Hi. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do for money while I am trying to find work as a pharmacist? It's been nearly a year, and I know the job market is flooded. I've applied to a ton of jobs and haven't heard anything back. I've considered multiple states, but still not even any interviews. I am really concerned about being able to pay my car loan and rent. Thanks.
What Are Alternatives to Pharmacy? I'm Out of Work
- Thread starter Justine16
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Drive for Uber. Rent out a room on AirBNB.
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Oof, sorry that you're going through this. Here are a few ideas
- Look at teaching pharm tech certification classes or other science based classes at local community colleges
- Look at medication information jobs in industry (I am not nearly as familiar as others here, but many of their DI call centers are staffed by RN and PharmD iirc.)
- Look at IHS/Military jobs?
- Look at tutoring local college students
When you say that you applied to multiple states, are you also applying to cities in the middle of nowhere? Sorry about your situation but the longer you've been out of school and unemployed, the more difficult it'll be. Your next bet (if you still want to do pharmacy), is to get in touch with your close friends from pharmacy school for a job. Hopefully you've been super nice to them.
Alternatives:
Sell stuff that you own, Uber (there are plenty of bad uber drivers anyways, deliver food, server, etc.
Alternatives:
Sell stuff that you own, Uber (there are plenty of bad uber drivers anyways, deliver food, server, etc.
When I went to school to become a pharmacist, I had no idea the job market was like this. I have been applying for IHS and remote places. I've also called all my friends who are pharmacists. I can't even pay my student loans back. I'm beginning to think that I won't be able to be a pharmacist anymore.
There are open positions everywhere that people don't like. Look at the worst places in the US like Detroit, Alaska, and remote areas far far far away from the city. I was looking for a job few months ago and I had 6 interviews and my resume had misspellings and I bombed all interviews except one and I have a job now.
So you've applied to floater positions in the middle of nowhere in Nebraska and North Dakota? Why did you bring up that you are not licensed in Alaska or Michigan? Are you licensed in all the other states then wtf?
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Sounds to me like you really don’t want it then. People are giving you ideas and you continue to make excuses.
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Are you not willing to move around the state, country, work-in the "boonies"? I would strongly suggest working on your networking to at least lead to opportunities/interviews. Double check you don't have any stupid technology settings blocking replies via email/blocking phone calls etc. (you'd be surprised sometimes what 1 phone call can lead to). Do not "burn bridges"
Have someone review your resume and adapt it to the positions you are searching for...what is going to distinguish you from 2-3 dozen other potential candidates and will it even catch a recruiter's eyes (does it appear to be worth the time reading...formatting, aesthetics, and organization can help you here)
Have someone review your resume and adapt it to the positions you are searching for...what is going to distinguish you from 2-3 dozen other potential candidates and will it even catch a recruiter's eyes (does it appear to be worth the time reading...formatting, aesthetics, and organization can help you here)
What do you mean you don't have time? You have nothing but time since you have no job.
D
deleted966104
I guess OP meant no job = no income = no money = savings depleting and will eventually lead to no food no rent no transportation.
This is so sad really. I’m not sure if you can apply to medical school even if it is one in the Caribbean that cost only $20K per year. You will have to go to school for 4 more years unfortunately but your future will be much better once you have MD license in addition to your pharmacist license. You really have no choice, otherwise you will have to work minimum wage jobs for the rest of your life. I don’t think the situation will be better anytime soon.
Going to a Caribbean med school is the worst possible decision you can do at this point wtf? He'll end up accruing more than half a million in debt while wasting 4 more years in school and could very likely be stuck searching to land a residency position after graduation.
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Eh not a bad idea honestly if hes able to get in. Landing a residency wouldnt be a problem as long as he could do well on his boards.
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OP, what city are you at?
So he'd gamble 4 years of school and extra loans to score well on his boards? I wouldn't risk it. I know people who eventually got matched but took him 2-3 years after graduation. Some people are fortunate but just scoring well on the boards doesn't jump them in front of U.S. DO and MD grads.
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-Have you looked into remote order verification jobs like pipeline rx or with cardinal health?
-Are you applying to retail jobs?
-You could work for amazon as a seasonal hire while you wait to hear back on a pharmacy job.. or Chick-fil-A or any other retail/customer service job
-You can work in real estate, some brokers will sponsor your licensure
-have you thought about sales? Medical device sales or insurance sales? Mortgage loan sales? Healthcare recruiting sales?
-have you looked at usajobs.gov for Indian health service jobs, some government jobs will help with relocation (just looked through their openings yesterday)
-it’s almost fellowship time, you can do that and get into industry.
Just depends what your interests are. I feel like there is a lot out there you can do.
apply to be a greeter at walmart. Then slowly ask to work in the pharmacy. Slowly keep an eye for an opportunity to become a pharmacy technician. When the time is right, approach the area director and apply to be a pharmacist. Remember, the CEO of McDonalds use to be a cashier.
