What is your exit strategy?

[DiomedeaExulans]

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Many of us are well aware the pharmacy job market is not pharmacist-friendly right now and will likely continue deteriorating. There are more pharmacists than there are jobs for them in many areas. What's your plan if you can't get a job upon graduation or if you loose your job and can't get a new one? What other fields can you think of pursuing? Are you thinking of starting your own business? Other ideas? Would your plans have been different if you had to leave the profession due to loss of license/lawsuit/having made a mistake rather than the market conditions?

I'm just trying to get some ideas for long-term planning.

 

[pharmd201389]

We wouldn't disclose it on a public forum read by pharmacists. Everyone wants to be better than everyone else and not on a sinking ship.

Me and a few others have things lined up. Nobody is going to do retail/hospital forever unless its your own pharmacy, and even that will eventually die at the hands of the chains.

My advice: read around the forums, look into dual degree programs and always be on the look out for an exit strategy.

 

[DiomedeaExulans]

Wow, you guys are so cut-throat competitive. I might still independently come up with someone else's idea and that way they are still screwed, they just don't know it. LOL!

 

[Skrumpy]

I think you should drop out of school now and live off the land.. you can build yourself a cabin and live Waldenesque style thinking about how much life sucks.

 

[nafcillin]

I think you should drop out of school now and live off the land.. you can build yourself a cabin and live Waldenesque style thinking about how much life sucks.

This place is too much sometimes.

 

[JamesL1585]

Wow, you guys are so cut-throat competitive. I might still independently come up with someone else's idea and that way they are still screwed, they just don't know it. LOL!

Lol agreed.. This is a pretty creative thread. I personally plan on getting a second degree. Pharmacy has never been my true passion, but I'm good at it, and I feel good when I'm doing it. School sucked but being a pharmacist has been very rewarding for the most part 🙂

 

[BMBiology]

I don't have any exit strategy. I am planning to ride this train until it stops then I am going to get off and push it.

 

[mustang sally]

Interesting thread. Having been a pharmacist for less than a year now, the thought of developing an exit strategy (for just in case, mind you) has been in the back of my mind but I haven't really thought of anything concrete yet. Other than saving up and paying down my loans.

I'm kind of with BMBiology though. Gonna ride this thing 'til I can' t ride it no mo'. It seems fairly unlikely to me that I will ever find a way to make this much money again doing something else. Maybe I'll open a bakery.

 

[Old Timer]

The train may be slowing down, but I doubt it's going to stop for a long time. If Obamacare is not repealed (the a-holes in Congress have tried 37 times) there will be 45 million new customers getting prescriptions and being admitted to hospitals.

I can't see the future and nobody can, despite the clairvoyance claimed by the doom and gloomers.

Enjoy the ride, save as much as you can in the short term and remember, this is only a job. It's not the people you see at work everyday that are important, it's the people waiting for you when you get home that are important.

 

[BenJammin]

I feel like I'm at a revolutionary meeting in 1776 and the OP is a British solider wanting me to write down my name to send to the king...

 

[BMBiology]

OT: if what you are saying is true about Obamacare then you would be seeing hospitals and pharmacies expanding. It is almost here. Instead all you see is cuts and more cuts.

Obamacare = more patients but with less pay. It is all about doing more with less. That is why you see mail order thriving and expanding.

 

[xiphoid2010]

well, it's always prudent to keep an eye out, whether it is for better opportunities or to guard against a turn for the worse.

Keep in touch with peers and network. Check the job sites once in a while. Work a per diem job is a great way to make some extra pay while diversifying your experience and get a jump start on new openings.

 

[rxlea]

well, it's always prudent to keep an eye out, whether it is for better opportunities or to guard against a turn for the worse.

Keep in touch with peers and network. Check the job sites once in a while. Work a per diem job is a great way to make some extra pay while diversifying your experience and get a jump start on new openings.

I've heard this- diversifying experience seems like it would greatly benefit us.

I've seen quite a bit of per diem gigs for hospitals but even then they want some experience.

I'm wondering if intern experience is going to be enough to get a foot in the door.

 

[rph3664]

Until February 2012, I thought my "exit strategy" would be my death, or some kind of permanent disability. But it's just not the profession I trained for, and the support I've gotten from colleagues has been 100%. I realize some of you have already read that, but others haven't and that's why I mentioned it again.

I'm single, childless, my house was paid off (and now the money is safely invested) and I am retired in my late 40s with a home-based business. And I remain licensed in 3 states and have every intention of staying that way, because you just never know.

I have considered some kind of vocational training or another degree, but good heavens, the degree I already have makes me overqualified already; what would possibly make me think that another degree would make me more employable?

I recently met a man who was an aerospace engineer for 30-plus years, and knew with the demise of the shuttle program that his career was over. He went to truck driving school (he did not know until the first day of class that semis have 18 gears and two clutches; yes, he did use the word "harrowing" at one point 😀 ) and absolutely loves it.

