Please help me to decide.

[dstormz]

Currently, i'm a freshman at a community college and my major is computer science; however, i'm pretty dissappointed due to the job market and the job seems boring.

A friend of mine is doing pharmacy, and he said it's a good career to look into. So far, i've done my reasearch and i like the idea. However, time is what matters, 8 years of studying is a lot. What if i won't get accepted into the 4 years program.

Anyway, is it worth it to pursue pharmacy?

Sorry, i'm newbie.

P.S. These are my interests: I like to help people through their suffering, be able to make a living out of it, and interact with different people cause i'm outgoing.

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[Brill]

The first thing I would recommend doing is getting some experience in a pharmacy to see if it's something you would want to do. Try volunteering in a community or hospital pharmacy, or try finding employment in a pharmacy. Also, talk to as many pharmacists as you can. Researching the profession on the Internet and talking to prepharmacy/pharmacy students helps also, but getting out there and actually experiencing it is the best way to find out if it's for you. Also, check on some of the old threads in this forum. A lot of good information pertaining to this subject has already been posted.

By the way, I started off as a computer science major and switched to pharmacy also.

 

[riskhk]

same here guys... information computer science for a whole year

 

[jdpharmd?]

ha, there were a lot of computer science people at my interviews this year too. Funny.

Jd

 

[ucdbiochem]

besides doing research in the pharm field, i'd recommend you to take some chem and bio classes and see if you like them.
that's because pharm requires a solid foundation of science.

since you're still a freshman, you can always switch your major that interests you. but it doesn't mean you have to major in bio.
if you like you can stick with CS major and fulfill the pharm prereqs.

good luck.

 

[chunkyb]

Originally posted by dstormz
However, time is what matters, 8 years of studying is a lot. What if i won't get accepted into the 4 years program.

You probably won't be spending 8 years pursuing a pharmD. degree.
It's a four year program, plus the two years it takes to do the pre-pharmacy requirements. If time is an issue, try taking summer classes and look into those accelerated pharmD. programs. It may take as little as 4.5 years to complete everything from your starting point now, if you push yourself.

 

[Triangulation]

Yeah I know an electrical engineering major who was pre-pharm. It's definitely not a bad mix. Being tech saavy is a huge asset.

I don't think you know enough about the field at this point to make a decision. You gotta know you want it before doing it, bc it's work. Don't put yourself through it all if you don't like what you're going to be doing. That said you can do a zillion things w/a pharmd, but if you don't know what that is you'll land up in retail and you need to know that's what you want (the money won't be a good enough reason if you're not into it.)

 

[Monkeyguts]

There are lots of good careers that many people love while these same careers may be what many other people hate.

It is up to the individual to decide what is a good career for them. Pharmacy is not immune to this personal preference just like anything else.

I agree with everyone else, look into it first before you make a jump. There are many ways to help people and alleviate suffering besides pharmacy, and there are many other ways to interact with people as an outgoing person besides health care.

To me (personally, many may not agree with what I am going to say), these things about interacting with people and helping people etc should be tertiary to your ultimate goal of finding something that you personally will be satisfied with at the end of the day. If you derive satisfaction solely from helping other people, and will do whatever to reach that goal no matter what field you are in then it doesn't really matter what field you go into.

As for my decision, I love the field of pharmacy because I like the material and the course of study I will embark on. I am intrinsically happy with the knowledge I will gain. That was my first criteria in searching for a profession. Now, I will be helping other people and will be involved with alleviating any type of suffering, but this my friend is an added bonus for me. I was a paramedic for a few years and I alleviated a lot of suffering and helped many people, but at the end of the day I was not satisfied with what I was doing because I was not happy with my career so it didn't matter and didn't satisfy me that I was helping people because I personally was not happy.

If you have a love for pharmacy in addition to wanting all these other characteristics that define what you are looking for then pharmacy is for you. Pharmacy contains these types of attributes you are seeking, but if you are not happy with pharmacy in and of itself you will most likely be unsatisfied down the road. I wish you luck in your quest.

 

[dgroulx]

Originally posted by dstormz
Currently, i'm a freshman at a community college and my major is computer science; however, i'm pretty dissappointed due to the job market and the job seems boring.

A friend of mine is doing pharmacy, and he said it's a good career to look into. So far, i've done my reasearch and i like the idea. However, time is what matters, 8 years of studying is a lot.

The computer job market is not what it used to be. My husband used to be able to hop jobs every few years to make things more exciting. Now, he's stuck where he's at because he'd have to take a big pay cut to go anywhere else.

Also, because there is such a glut of people out there, most companies are requiring advanced degrees. So, you are looking at lots of years in college for computer science, too.

I did software design for 20 years before switching to pharmacy. I returned to school to take science classes. My initial idea was to get a degree in medical technology. A local company employs computer science/med techs. They provide the computers for labs all over the country and need programmers with a medical technology background. As I got deeper in the science courses, and started talking to people, I switched to pharmacy.

Since you need to take science courses for your AA degree, take the ones that are pharmacy prerequisites. That way, you haven't committed yourself either way.