Now what?

[PharmProfit]

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I’ve been a pharmacist for a little over a year now working as a pharmacy manager at an independent, I really enjoy my job but always looking to move ahead in my career

Now I question how can I get further from here in my career? Are there any positions that would be considered a step up or is being a pharmacy Manager really the highest position I can get/end game? (Other than a district manager job which some chains are getting rid of the position for pharmacists). It just seems way too early in my career to not try and keep advancing

Any input would be appreciated, thanks

 

[Rukn]

Make as much money as you can

 

[Lnsean]

that's your trade-off. you start relatively high but you flat line. you played it safe, so you get the camry and the honda accords. people that took on more risk get a chance at the lambo, the r8, and the ferraris.

I have friends in comp sci and infosec industry that started low (65k) and are now making 150-200k before bonus/stock options. Took some of them 5 years, but most have really already doubled my salary (full compensation taken into account). They took more risk, definitely, and it paid off. You took less risk and took the safe way...so don't complain.

 

[beautifulrobot]

You could try to find a management job in a larger health-system if you're looking for a bigger challenge in terms of pharmacy management specifically, e.g. try to work your way towards a pharmacy director position at a large medical center. You could also try starting your own independent pharmacy.

Or just accept that you have reached your peak and settle into the mundane routine of adulthood. It's a challenge in its own way.

 

[PharmProfit]

that's your trade-off. you start relatively high but you flat line. you played it safe, so you get the camry and the honda accords. people that took on more risk get a chance at the lambo, the r8, and the ferraris.

I have friends in comp sci and infosec industry that started low (65k) and are now making 150-200k before bonus/stock options. Took some of them 5 years, but most have really already doubled my salary (full compensation taken into account). They took more risk, definitely, and it paid off. You took less risk and took the safe way...so don't complain.

Hahaha you make it sound like Pharmacy is the new accounting. You can afford Better than a Honda Accord 🙂

Not complaining just trying to see different perspectives/opinions

 

[PharmProfit]

You could try to find a management job in a larger health-system if you're looking for a bigger challenge in terms of pharmacy management specifically, e.g. try to work your way towards a pharmacy director position at a large medical center. You could also try starting your own independent pharmacy.

Or just accept that you have reached your peak and settle into the mundane routine of adulthood. It's a challenge in its own way.

That’s a good point, the management jobs in larger health systems could be an option but they are rare.

Owning an independent pharmacy would be an interesting idea, what do you think the outlook is over the next 10-20 years for independent pharmacies?

 

[PharmtoCS]

that's your trade-off. you start relatively high but you flat line. you played it safe, so you get the camry and the honda accords. people that took on more risk get a chance at the lambo, the r8, and the ferraris.

I have friends in comp sci and infosec industry that started low (65k) and are now making 150-200k before bonus/stock options. Took some of them 5 years, but most have really already doubled my salary (full compensation taken into account). They took more risk, definitely, and it paid off. You took less risk and took the safe way...so don't complain.

It's actually more risky to get into pharmacy since you end up with a much larger student loan burden only to end up with job prospects far weaker than those who took the CS and IT routes.

 

[Rukn]

That’s a good point, the management jobs in larger health systems could be an option but they are rare.

Owning an independent pharmacy would be an interesting idea, what do you think the outlook is over the next 10-20 years for independent pharmacies?

LOL

private pharmacies lose money on certain prescriptions

It's just a joke at this point

 

[Charcoales]

I accept that I have set salary now and career will be same and flatlined. I instead invest in life outside work and maximize fun in that realm

 

[lord999]

that's your trade-off. you start relatively high but you flat line. you played it safe, so you get the camry and the honda accords. people that took on more risk get a chance at the lambo, the r8, and the ferraris.

I have friends in comp sci and infosec industry that started low (65k) and are now making 150-200k before bonus/stock options. Took some of them 5 years, but most have really already doubled my salary (full compensation taken into account). They took more risk, definitely, and it paid off. You took less risk and took the safe way...so don't complain.

Although, you do get the Camry and Accords even if you don't make a large effort, that is part of the payoff. The problem is that with higher risk, there's more losers with higher effort. You see them every day when you fill their antidepressant plus opioid prescriptions. It's also not necessarily about risk, but investment. If you are willing to give you your time or your opportunities, then you can actually make some real money as an independent, legally. That said, health care is the bubble, and when it pops, it's not like some others where you can leverage those skills for private use. Make the money you can while you can.

As for IT, I've already said my piece in other places. Good luck getting old with that job even with good talent.

 

[Lnsean]

It's actually more risky to get into pharmacy since you end up with a much larger student loan burden only to end up with job prospects far weaker than those who took the CS and IT routes.

