My husband starts the Pharm.D. program at Nova in the fall, he was pharmacist in Brazil with an M.S. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, he had spent these past 7 years working at Pizza Hut when his dreams of going to a Ph.D. in Pharmacology went to hell. I am happy he took on this profession, I definitely told him about this forum and he looked at this for himself. His conclusions; you make your own way, the old day of having a 6 figure salary with no managers barking down your neck and somehow believing that a large corporation in capitalist America will somehow not exploit the fruits of your labors is delusional. I had worked several types of jobs after I left music in retail, mortgage, banking, etc. I found that I couldn't stand a corporate atmosphere, there was no "meaning" to being a mortgage professional for me. My brother in law is an accountant, he loves this stuff, he loves the idea of sitting in a cubical all day using spreadsheets, and I am glad he likes it and has the aptitude to do well in that. That is not me, nor is it for thousands upon thousands of Americans. To simply suggest they run out, find a gig in accounting or business is a pretty shallow evaluation of what it means to work, to have a career, etc. I am sure many of you elected to be a pharmacist for reasons other than a paycheck (we hope, right?).
Another person really did point out some good points earlier, that much like dentists, PA's, nurses, veterinarians, there are many issues in each field. I am in psychology, so out of all of you people here, we have the crappiest deal. It really does take a person to really LOVE what they do, that they couldn't imagine doing anything else for them to take on 5 years of a doctoral program, and for many who pursue the Psy.D., will take out $200K in loans, plus a pre-doc internship and a 2 year post-doc internship only to start out making $50-70K a year for the next 5 years. Our growth rate is slow, if we are lucky, in practice along, we might achieve a $90-100K salary after 10+ years of practicing. This assumes that you are primarily clinical, work in a clinic, hospital or private practice. Those who are within the 5% of the population that are lucky enough to get a tenure-track position in psychology, will see a starting salary around $80-90K, those that are more senior obviously will see an increase.
The point here being, that while many of you are trying to provide the "ultimate truth" behind your profession, in reality you are only providing your opinions. This is evident by skimming these threads and seeing inverse perspectives on this subject. Many of the same people flood these forums and the representation of practicing pharmacists is less than a statistical significance in comparison with the U.S. (and this is evident even by many of you who claim that pharmacy is pumping out too many graduates, my case in point). For those think the Ph.D. is a better route, I urge you to drop what you are doing, find out if there is remotely an institution around you who would be willing to take you on with some type of salary. The hardest part in this is, you MIGHT find something in a field of interest to you (e.g., neuropsychology, sports psychology, plant biology, etc.), the real trick is finding a paying job in this low-level research assistant position. You will find yourself probably volunteering most of your time in the week because the faculty member or researcher doesn't have enough funding to bring you on, at least based on your lack of credentials (e.g. publishing, posters, pedigree of college, LOR's). You will find yourself more than likely picking up a job at Burger King or a call center, being harrassed by people demanding free food because you accidentally placed a sticker on the burger that said "no lettuce" when it actually did. All this time, you have a college degree, took advanced courses in natural sciences, but yet you are now working full time in a job that a high school student could be doing so you can support your "big idea" of making it big in research that is not paying. On top of this, you will be competing for <5% of available seats in a Ph.D. program (300 applicants, 8-10 people MIGHT be admitted). Imagine only having 1-3 institutions in your immediate vicinity.
So...at the end of the day, if your ultimate goal is to get a "free education" with a stipend of a whopping $25-33K a year for 5 years is appealing to you, packing up your family at least 3 times during your doctoral education, then go for it. Remember....publish or perish
Have fun.
Oh and btw....if you thought pharmacy was saturated, you should try applying for an ADJUNCT job at some local university with your new Ph.D....that will be the best moment of your life there. So, if you didn't come from Stanford, Harvard, any of Ivies and some of the top 3% private and public universities around which account for <10% of available colleges in the U.S., you will be at a community college (which hey, I would love that, I actually prefer teaching over research).