New Pharmacist Salaries - Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid

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mentos said:
Where?? There was a thread about NYC here that said pay was in the low to mid $50s!
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Suburban NYC, not the boondocks. Just like 30 miles away from NYC.
The pay is there if you prove yourself.
But, please continue telling people to not go into pharmacy.
The lower the supply, the higher my salary, and the higher the demand for me.
 
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Dred Pirate said:
I really don't think you should put a new hire in an overnight position - depending on your set up - at my hospital I am the only "clinical pharmacist" - I get anything from NICU, to ECMO, to impellas, to overdoses, to strokes - most new hires (myself included when I was younger) are just not prepared to be able to deal with such a wide ranging amount of patients.
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I've worked every shift...night shift is much less stressfull. Unfortunately you do get off the wall questions and youre dealing with residents and hospitalists that cant read the day shift surgeons mind.
 
nickw2401 said:
I've worked every shift...night shift is much less stressfull. Unfortunately you do get off the wall questions and youre dealing with residents and hospitalists that cant read the day shift surgeons mind.
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Agreed. Second shift is the worst, usually it's just as busy as first shift or busier with less help. As soon as first shift begins, the drama begins when the techs and pharmacists start complaining about everyone behind their backs. I'm glad I only have 30min of overlap to listen to that.
 
pharmalt82 said:
Suburban NYC, not the boondocks. Just like 30 miles away from NYC.
The pay is there if you prove yourself.
But, please continue telling people to not go into pharmacy.
The lower the supply, the higher my salary, and the higher the demand for me.
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For right now..... lol
 
agree 100 percent. Its somewhat peaceful until 7am...when first shift rolls its like going from 0 to 60.
 
Desirable location in Phoenix, AZ, new grad, staff overnight for CVS, 12 hour shifts, 7 on 7 off, $50 per hour with 10% shift differential from midnight to 7am. Accepted.

Walgreens offering $48 per hour for comparable position.

To all the seasoned pharmacists touting their high wages. Your salaries are being eyeballed hardcore right now. Stay vigilant, we're all expendable.

Pharmacy is long overdue to unionize.
 
EntitledAmerican said:
Desirable location in Phoenix, AZ, new grad, staff overnight for CVS, 12 hour shifts, 7 on 7 off, $50 per hour with 10% shift differential from midnight to 7am. Accepted.

Walgreens offering $48 per hour for comparable position.

To all the seasoned pharmacists touting their high wages. Your salaries are being eyeballed hardcore right now. Stay vigilant, we're all expendable.

Pharmacy is long overdue to unionize.
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Did you have previous retail experience as a technician/intern? Just curious
 
Further contraction of economic activity might provoke mass right-sizing. Can't wait~
 
Hedgehog32 said:
Did you have previous retail experience as a technician/intern? Just curious
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Yes, both intern and technician. Was clearly a take it or leave it offer. I know there are loads of people from my class out of work right now licking their chops for this position. The metro area is saturated, no doubt. Still relative ease in rural but that's not an option for some and most didn't dedicate so much time, effort and money to still have to be so desperate for a position.
 
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EntitledAmerican said:
Yes, both intern and technician.
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Just out of curiosity, what is the policy of most of the CVS DMs based in the southwest when it comes to hiring new grads into retail positions? The CVS DM for my region in the southeast is only hiring new graduates into positions if they worked as an intern/technician for either CVS or another retail chain. Was told that my hospital pharmacy intern experience (which included working outpatient community pharmacy shifts on a PRN basis) is pretty much worthless.
 
Hedgehog32 said:
Just out of curiosity, what is the policy of most of the CVS DMs based in the southwest when it comes to hiring new grads into retail positions? The CVS DM for my region in the southeast is only hiring new graduates into positions if they worked as an intern/technician for either CVS or another retail chain. Was told that my hospital pharmacy intern experience (which included working outpatient community pharmacy shifts on a PRN basis) is pretty much worthless.
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Yeah CVS is only hiring if you have experience with their system as technician or intern. Or know someone. This was stated in the interview.
 
EntitledAmerican said:
Yeah CVS is only hiring if you have experience with their system as technician or intern. Or know someone. This was stated in the interview.
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It's pretty scary when even the retail chains are requiring company-specific experience, since the fact that I didn't hold a job as a retail pharmacy intern means that I won't even be eligible to get hired as a pharmacist by the chain retail companies even if I decided I did want to pursue a retail career (assuming that Walgreens and Walmart have the same policy).

