JYim-
I am in the military and currently perusing pharmacy school. First of all, I commend you for considering this route, our service people need and deserve great medical care.
I think you need to clarify one thing though, do you want to be a Pharmacist (Pharm D, Doctor of Pharmacy) or do you want to be a Pharmacy Tech? A Pharmacist is an officer and a Pharmacy Tech is an enlisted soldier/sailor. Both jobs are in high demand but have drastically different education paths. To be a Pharmacist you must go to Pharmacy School (6-8 years) and then you will be commissioned as an O-3. All branches of the military offer some great scholarship opportunities, starting in your second year of Pharmacy School. They also have generous debt forgiveness plans, which is what I plan on doing. When you look at military pay it may seem that the salary is much lower then what you can expect to make in the civilian sector. However, you must realize that about 20% of your salary is non-taxed, and you are not having monthly deductions for health, dental, vision and life insurances. Those are all free. You are also not paying into any retirement benefits because of the military retirement plan. My wife is a Pharm D and I am currently an officer. She does make more money then me, but what actually gets deposited into our checking account each month is not grossly different.
If you want to be a Pharmacy Tech, then you do not need to go to a Pharmacy School for 6-8 years. I THINK that you can enlist directly into the Navy and after Boot Camp they will send you to some sort of school for a few months and then you will start work at a Navy facility. It is my impression that a lot of the training is OJT, but I can be wrong about that. I will be honest that I do not know as much about the Pharmacy tech route. I am pretty certain that you will make more money and/or have better benefits as a Pharm Tech in the military then in most civilian jobs that are similar, especially just starting out. If you do go this route, make sure to ask the recruiter about an enlistment bonus.
I have talked to a few people about the military route and the biggest concern I hear is about the money and the deployments. Make sure that if you apply to be a military pharmacist, you do it because you want to be in the military AND you want to be a pharmacist. If you just want to be a pharmacist, that is great, just stay in the civilian sector because you will be much happier. I have tremendous respect for civilian pharmacist, but I will be honest when I say that 90% of them would not make it in the military. It is a demanding and stressful environment. If it is too tough or you dont like it you cant quit, call a head hunter and start a new job on Monday. It is also filled with rewards, camaraderie, history and tradition. You will go home every day knowing that you not only provided great care for your patients, but you did your part to preserve our freedom and our way of life. Good luck! 👍