Most people consider healthcare professions to be relatively safe compared to others like: investment banking, law, venture capitalism, entrepreneurship. Anyway, that is off tangent. My point is that OP should have known this if he had worked during school.

 

[Lnsean]

Although, you do get the Camry and Accords even if you don't make a large effort, that is part of the payoff. The problem is that with higher risk, there's more losers with higher effort. You see them every day when you fill their antidepressant plus opioid prescriptions. It's also not necessarily about risk, but investment. If you are willing to give you your time or your opportunities, then you can actually make some real money as an independent, legally. That said, health care is the bubble, and when it pops, it's not like some others where you can leverage those skills for private use. Make the money you can while you can.

As for IT, I've already said my piece in other places. Good luck getting old with that job even with good talent.

I agree with you some what. The number of people who hit it big is much less than those who are stuck behind a desk coding for 50k/year, but I'd imagine that my circle of friends are of the same or roughly the same caliber as pharmacy students and that is really the sample population here. So, really, the people that are going into pharmacy are capable of this...unless pharmacy schools have really lowered their standards.

As for getting old with "that job", yea it's obviously depends on what you do with the money. They have not told me their NW, but judging from the bull market of the last 7 years and how all of them are keen on investing as well, I'd wouldn't be surprised if they're in the 7 figs now.

 

[lord999]

I agree with you some what. The number of people who hit it big is much less than those who are stuck behind a desk coding for 50k/year, but I'd imagine that my circle of friends are of the same or roughly the same caliber as pharmacy students and that is really the sample population here. So, really, the people that are going into pharmacy are capable of this...unless pharmacy schools have really lowered their standards.

As for getting old with "that job", yea it's obviously depends on what you do with the money. They have not told me their NW, but judging from the bull market of the last 7 years and how all of them are keen on investing as well, I'd wouldn't be surprised if they're in the 7 figs now.

Oh, they really have gone down in quality. There's major complaints at ACPE on the state of instruction. It's not about caliber as it is about will and luck. The will to try the unknown, to risk, is different among all of us for different things. But I maintain that there are fairly low risk obvious ways to make more money if that's what the OP wants to do. In your case, when the goal is to "practice medicine" that's a real reason go to medical school because there is nothing else that satisfies that specific goal. But if you want to make money, there the are other paths. But figuring out what you really want and what are you personally willing to do is most of the problem, so going to medical school was the right decision despite the safe comfort of this profession. Medicine is not safer than pharmacy, but it has a dynamism that pharmacy never can have. And the most successful pharmacists find their outsized success in other industries rather than pharmacy as they came to the same conclusion that taking a chance is better than staying safe here, that's a choice.

For IT, it's not a choice to take those career risks. It's more that I see all the losers apply in my day job and all the winners prey on each other in my night job, and also, we're both in the generation that saw the first tech bust which explains my pessimism of the tech industry (but there always will be a place like in health care for those who have will and preferably some luck on their side). We're getting to be the age that another tech bust would destroy. But to be destroyed, you first have had to go mad. The overbought household, the expensive spouse, kids at St. Moneybags, leverage of these sorts of responsibilities can be as problematic as actual financial leverage. Most of the people I socialize with are 7-8 digits as lawyers and management consultants for the Big Four, but they are tied down by those other concerns and if the market turns, I can see them lose their shirts. The old senior/management partners who tucked away enough out of the market and are either banal people or antimaterialistic such that they weathered those crises. Others have to work for those high 6 and low 7 digits to pay off the debt accumulated from the one loss they had. But yes, they worked for it, they get the good stuff.

 

[Lnsean]

Hahaha you make it sound like Pharmacy is the new accounting. You can afford Better than a Honda Accord 🙂

Not complaining just trying to see different perspectives/opinions

My bad...maybe a used porsche 911 then..

 

[wagrxm2000]

Uh my family of four has one of the biggest houses in our neighborhood, we take a couple vacations each year and well an expensive car isn't important.

Not really sure what else is needed. This is life, you work for spending money and to retire at some point.

 

[lord999]

Uh my family of four has one of the biggest houses in our neighborhood, we take a couple vacations each year and well an expensive car isn't important.

Not really sure what else is needed. This is life, you work for spending money and to retire at some point.

The ability to walk away when you, and not the company, want to without regret. That's what keeps you in now, and that's the mature goal of someone who really knows what they have and why it's good.

 

[spacecowgirl]

It just seems way too early in my career to not try and keep advancing

Why? Why do you want to advance? Do you feel like you've mastered what you are doing? Money? Or because it seems like the next thing to do after school?

Life isn't a checklist. That's why people get married to the wrong person, have kids with the wrong person. Although in terms of life altering pathways, kids would do that...

Work to live or something and enjoy making more than 95% of the country.