It kind of begs the question - how can a pharmacist who has no retail experience break into chain retail in light of the new hiring policies?
 
Hedgehog32 said:
It's pretty scary when even the retail chains are requiring company-specific experience, since the fact that I didn't hold a job as a retail pharmacy intern means that I won't even be eligible to get hired as a pharmacist by the chain retail companies even if I decided I did want to pursue a retail career (assuming that Walgreens and Walmart have the same policy).

It kind of begs the question - how can a pharmacist who has no retail experience break into chain retail in light of the new hiring policies?
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Work in the boonies. I know Walgreens in Yuma AZ had a position starting for $70. Even a rural hospital here will take a new grad. But it's literally in the middle of nowhere. Not small town, literally nothing around.
 
EntitledAmerican said:
Work in the boonies. I know Walgreens in Yuma AZ had a position starting for $70. Even a rural hospital here will take a new grad. But it's literally in the middle of nowhere. Not small town, literally nothing around.
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So hospitals in Yuma, AZ will hire new grads? The reason I ask is because I actually got in touch with a recruiter who works with the hospital there, and she said she'd forward my email on to their DOP, but I never heard back after that. So I wasn't sure if that was an indication that they don't hire new grads, or if I'm just getting in touch with them way too early (since I don't graduate until May) and that's why the DOP didn't bother to email me back.
 
Hedgehog32 said:
So hospitals in Yuma, AZ will hire new grads? The reason I ask is because I actually got in touch with a recruiter who works with the hospital there, and she said she'd forward my email on to their DOP, but I never heard back after that. So I wasn't sure if that was an indication that they don't hire new grads, or if I'm just getting in touch with them way too early (since I don't graduate until May) and that's why the DOP didn't bother to email me back.
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Incorrect. There was a Walgreen's position in Yuma hard up for pharmacists. The hospital I'm referring to is Cobre Valley.
 
EntitledAmerican said:
Incorrect. There was a Walgreen's position in Yuma hard up for pharmacists. The hospital I'm referring to is Cobre Valley.
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Oh, ok; sorry, I thought you meant that both retail chains and hospitals in Yuma were hiring new grads. I guess I'll add Cobre Valley to my list of potential hospitals to get in touch with if I end up being extremely desperate come May 2020 for a hospital position.
 
EntitledAmerican said:
If you're dead set on hospital, consider residency and start networking your ass off.
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No doubt about that... here in the southeast, even residency graduates are having a hard time getting hospital jobs. Sometimes I wish I had done an industry APPE rotation so I could've potentially been competitive for fellowship positions, since I feel like there may be industry careers that I could potentially be a good fit for.
 
Hedgehog32 said:
It's pretty scary when even the retail chains are requiring company-specific experience, since the fact that I didn't hold a job as a retail pharmacy intern means that I won't even be eligible to get hired as a pharmacist by the chain retail companies even if I decided I did want to pursue a retail career (assuming that Walgreens and Walmart have the same policy).

It kind of begs the question - how can a pharmacist who has no retail experience break into chain retail in light of the new hiring policies?
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just keep pumping out more graduates from pharmacy schools. that should solve the problem......lol
 
sozetone said:
just keep pumping out more graduates from pharmacy schools. that should solve the problem......lol
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LOL, I'm afraid the schools are one step ahead of you with that idea. There are still new schools in the planning stages to be opened, and I know of at least one school that will be opening a satellite campus in a saturated state in the southwest within the next year or so.
 
Pharmacy schools are taking OT and dental school rejects who didn't even apply for pharmacy school LMAO. The desperation is embarrassing.
 
Hedgehog32 said:
LOL, I'm afraid the schools are one step ahead of you with that idea. There are still new schools in the planning stages to be opened, and I know of at least one school that will be opening a satellite campus in a saturated state in the southwest within the next year or so.
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Creighton University opening up a campus in Phoenix.
 
mentos said:
Guess no one understood my joke.

www.npr.org

University Of Phoenix Reaches $191 Million Settlement With FTC, Including Debt Relief

The school has 15 business days to inform eligible students, "You no longer owe any money to University of Phoenix. You don't have to do anything to get this relief."
www.npr.org www.npr.org
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Oh, I'm definitely familiar with University of Phoenix. What I had meant to ask in my post was, does Creighton have a bad reputation among pharmacists (based on the fact that you compared it to University of Phoenix)?
 
