Just had our career fair at our school... (Thoughts thread)

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Gnostic.Spirit

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I interviewed as a P4 with 4 companies. (CVS, Walmart, Wags, Rite Aid)

I was overall surprised with the amount of openings throughout the country for all of these companies. CVS even had a list of job openings and district managers to get into contact with if you were interested into moving to a new location. These openings weren't even in rural areas either. Washington DC had 30 openings, Florida Keys had openings, and San Diego did as well as many cities throughout our country.

As far as the people representing their companies...I was the most surprised with Walmart. Lots of neighborhood markets opening up throughout the country and they are in the hunt now for new graduates. Walmart's schedule seemed pretty sweet as well.... Work 4 days a week for 10 hours with a 1 hour lunchbreak.

CVS surprisingly had a lot of younger professionals who had already worked their way up to a district manager in their company but I felt a sense of dishonesty from their side. Our school had a huge line for Walgreens interviews, but not many people signed up for CVS. Hopefully they are addressing the issues they are having and improving the work life for their employees because I think its common knowledge that a lot of people hate working for CVS.

Rite Aide did not seem organized from a management and marketing standpoint and the interview process with them was a lot less impressive than the other 3.

Walgreens was everything that I expected from them with many sign-on bonuses in rural areas of the country available. 30,000$ for 3 years in rural NC (Cherokee area) was an example that stood out to me.

Just wanted to put this information out there.
 
CVS surprisingly had a lot of younger professionals who had already worked their way up to a district manager in their company but I felt a sense of dishonesty from their side.

Staff pharmacist is the best place in the company. No higher. They are there because they are either naive and don't realize that the minuscule increase in pay isn't worth it...or they are oddly power hungry.
 
What about district manager positions or higher? I could understand a PIC being stressful for CVS but would think that a district or regional management position would be a lot better life than a staff pharmacist. Someone's gotta have that position or job....so they don't have to be "power hungry" lol
 
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I interviewed as a P4 with 4 companies. (CVS, Walmart, Wags, Rite Aid)

I was overall surprised with the amount of openings throughout the country for all of these companies. CVS even had a list of job openings and district managers to get into contact with if you were interested into moving to a new location. These openings weren't even in rural areas either. Washington DC had 30 openings, Florida Keys had openings, and San Diego did as well as many cities throughout our country.

As far as the people representing their companies...I was the most surprised with Walmart. Lots of neighborhood markets opening up throughout the country and they are in the hunt now for new graduates. Walmart's schedule seemed pretty sweet as well.... Work 4 days a week for 10 hours with a 1 hour lunchbreak.

CVS surprisingly had a lot of younger professionals who had already worked their way up to a district manager in their company but I felt a sense of dishonesty from their side. Our school had a huge line for Walgreens interviews, but not many people signed up for CVS. Hopefully they are addressing the issues they are having and improving the work life for their employees because I think its common knowledge that a lot of people hate working for CVS.

Rite Aide did not seem organized from a management and marketing standpoint and the interview process with them was a lot less impressive than the other 3.

Walgreens was everything that I expected from them with many sign-on bonuses in rural areas of the country available. 30,000$ for 3 years in rural NC (Cherokee area) was an example that stood out to me.

Just wanted to put this information out there.
thanks for sharing ur experience
 
Everyone got an hour at the store I was on rotation at in June in Tennessee and that's just what the district manager was telling me...
 
I interviewed as a P4 with 4 companies. (CVS, Walmart, Wags, Rite Aid)
CVS surprisingly had a lot of younger professionals who had already worked their way up to a district manager in their company but I felt a sense of dishonesty from their side.

Haha dishonest? Never
 
What do district managers make? Anyone know?
In general, a promotion will get you somewhere around 6-10% increase in base pay + double the previous job bonus. District manager is 2 promotion away from staff so they probably gets somewhere around 75-80+/hr.

My DM told me I was making more than him this year kinda confirms this general rule also >_>;
 
CVS doesn't have 30+ openings in DC unless they are counting MD/VA surrounding areas, then you are talking about 5-7 districts. I wouldn't be surprised that they want to replace 30+ pharmacists there though but right now those pharmacists are working.

You don't see as many pharmacists promoted to DM these days.
 
Just out of curiosity, would any of you folks who have interviewed with any of the major chains (Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, any others) mind sharing some basic info on the benefits packages they offer? Also, do you guys know if it's common to receive stock options as part of the benefits package, and if so, is there a "rule-of-thumb" number for how much $$$ this typically adds in overall income?

Thanks in advance...
 
CVS are trying to run the stuck up ex Target pharmacists out of town for some fresh new blood that believes in the CVS regiment.
 
I interviewed as a P4 with 4 companies. (CVS, Walmart, Wags, Rite Aid)

I was overall surprised with the amount of openings throughout the country for all of these companies. CVS even had a list of job openings and district managers to get into contact with if you were interested into moving to a new location. These openings weren't even in rural areas either. Washington DC had 30 openings, Florida Keys had openings, and San Diego did as well as many cities throughout our country.

As far as the people representing their companies...I was the most surprised with Walmart. Lots of neighborhood markets opening up throughout the country and they are in the hunt now for new graduates. Walmart's schedule seemed pretty sweet as well.... Work 4 days a week for 10 hours with a 1 hour lunchbreak.

CVS surprisingly had a lot of younger professionals who had already worked their way up to a district manager in their company but I felt a sense of dishonesty from their side. Our school had a huge line for Walgreens interviews, but not many people signed up for CVS. Hopefully they are addressing the issues they are having and improving the work life for their employees because I think its common knowledge that a lot of people hate working for CVS.

Rite Aide did not seem organized from a management and marketing standpoint and the interview process with them was a lot less impressive than the other 3.

Walgreens was everything that I expected from them with many sign-on bonuses in rural areas of the country available. 30,000$ for 3 years in rural NC (Cherokee area) was an example that stood out to me.

Just wanted to put this information out there.

Thanks for describing your interviewing experiences with these companies. Just out of curiosity, did any of the interviewers from any of the chains happen to discuss details such as vacation time? I've heard that most new grad pharmacists are offered 1 week of PTO during their first year or two, but I've also heard that many pharmacists get no vacation time during their first year, so I was just wondering if you could provide some clarification on that matter. Thanks...
 
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New grad (5/2015) here who works for one of the major chains. I don't get any vacation/PTO during my first year.
 
New grad (5/2015) here who works for one of the major chains. I don't get any vacation/PTO during my first year.

New grad who just started with the company or new grad who's been with the company as an intern?
 
At Walgreens you don't get pto until 6 months of service, at that point you will be given 60 hours (assuming you work 40 hours a week). After a full year you will have 120 hours.
 
New grad who just started with the company or new grad who's been with the company as an intern?

I started with this current company as a grad intern and was promoted to staff pharmacist after passing the boards. I worked at Target (TarVS?) as an intern throughout pharm school and I'm glad I left and never looked back haha.
 
I started with this current company as a grad intern and was promoted to staff pharmacist after passing the boards. I worked at Target (TarVS?) as an intern throughout pharm school and I'm glad I left and never looked back haha.

Why is that? Too hipster?
 
At Walmart you get 1 week after 1 year then 2 weeks after 2 years and you don't get a third week until 5 years.
 
Just out of curiosity, would any of you folks who have interviewed with any of the major chains (Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, any others) mind sharing some basic info on the benefits packages they offer? Also, do you guys know if it's common to receive stock options as part of the benefits package, and if so, is there a "rule-of-thumb" number for how much $$$ this typically adds in overall income?

Thanks in advance...

I think this has what you're looking for.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/pharmacy-chain-401k-comparison.1158964/