Jobs in saturated market

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Alaskanpharmacist101

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Hello, I know that the job market for pharmacist is getting worse day by day, and it will only get worse as time goes by. This saturation is giving all pre pharmacy/ pharmacy students/ pharmacists a LOT of stress. So, lets start a thread where we discuss some of the positive sides and relive everyone's stress. So just to start us off, I heard of a friend who was offered a full time pharmacy manager job in Bettles, Alaska. He did not have to do a residency and was offered the job during his P4 spring semester. I heard from him that he was offered $193,000/year salary, with a relocation bonus and he is eligible for more bonuses based on yearly profits. What a great opportunity! I'm so happy for my friend. Anyone else here hear about any other stories?
 
There's no pharmacy in Bettles, Alaska.

According to the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development (see link and screenshots below), there are 72 retail pharmacies licensed to do business in Alaska. CVS has four stores (2 in Anchorage, 2 in Wasilla); Walmart has ten stores (4 Anchorage, 1 each Wasilla, Eagle River, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Kenai, Fairbanks).



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Reminds me of the person who had to relocate to Barrows, Alaska (now Utqiagvik) just to have a job. Fun fact: Utqiagvik is located at the northern tip of Alaska and borders the Arctic Ocean.

This was back in 2013.
 
Alaska seems to be the prime spot to start off with a job in Pharmacy. Friend of friend said she was offered $150k a year for a 2 year contract to work in Alaska. It sounds very nice but you have to take into account that Alaska actually has fairly expensive housing and utility cost so they have to offer more to make it worth the stay.
 
Alaskanpharmacist101 said:
Hello, I know that the job market for pharmacist is getting worse day by day, and it will only get worse as time goes by. This saturation is giving all pre pharmacy/ pharmacy students/ pharmacists a LOT of stress. So, lets start a thread where we discuss some of the positive sides and relive everyone's stress. So just to start us off, I heard of a friend who was offered a full time pharmacy manager job in Bettles, Alaska. He did not have to do a residency and was offered the job during his P4 spring semester. I heard from him that he was offered $193,000/year salary, with a relocation bonus and he is eligible for more bonuses based on yearly profits. What a great opportunity! I'm so happy for my friend. Anyone else here hear about any other stories?
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What do prepharms have to be stressed about? They haven't paid a dime to pharmacy school yet. It's easy for them to do something else. I can see why pharmacy students are stressed since they're already 50-200k in the hole.
 
My workplace is hiring a few rphs. Of course there were dozens of applicants for it. We are in the process of sending offers. Sure hope my new coworkers doesn't suck.
 
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Maybe it’s for a caretaker-HVAC-house cleaner-chef-snowshoveller pharmacist position.

Oh, the many things you can do with a PharmD.
 
Alaskanpharmacist101 said:
Hello, I know that the job market for pharmacist is getting worse day by day, and it will only get worse as time goes by. This saturation is giving all pre pharmacy/ pharmacy students/ pharmacists a LOT of stress. So, lets start a thread where we discuss some of the positive sides and relive everyone's stress. So just to start us off, I heard of a friend who was offered a full time pharmacy manager job in Bettles, Alaska. He did not have to do a residency and was offered the job during his P4 spring semester. I heard from him that he was offered $193,000/year salary, with a relocation bonus and he is eligible for more bonuses based on yearly profits. What a great opportunity! I'm so happy for my friend. Anyone else here hear about any other stories?
Click to expand...
Sounds like total bullsh** but to make more sense out of this, a can of soda in that area is probably $6 since it’s $4 in kotzebue. So after you subtract all the expenses because shi* is 10 to 15 times more expensive in that location, it’s really not much.
 
Just for laughs, I heard from the same friend that their pharmacy is always out of meds for the patients to get refills on as the trucks frequently get lost or stranded in snowstorms. At one time they were operating the pharmacy with literally 18 of the 100+ medications that they are supposed to carry. (I feel like this is such an easy job b/c you you don't really do anything when you're out of meds... just making free money standing there.) Also, apparently it's so cold in Bettles that their pharmacy doesn't even have a fridge... they bury their refrigerated meds under inches of snow. Apparently, their pharmacy has gone through 3 techs already... lost 2 of them from amputation due to a frostbite
 
It does sound funny. The thing is that they can still easily find somebody to work there at $200000/year rate right now. They don`t have to wait for your friend unless your friend brings something that the employer want. Maybe your friend is very local with all his/her family and friends available in the area. This alone could be favorable reason for that employer to consider your friends among all other pharmacists who are eager to take the job. It is actually hard to make people stay away from their family and friend especially in such harsh environment.
 
Alaskanpharmacist101 said:
Just for laughs, I heard from the same friend that their pharmacy is always out of meds for the patients to get refills on as the trucks frequently get lost or stranded in snowstorms. At one time they were operating the pharmacy with literally 18 of the 100+ medications that they are supposed to carry. (I feel like this is such an easy job b/c you you don't really do anything when you're out of meds... just making free money standing there.) Also, apparently it's so cold in Bettles that their pharmacy doesn't even have a fridge... they bury their refrigerated meds under inches of snow. Apparently, their pharmacy has gone through 3 techs already... lost 2 of them from amputation due to a frostbite
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Are these legit stories or what? They bury their refrigerated meds under snow? So do they just stick a thermometer and log the temperatures hoping it'll stay consistent within range then bring it inside the pharmacy after and stick it in a real fridge? Now is it consider refrigerated or frozen under snow? Is this the same friend making $200K a year? Hmmmm.. It just sounds like your friend is still unemployed and making up stuff to keep you off his/her back loll
 
rxkrafted said:
Are these legit stories or what? They bury their refrigerated meds under snow? So do they just stick a thermometer and log the temperatures hoping it'll stay consistent within range then bring it inside the pharmacy after and stick it in a real fridge? Now is it consider refrigerated or frozen under snow? Is this the same friend making $200K a year? Hmmmm.. It just sounds like your friend is still unemployed and making up stuff to keep you off his/her back loll
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If they bury meds under the snow they would freeze.
 