Hedgehog32 said:
Oh, I'm definitely familiar with University of Phoenix. What I had meant to ask in my post was, does Creighton have a bad reputation among pharmacists (based on the fact that you compared it to University of Phoenix)?
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No idea, to me pharmacy schools are all the same and there is no need to open anymore.
 
Hedgehog32 said:
Oh, I'm definitely familiar with University of Phoenix. What I had meant to ask in my post was, does Creighton have a bad reputation among pharmacists (based on the fact that you compared it to University of Phoenix)?
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When i applied in 2007 they were #1 pharmacy school in the country. IT's a jesuit school. i had to write three essays , one was about why i would want to attend a jesuit school. Yeah they saw right through that, i'm jewish, dont practice and have no idea what jesuit means,,,,,lol.
 
Mambo#5 said:
Still not nearly as many pharmacy schools as Florida lol.
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Agreed, thats why i left FL and xferd to CO..... i am happy to say though i will be returning in the new year....done managing. will step down and take whatever crap job leftovers are around with cvs or something for a bit then move on to the next i suppose. We should have a business set up and generating profit within a year or two so i have to do this a little longer....oh well....I think FL has like 10 schools with satellite campus's everywhere.... it's embarrassing.
 
SometimesI think the posts here are from generally disgruntled pharmacists and the exceptional un or under employed pharmacist.Why are pharmacy schools still getting applicants? Are they reading the same supply and demand projections as us?Can we be misinterpreting the
figures?
 
sfachine said:
SometimesI think the posts here are from generally disgruntled pharmacists and the exceptional un or under employed pharmacist.Why are pharmacy schools still getting applicants? Are they reading the same supply and demand projections as us?Can we be misinterpreting the
figures?
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They are still getting applicants because these applicants are coming from undergrad students who want to get into healthcare but don't have the grades for medschool or want to do anything too patient interactive. Most of them google the average salary before they even look at the job market for the profession. Then you get some schools who just send out ads and personal emails to students to attract them so they can fill their seats.
 
Pharmacy schools will keep getting applicants as long as effort to apply is minimal. As long as student loans are handed out hand over fist, schools have an incentive to enroll students so they advertise and they make it easy to apply.
 
I can assure you the pharmacy school bubble has popped, my school cut the class size and the one next to us filled their class half of what they usually do. It will be interesting to see the numbers for this fall, but my guess is 5-10% drop from last year and this is just the beginning
 
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The results of the 2019 Drug Topics Pharmacy Salary Survey are in, 1100 people responded. There are probably plenty of biases that went into completing vs. not completing the survey...

Stress keeps increasing (well, DUH) - they try to spin it as "increased less than last year" - but stress compounds, don't forget that
Workload keeps increasing (again, DUH)
Satisfaction is so-so

I actually found their spin on satisfaction rather funny. "The majority said they were either “very satisfied” or “satisfied.”" When you put "satisfied" instead of "neutral/neither dissatisfied nor satisfied" in the middle, you are inherently skewing the results upward. And saying that only 22% are looking for a new job is a sign of satisfaction is a stretch, too.

Base salary stagnates (and inflation doesn't, so you actually end on the losing side).

Speaking of salaries, 49% make over $130K which is $62.50 if you assume a 40-hour week or $78 if you assume a 32-hour week. Given that we hear new grads getting much lower rates, I would say the surveys skews towards those who have been around for a while, and maybe to those who are in non-traditional roles (I did contribute as well, and I am as non-traditional as it gets). I would love to see a breakdown by years in practice and by practice type...
 
8turkeys said:
I can assure you the pharmacy school bubble has popped, my school cut the class size and the one next to us filled their class half of what they usually do. It will be interesting to see the numbers for this fall, but my guess is 5-10% drop from last year and this is just the beginning
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I don't think it's popped just yet, maybe it's beginning to contract, but there is still a problem. It will get a lot uglier before it will start getting better.
 
Just heard COP 2020 was getting offered 52$ an hour and COP 2021 was going to get offered 47$ at happy healthy.
 
Hels2007 said:
I don't think it's popped just yet, maybe it's beginning to contract, but there is still a problem. It will get a lot uglier before it will start getting better.
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Agreed. They are still opening more schools with no end in sight.
 
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