 

[Old Timer]

OT: if what you are saying is true about Obamacare then you would be seeing hospitals and pharmacies expanding. It is almost here. Instead all you see is cuts and more cuts.

Obamacare = more patients but with less pay. It is all about doing more with less. That is why you see mail order thriving and expanding.

Are you really stupid enough to assume the current healthcare system can absorb 45 million people. They will hire when they need to. Nobody expands a year in advance. They know they will have no trouble getting employees. They are not shutting down their real estate depts. You just make yourself look stupid and since you graduated from pharmacy school that can hardly be true.

Just take a deep breath dude and watch it play out.....

 

[BMBiology]

What business cut when their customer base expand?

Obamacare doesn't expand the healthcare industry. It cuts the industry. Expect the private sector to follow with lower rates. Expect more cuts. That is the direction of Obamacare.

 

[eagles22]

The train may be slowing down, but I doubt it's going to stop for a long time. If Obamacare is not repealed (the a-holes in Congress have tried 37 times) there will be 45 million new customers getting prescriptions and being admitted to hospitals.

I can't see the future and nobody can, despite the clairvoyance claimed by the doom and gloomers.

Enjoy the ride, save as much as you can in the short term and remember, this is only a job. It's not the people you see at work everyday that are important, it's the people waiting for you when you get home that are important.

I don't know if I'd hang my hat on that one just quite yet. 45 million people with insurance does not equal 45 million people with doctors.

 

[grumps]

The ACA is really a new tax. Healthcare will become less available. Doctors and nurses are retiring b/c of this. Govt and insurance companies can go ahead and dream up all kinds of plans but the economics have to make sense for the provider.

 

[xiphoid2010]

I've heard this- diversifying experience seems like it would greatly benefit us.

I've seen quite a bit of per diem gigs for hospitals but even then they want some experience.

I'm wondering if intern experience is going to be enough to get a foot in the door.

good question, not sure. All of our PRNs have experience, and that's also true for the couple of new ones I hired. I guess it would depend on the availability of experienced/residency trained pharmacists in the local market. If you interned for the system and knew the DOP, sure would help.

The other thing though, is you might want to try some of the lesser known inpatient settings. I do PRN weekends for a long term acute care hospital. They are less clinical, and both the FTE there came from retail. So hospital internship experience might get you further in these places.

 

[pezdispenser]

there will be 45 million new customers getting prescriptions and being admitted to hospitals.

Are you really stupid enough to assume the current healthcare system can absorb 45 million people.

I disagree with you on that point. Obamacare does not magically create 45 million new patients. It is just a shift from them being uninsured cash patients, to having insurance. Yes, there should be increased utilization of services when they have insurance, because cash paying patients are more likely to go without care. But insurance will always squeeze us by lowering reimbursements, so we will have to do more with less.

I see big similarities with Medicare Part D, which started in 2006 and I think there are now 30 million people on it. It just shifted people from cash to insurance. Now, insurance reimbursements have been getting worse and we are working harder to fill more scripts with less tech help.

As for my exit strategy, I have a nice, cushy job so I intend to milk it to the very last drop. My student loans are already paid off, and I'm now working on paying off my mortgage. Once that's done, I won't need much income, so I could pursue anything really.

 

[angryrx]

Many of us are well aware the pharmacy job market is not pharmacist-friendly right now and will likely continue deteriorating. There are more pharmacists than there are jobs for them in many areas. What's your plan if you can't get a job upon graduation or if you loose your job and can't get a new one? What other fields can you think of pursuing? Are you thinking of starting your own business? Other ideas? Would your plans have been different if you had to leave the profession due to loss of license/lawsuit/having made a mistake rather than the market conditions?

I'm just trying to get some ideas for long-term planning.

I've been going towards investments with nice divies so I can have a constant predictable income. I'm hoping my REITs with DRIPs will pay off over time. TruPS were a thought but REITs seem like a better mix of appreciation and predictable divies. Sure people made killings in other equities in recent years, but I don't know how predictable they will be over time. I still hold my regular equities, but I think key is having nice stable cashflow too.

If wages fall to the point where I can replace it with other work, I won't hesitate to leave pharmacy. Although wages have leveled off, I haven't seen them fall in my area. I just want the $. I would be a fool to want anything else, when our employers put $ first (as they should, if they want to keep the doors open).

 

[BenJammin]

The train may be slowing down, but I doubt it's going to stop for a long time. If Obamacare is not repealed (the a-holes in Congress have tried 37 times) there will be 45 million new customers getting prescriptions and being admitted to hospitals.

I can't see the future and nobody can, despite the clairvoyance claimed by the doom and gloomers.

Enjoy the ride, save as much as you can in the short term and remember, this is only a job. It's not the people you see at work everyday that are important, it's the people waiting for you when you get home that are important.