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Well at least there is job security. Haha. I wouldn’t mind searching for a residency if i know ill have a decent career afterwards.
F getting licenses in other states. Pick up something and see what other field is more promising. Try and switch ASAP. This is the best advice.
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I find it hard to believe that you haven't found or heard back from anything in a year unless you've been cherry picking the best positions. Nowadays, its pretty hard to get one of those golden apple jobs unless you go through the crappy ones that are part-time, per diem, or floating. Few of the people I know actually are in those golden jobs now because they took the crappy opportunities and afterwards got promoted from them such as hospital per diem > FT staff, floating > FT staff at a store, Walgreens staff > hospital staff etc.
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I agree. Even with the saturated market, not being able to find ANYTHING for a year sounds far fetched.
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Didn't Walmart eliminate the greeter position? Plus isn't it illegal to work as a tech if you are a licensed pharmacist?
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Go to the nearest high school and see if they have spots for teachers aides/tutors/whatever...some schools scream for help.(esp science...stay away from the problem children if you can)...The TRADES are looking for help but you might need to join a union..it depends.....
Thank you to everyone who has posted ideas so far. I will check into Pipeline Rx and the marijuana dispensary jobs. Anyone know of any good websites that list marijuana related jobs?
I was dealt another blow last night. My boyfriend of 1 year broke up with me because he wanted to go on online dating apps to date multiple women. Yeah, so I didn't have a such a great day yesterday
I was dealt another blow last night. My boyfriend of 1 year broke up with me because he wanted to go on online dating apps to date multiple women. Yeah, so I didn't have a such a great day yesterday
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Well, sorry you had a rough day yesterday.
Here are a few questions, if you don't want to answer them for the whole world to see, fine, but you should really answer them honestly for yourself, so you don't waste time on hand-wringing and try to get an action plan together. And so you can have really good answers for when potential employers will ask you those questions. What were you doing in the critical last few months of your P-4 year and the first few months after graduation? What held you back from landing a job during the best time to land a job? Did you work during school? Do you have a Bachelor's degree? Any other work experience, in pharmacy or outside of pharmacy that you could leverage? Have you ever heard back from any employers, even if it was just a brief conversation with HR? Have you done any investigation of what employers are looking for? Or into the state of the pharmacist job market in general (doesn't sound like it, but why not, when you had several years to prepare yourself?)
In a difficult market, you have to "run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that."
Here are a few questions, if you don't want to answer them for the whole world to see, fine, but you should really answer them honestly for yourself, so you don't waste time on hand-wringing and try to get an action plan together. And so you can have really good answers for when potential employers will ask you those questions. What were you doing in the critical last few months of your P-4 year and the first few months after graduation? What held you back from landing a job during the best time to land a job? Did you work during school? Do you have a Bachelor's degree? Any other work experience, in pharmacy or outside of pharmacy that you could leverage? Have you ever heard back from any employers, even if it was just a brief conversation with HR? Have you done any investigation of what employers are looking for? Or into the state of the pharmacist job market in general (doesn't sound like it, but why not, when you had several years to prepare yourself?)
In a difficult market, you have to "run as fast as we can, just to stay in place. And if you wish to go anywhere you must run twice as fast as that."
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Try to get a job in Florida.
I once got a job offer from a hospital in Okeechobee. Almost took it too.
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I looked. Yes, it sucks in florida haha but like said, you could look at other states. You should be able to find something if you're willing to move.
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Believe me. Greeter or not, that method does not work. I tried.
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She was thinking....”need to work vs no need to work hmm”. You can’t blame the girl!
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Thank you to everyone who has posted ideas so far. I will check into Pipeline Rx and the marijuana dispensary jobs. Anyone know of any good websites that list marijuana related jobs?
I was dealt another blow last night. My boyfriend of 1 year broke up with me because he wanted to go on online dating apps to date multiple women. Yeah, so I didn't have a such a great day yesterday
Look at which states require a pharmacist to run a dispensary and go from there. I know Pennsylvania does, not sure what other states do, and if any align with your current licenses. You can just look on indeed...I know Pennsylvania has tons of dispensary jobs there around the Philly area.
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No. You have integrity. Haha.I just broke up with a doctor, am I stupid?
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I started taking flying lessons. I figure after I get my private pilot license and some other licenses I can get my CFI license while working on hours to become a commercial pilot. Maybe do some bush flying also.
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This is a good idea. Good luck.
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If you aren't now...start asking around the flying community re: getting some help paying for training...who is hiring and for what..etc....maybe the EAA has some info...There is an Airline Pilot web site which may have info...The great flood of retirees out of the airlines is starting.and unlike pharmacists..retiring is mandatory.....ATC is a thought too...
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I do want to point something out. You are applying out of state in the wrong order. If you are licensed then you apply to any job in a state with reciprocity regardless of if you already have a license there. You can get your license by reciprocity after you have a job.
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