@CNJ_Anon you do make a very good point. You're probably right, but I am not sure if my friend runs an unlicensed pharmacy in Bettles, Alaska. I only text him from time to time to ask him about these things as I am going through the pharmacy curriculum right now.
 
Alaskanpharmacist101 said:
@CNJ_Anon you do make a very good point. You're probably right, but I am not sure if my friend runs an unlicensed pharmacy in Bettles, Alaska. I only text him from time to time to ask him about these things as I am going through the pharmacy curriculum right now.
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Lol so you have a drug dealer friend in Alaska who stores his med stock under snow
 
Alaskanpharmacist101 said:
Hello, I know that the job market for pharmacist is getting worse day by day, and it will only get worse as time goes by. This saturation is giving all pre pharmacy/ pharmacy students/ pharmacists a LOT of stress. So, lets start a thread where we discuss some of the positive sides and relive everyone's stress. So just to start us off, I heard of a friend who was offered a full time pharmacy manager job in Bettles, Alaska. He did not have to do a residency and was offered the job during his P4 spring semester. I heard from him that he was offered $193,000/year salary, with a relocation bonus and he is eligible for more bonuses based on yearly profits. What a great opportunity! I'm so happy for my friend. Anyone else here hear about any other stories?
Click to expand...
This is a lie. I lived in a so called town in Alaska. In places with 12 people there is no hospital or pharmacy. Medications get shipped and dropped in to places like these from larger towns of say 3000. For example most of the little "cities" you see on the map in Alaska are not really cities, they are more like villages with populations mostly less than 300 I'd say. In the Northwest the town of Kotzebue ships out meds to about 13 or so villages around them, like Kivalina, Selawik, Buckland, Pt. Hope, and there are more. The town of Nome and Barrow do the same. The meds get shipped in and given to the patient though assistants that live in these places and meds and questions or verifications are done via a video to the pharmacist in the large towns (which are hardly towns) like Kotzebue, Nome and Barrow. There is a village pharmacist siting at a computer doing tele work with these places. I recently drove through some very small towns in Wyoming and South Dakota on the way to see Mount Rushmore. In one there was a sign that said population 64. There's no hospital in places like this lol. Takes you a second to drive by. There are quite a few people on this forum that post bullsh**.
 
193k for a pharmacy job with a town that has no pharmacy. Sounds legit.
 
stoichiometrist said:
Plot twist: the patients are actually polar bears.
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I texted my friend and he said this is some serious matter. Even polar bears deserve treatment. If he gives the wrong medications for the polar bears the Alaska State Board of Pharmacy would come in to give him some disciplinary action. Last time he got a warning because the refrigerated meds that he buries in snow happened to get in a polar bear den, all of those meds were lost. Also I learned that his pharmacy operates underground which is why the statistics for Bettles, Alaska shows 0 pharmacies in the area. My friend said that they don't count underground fully-operational pharmacies for some odd reason.
 
What was your ultimate goal in this troll thread? To see how many people would fall for your bait and call them dumb in the end?
 
DagS132 said:
What was your ultimate goal in this troll thread? To see how many people would fall for your bait and call them dumb in the end?
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If we post negativity and doom and gloom you guys complain. There is finally a positive thread and you complain too, we can't win.
 
rxkrafted said:
I heard your friend got written up because one of the polar bears called corporate
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I heard a polar bear almost mauled their friend to death for not filling oxys 10 days early. There seems to be an opioid crisis going on in the polar bear population in Bettles which might be why pharmacists get paid $193k to work there.
 
mentos said:
If we post negativity and doom and gloom you guys complain. There is finally a positive thread and you complain too, we can't win.
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If we post positivity and truth about doom and gloom posts you guys complain. There is finally a troll thread and you complain too, we can't win.
 
DagS132 said:
If we post positivity and truth about doom and gloom posts you guys complain. There is finally a troll thread and you complain too, we can't win.
Click to expand...

Please explain what you mean by truth about doom and gloom posts. They are all true, are you saying they are false? If so please provide examples. Also I haven't complained at all in this thread, I love it.
 
Market saturation is a lie. You can easily find a pharmacist job. Just take out an additional loan, open up your own pharmacy and you can buy your own employment...Totally not a troll solution but legitimate and proven to work for a very minor population
 
mentos said:
Please explain what you mean by truth about doom and gloom posts. They are all true, are you saying they are false? If so please provide examples. Also I haven't complained at all in this thread, I love it.
Click to expand...
Please explain what you mean by negativity posts. They are all true, are you saying they are false? If so please provide examples. Also I haven't complained at all in this thread, I love it.
 
DagS132 said:
Please explain what you mean by negativity posts. They are all true, are you saying they are false? If so please provide examples. Also I haven't complained at all in this thread, I love it.
Click to expand...

I completely agree with this.
 
mentos said:
I completely agree with this.
Click to expand...
I completely agree with this too.

Honestly, I am fueling this troll thread by trolling you trying to troll me. Mods should close or delete this thread at some point.
 
DagS132 said:
I completely agree with this too.

Honestly, I am fueling this troll thread by trolling you trying to troll me. Mods should close or delete this thread at some point.
Click to expand...

Or they can let us post whatever we want. What's the point of having a forum if you can't reply to a thread?
 
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