Not to be an echo but you're dead wrong. Those 45 million people were still getting prescriptions before the ACA, they were just paying cash for them or going to charitable pharmacies to get it. All it does it turn 45 million people who don't have a pay source into the same category as you or me. All you will see is an increase in workload, not number of customers.

 

[Momus]

Give me another 8 years, I'd have enough to save up for 15X income for minimum retirement at age 36, then I can do whatever I want.

 

[Dalteparin]

I have a couple of exit strategies.

Strategy A: Use my awesome pharmacist mind-reading powers to predict the winning PowerBall numbers. Upon winning, buy sexy red convertible, drive to boss' house, moon him, peel rubber.

Strategy B: Make crop circle in the back 40. Upon ET's arrival, phone boss and say, "Sayonara, sucker!"

Strategy C: Hijack a Rascal scooter and ride that bitch to Mexico.

Strategy D: Is my actual escape plan, and therefore none of your business. 😀

 

[SoylentGreen]

I have a side job consulting for long term care facilities that will just about keep me going, with IBR, even if I lose my main (retail) job. If I lose that too, I can always live in a van down by the river.

 

[Skrumpy]

BMBiology is the next Nostradoomass, he can see all and shares his vision of the future with us, elucidating the path of our eventual destruction. I too am worried about my exit strategy, especially after I graduate with BMB's calculated 1.5 million dollars in pharmacy debt (I'm going to buy a private island with the copious amounts of loan monies being shoveled at me). He is right though, the market around here is not what it was. My GF decided to quit her CVS job and was immediately given offers from 3 other places (one of which she never even contacted). She negotiated a salary increase and more vacation. She will be making the same amount at her new job as a staff pharmacist that she was as a PIC at CVS (to be fair I do like CVS's stock option better than her soon-to-be new employer's). If she does decide to pick up the PIC position again she'll be making $4/hr more than she was at CVS. Her new location is flying her out to Chicago for training (all expenses paid, including eating out at restaurants for each dinner and catered breakfast/lunches) for a week. The other day she spoke to her grad intern who said his entire class has already been hired and everyone who wanted a residency placed (though obviously not everyone got their 1st choice). He also said Walgreens up here is paying 75% pharmacist wage (~$41/hr) to grad interns (where his friend got placed). Apparently, he doesn't read the forums here at SDN or he would have known that everyone being hired before graduating from school was actually a government plot to build a false sense of security. This will allow them to keep raising their loan rates, trapping everyone into endless debt! If only they had been warned that the market is truly in the final throws of its demise! RUN FOR THE HILLS THE PHARMPOCALYPSE IS UPON US!

 

[BMBiology]

I must say I am flattered.

But, don't take my word for it. Download a sample resume, edit it and then apply to areas where you are planning to work.

 

[Skrumpy]

I will just take your word for it. Only you have the rectal fortitude required to wrestle with the mysterious forces of the Palantír.


BMB gazing into his crystal ball...
(visual approximation)

 

[Hello2000]

It's always people who know someone that post these wonderful replies. Why doesn't your GFT reply with all the wonderful tales? These third party replies are just meaningless.

 

[mustang sally]

I have a couple of exit strategies.

Strategy A: Use my awesome pharmacist mind-reading powers to predict the winning PowerBall numbers. Upon winning, buy sexy red convertible, drive to boss' house, moon him, peel rubber.

Strategy B: Make crop circle in the back 40. Upon ET's arrival, phone boss and say, "Sayonara, sucker!"

Strategy C: Hijack a Rascal scooter and ride that bitch to Mexico.

Strategy D: Is my actual escape plan, and therefore none of your business. 😀

I like strategy A. Screw the bakery, I'm adopting that plan of action. 🙂

 

[npage148]

I prefer to think that BMB has a bucket of truth not a crystal ball. (Any getting that reference gets a 6-pack from me)

My exit strategy is to make a bunch a money and retire at like 50 and puts around til death

 

[Guitarmacy]

I prefer to think that BMB has a bucket of truth not a crystal ball. (Any getting that reference gets a 6-pack from me)

My exit strategy is to make a bunch a money and retire at like 50 and puts around til death

If I happen to have the correct answer, you owe Google a 6-pack. Upright Citizens Brigade?

 

[Trent Steele]

A director at one of my facilities was recently terminated. The job security that once blessed professionals like us is no longer there.

This is a great thread, a reminder to everyone to "pack a parachute"

 

[trailerpark]

A director at one of my facilities was recently terminated. The job security that once blessed professionals like us is no longer there.

This is a great thread, a reminder to everyone to "pack a parachute"

Was there a reason... Not sure what you are trying to say with this. Was it unheard of for directors to get terminated 5-10 years ago.

 

[ucrx]

I must say I am flattered.

But, don't take my word for it. Download a sample resume, edit it and then apply to areas where you are planning to work.

That seems like an effective method for getting a pharmacist position.