save me from retail

[Venicat]

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Hello, I am a long time reader, first* time contributor. Please indulge my personal rant.

About me: Second year pharmacy student. Joined [chain pharmacy] as an intern last summer. Been working part time with [chain pharmacy] since, and set to do another summer internship with them. No work experience before pharmacy school, so was excited (and scared) to secure this internship. My parents also pressured me into doing this internship. Student loans would be sufficient to live on, though.

I am quickly growing disillusioned with community pharmacy. I keep trying to maintain a positive attitude about it. It is an important part of our profession. But most days I just feel like a fast food worker. Almost everyone I know is working, so I feel compelled to work also. As a second year student I am not earning hours towards licensure. [Chain pharmacy] calls me from multiple stores asking me to pick up shifts that the techs want to get out of.

I do well in school and am at the top of my class. I'd like to maybe do a residency. I'd like to teach in a pharmacy school one day. Or maybe I'd like to do research in pharmaceutics or pharmacogenomics. I feel like I have to keep up a good standing with [Chain pharmacy] though, just in case, to keep it as an option for the future. I dread going to work. How can I gracefully decline work at [Chain pharmacy] without completely severing ties to the small world of retail pharmacy? Please advise

 

[Praziquantel86]

Hello, I am a long time reader, first* time contributor. Please indulge my personal rant.

About me: Second year pharmacy student. Joined [chain pharmacy] as an intern last summer. Been working part time with [chain pharmacy] since, and set to do another summer internship with them. No work experience before pharmacy school, so was excited (and scared) to secure this internship. My parents also pressured me into doing this internship. Student loans would be sufficient to live on, though.

I am quickly growing disillusioned with community pharmacy. I keep trying to maintain a positive attitude about it. It is an important part of our profession. But most days I just feel like a fast food worker. Almost everyone I know is working, so I feel compelled to work also. As a second year student I am not earning hours towards licensure. [Chain pharmacy] calls me from multiple stores asking me to pick up shifts that the techs want to get out of.

I do well in school and am at the top of my class. I'd like to maybe do a residency. I'd like to teach in a pharmacy school one day. Or maybe I'd like to do research in pharmaceutics or pharmacogenomics. I feel like I have to keep up a good standing with [Chain pharmacy] though, just in case, to keep it as an option for the future. I dread going to work. How can I gracefully decline work at [Chain pharmacy] without completely severing ties to the small world of retail pharmacy? Please advise

I was in a similar boat. I got a second job as a hospital intern while continuing to work at the retail joint - it wasn't always easy, but it certainly kept me aware of what was going on in retail while giving me a different appreciation for the work I was doing at the hospital.

If they wanted me to pick up hours and I was able, then I did. Otherwise I kept working my few nights a week / every other weekend without complaining. I also became involved with research and sought out mentorship from faculty members and the pharmacists I worked with. Having these other distractions made the time in retail a little more pleasant.

If you're the type of person that can keep up your grades while juggling other responsibilities, I'd look into doing it. I was set up in a great position when it came into looking for and obtaining a residency, and I'm happy to say that the hard work paid off.

Good luck, and keep your head up.

 

[deleted205891]

Hello, I am a long time reader, first* time contributor. Please indulge my personal rant.

About me: Second year pharmacy student. Joined [chain pharmacy] as an intern last summer. Been working part time with [chain pharmacy] since, and set to do another summer internship with them. No work experience before pharmacy school, so was excited (and scared) to secure this internship. My parents also pressured me into doing this internship. Student loans would be sufficient to live on, though.

I am quickly growing disillusioned with community pharmacy. I keep trying to maintain a positive attitude about it. It is an important part of our profession. But most days I just feel like a fast food worker. Almost everyone I know is working, so I feel compelled to work also. As a second year student I am not earning hours towards licensure. [Chain pharmacy] calls me from multiple stores asking me to pick up shifts that the techs want to get out of.

I do well in school and am at the top of my class. I'd like to maybe do a residency. I'd like to teach in a pharmacy school one day. Or maybe I'd like to do research in pharmaceutics or pharmacogenomics. I feel like I have to keep up a good standing with [Chain pharmacy] though, just in case, to keep it as an option for the future. I dread going to work. How can I gracefully decline work at [Chain pharmacy] without completely severing ties to the small world of retail pharmacy? Please advise

You're not a slave to [chain pharmacy]. You are free to leave whenever you want, as long as it's not too abrupt, and you won't really sever ties. Saying that, you should try to keep working during pharmacy school. If you can find another job, great. If not, I say keep working for retail.

I have been advised that when they give me an offer for a pharmacist position, to take the offer, even if applying for residencies/fellowships. The offer is non-binding. If you do match with a residency, just decline the offer. The chain won't like you, but so what, you matched with a residency, and these residencies understand. If you don't match, you have plan B. You don't want to end up a whiny perpetually unemployed pharmacist. You can ask me how it went next year when I try this out.

 

[Somatic]

You're not a slave to [chain pharmacy]. You are free to leave whenever you want, as long as it's not too abrupt, and you won't really sever ties. Saying that, you should try to keep working during pharmacy school. If you can find another job, great. If not, I say keep working for retail.

I have been advised that when they give me an offer for a pharmacist position, to take the offer, even if applying for residencies/fellowships. The offer is non-binding. If you do match with a residency, just decline the offer. The chain won't like you, but so what, you matched with a residency, and these residencies understand. If you don't match, you have plan B. You don't want to end up a whiny perpetually unemployed pharmacist. You can ask me how it went next year when I try this out.

I have been in a similar situation also. I worked for a chain all throughout school. Being able to work quite a bit during the summer and on breaks for school financed a big portion of my cost of attending pharmacy school. I did very well in school and always planned to go for residency.

At the beginning of 4th year I still had a desire to do residency because I worked so hard to be a great candidate and feel like I excel in the clinical setting. Got a job offer as a pharmacist with the chain and couldn't turn it down. I still applied for residencies and know for sure I would have matched to a top choice. However I felt lucky to even have a job offer so I decided to withdraw from the match. This is a huge dillema because I wonder if I am letting a major opportunity pass me by in not doing a residency. If it were not too hard to find a job after PGY1 then I would probably have done a residency but I was afraid I would do a PGY1 and not be able to find a job and likely burn my bridges with the chain.

It was a damned if I do, damned if I don't situation. I wish I could see the future 10 years from now in taking either path and then make my decision based on that...

 

[PharmDstudent]

I have been in a similar situation also. I worked for a chain all throughout school. Being able to work quite a bit during the summer and on breaks for school financed a big portion of my cost of attending pharmacy school. I did very well in school and always planned to go for residency.

At the beginning of 4th year I still had a desire to do residency because I worked so hard to be a great candidate and feel like I excel in the clinical setting. Got a job offer as a pharmacist with the chain and couldn't turn it down. I still applied for residencies and know for sure I would have matched to a top choice. However I felt lucky to even have a job offer so I decided to withdraw from the match. This is a huge dillema because I wonder if I am letting a major opportunity pass me by in not doing a residency. If it were not too hard to find a job after PGY1 then I would probably have done a residency but I was afraid I would do a PGY1 and not be able to find a job and likely burn my bridges with the chain.

It was a damned if I do, damned if I don't situation. I wish I could see the future 10 years from now in taking either path and then make my decision based on that...

You really need to look into PRN hospital jobs and do that on the side. It's working out fine for me. I can pick up hospital work or extra retail shifts whenever I have time off. I really enjoy working both! I make compounds at my full time job and IVs at my part time... Lol The only thing I feel like I'm missing is chemo, but it's not a perfect world afterall 😉