of debt for when the salary deflation become a reality. For those already studing under student loans, sorry there is not much you can do but to do what many americans are doing now, work 2 jobs in order to pay off the loans. Sadly the truth.
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Why would you even bother accepting such a **** salary of $25/hr in retail, especially when you consider the work conditions? Are you kidding me? You might as well work as a bartender and you can easily make $25/hr in tips all while having some fun and not having a license on the line. I know a few people who never even attended college or professional school and they make upwards of $25/hr as bartenders. One makes close to $75,000/year working at a bar in Key West, Florida. LOL- why you would accept a pharmacist position for such a low-ball salary while still maintaining a high level of responsibility and arduous workload is beyond me.
 
If you're in the "I like healthcare but I don't have the time/etc... to go full on MD/DO" boat, then pharmacy isn't worth it...go for the growth areas like NP. My gut says this mid-level will strike gold with all the hosing physicians will be getting going forward.

Like I said before, stakeholders want physician-like services for a discount price.

If you sincerely like pharmacy, the only way it will pay off for you is if a) you attend a good program (note, I didn't say "established" program), b) you keep your total debt to 1-1.5x your expected 1 year gross salary earnings, and c) are confident enough in your job hunting prowess that employment may not be that big of an issue after rx school.

So....

If you're a gunner going to UCSF w/ total debt < $160k and network really well, go for it.

If you're a hermit barely skating by going to Touro NY w/ total debt > 200k and you spend all of your days locked up in a closet studying...that's probably a bad deal (unless you're Sparda).
 
medicinegal said:
I have friends in pharmacy school who are looking at $100K cars and million dollar homes that they plan to buy few years after graduation. They've been told that ACA will provide more avenues for them to become primary care providers, which will eventually fetch them higher salaries ranging from mid $200K plus.
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🙄 This is nothing new. 25 years ago, when I went back to school, I had a classmate in General Chemistry I who said he wanted to be a pharmacist so he could have a Porsche by the time he was 30. He failed that class terribly and switched his major to business.
 
rph3664 said:
🙄 This is nothing new. 25 years ago, when I went back to school, I had a classmate in General Chemistry I who said he wanted to be a pharmacist so he could have a Porsche by the time he was 30. He failed that class terribly and switched his major to business.
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There you go...if you want money, go for tech/business. All my business/finance/IT friends are the ones driving up all that real estate costs in San Francisco. Granted, I can hang when we go out for dinner and drinks, but they're at a whole different level. I gotta drive home to my affordable suburbs, they'll take Uber home to their $1-1.5M condos in SoMA.
 
GO TO PHARMACY SCHOOL if you want to. There are jobs and there will always be jobs in most healthcare fields. Some people are just too nervous to compete down the road and they want everything to favor them in the future. They're trying to discourage younger folks from coming into the profession. I witnessed this sort of thing during my rotations. Don't listen to all the nonsense about student loans and no jobs. Do what you want to do!
 
1fabiola said:
GO TO PHARMACY SCHOOL if you want to. There are jobs and there will always be jobs in most healthcare fields. Some people are just too nervous to compete down the road and they want everything to favor them in the future. They're trying to discourage younger folks from coming into the profession. I witnessed this sort of thing during my rotations. Don't listen to all the nonsense about student loans and no jobs. Do what you want to do!
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"most" therefore not "all"

Just like how house prices will never drop, travel agents will never go away, and no one in their right mind would buy a personal computer...

..oops.

Yah do what you want to do and ignore actual practitioners in the field and listen to some random person who joined a message board today, that's a great way to go through life. Hahahha.
 
1fabiola said:
The best way to compete is to tell my opponents not to show up because they might lose!
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new grads aren't competing with residency-trained/multi-year experienced practitioners. If I tell some kid today to avoid pharmacy school, by the time they finish prereqs/BS/BA, rx school, and PGY1....they'll enter the job market in the year 2020 at the earliest (2 + 4 + 1).

Wow, you're really dumb, but it's entertaining, so keep going.
 
1fabiola said:
The best way to compete is to tell my opponents not to show up because they might lose!
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Why would you think that? We are here to inform and to be informed. We all know there is no stopping these pharmacy schools from flooding the market with unemployed pharmacists. The only difference now is that they are scraping the bottom of the barrel for new students.
 

Would like to know the employers who offered that kinda money. Everyone I know is getting $118,000 to $134,000. Now, there are some companies out there that won't offer u as much, but your QOL @ the job might be a whole lot better. I heard Harris Teeter Pharmacy is one of those.
 
[quoretail places. 1fabiola, post: 14611749, member: 580279"]Would like to know the employers who offered that kinda money. Everyone I know is getting $118,000 to $134,000. Now, there are some companies out there that won't offer u as much, but your QOL @ the job might be a whole lot better. I heard Harris Teeter Pharmacy is one of those.[/quote]


Non retail places. retail around here is 120k
 
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if this is what you are dreaming for, and if you have a plan of what to do, then go for it! No one can tell you what to do.

However, if you are doing pharmD for money and safety, you need to do more research on future outlook of field of pharmacy.
 
confettiflyer said:
new grads aren't competing with residency-trained/multi-year experienced practitioners. If I tell some kid today to avoid pharmacy school, by the time they finish prereqs/BS/BA, rx school, and PGY1....they'll enter the job market in the year 2020 at the earliest (2 + 4 + 1).

Wow, you're really dumb, but it's entertaining, so keep going.
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That's how we know you're losing the debate... You've run out of the right vocabulary to make the right argument. No one is talking about competing today or a year or two from now. It could even be 10 years from now, but the bottom line is that some of you cannot sleep at night because you're afraid these young kids will cause your salaries to go downhill. Stop using scare tactics; let kids do what they want. You haven't shown me any numbers.
 
1fabiola said:
That's how we know you're losing the debate... You've run out of the right vocabulary to make the right argument. No one is talking about competing today or a year or two from now. It could even be 10 years from now, but the bottom line is that some of you cannot sleep at night because you're afraid these young kids will cause your salaries to go downhill. Stop using scare tactics; let kids do what they want. You haven't shown me any numbers.
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you're worse than the pre-med troll, this post made no sense.
 
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