I am starting to wonder if any of these pharmacists on this website actually knows anyone who is struggling to find a job or have experienced a pay cut.
Actually, does any pharmacy students or graduates know of anyone who is struggling?
Yes, we chose Pharmacy
- Thread starter Saisri_PharmStdnt
- Start date
Actually, does any pharmacy students or graduates know of anyone who is struggling?
That's simply not true. For example if you are passionate about working for Blockbusters (or any video rental stores for that matter) then you will be most likely remain unemployed.
Yup - me. I graduated 3 years ago and have been working since so I do have experience. However I applied to jobs all over the west coast to attempt to relocate. I must have applied to over +50 jobs for retail, hospital, LTC, even per diem positions. I only heard back from 2. Essentially every single job posts for retail are fake where they probably already have somebody lined up in mind because I would always get an automatic rejection email within hours of applying. I even applied internally within my chain and never heard back. Also essentially every hospital position requires residency or hospital experience - got rejected from those as well.
Other personal examples:
- One of our P4 on rotation where I work is still looking for work. It's almost April now and class of 2019 will be graduating in less than 1.5 months. When I was in school, all of my class already had jobs and residencies lined up...okay that's not true - I know one classmate who despite having worked for CVS as a tech/intern for over 8 years but was not offered a position. He remained unemployed and on the search for at least 6 months after graduation.
- One of our interns got an offer to float for our company. Only 30 hours a week. She doesn't seem too happy about it.
- Almost all stores in my district cut weekend operating hours and overlap hours. Pretty significant cut
- A store I floated to recently had a new PIC because the previous one got fired. Techs seemed to like him but apparently our DM didn't. DM kept cutting tech hours for that store, then when the new PIC came in, tech hours magically went back up.
- Floated to another store where I met a pharmacist who used to be pharmacy director of a large hospital but got laid off.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2017
- Messages
- 324
- Reaction score
- 353
I am a struggling pharmacist. I worked part time at an independent pharmacy last year but was replaced by a cheaper new graduate early this year. The owner told me they want to try new person, but a tech told me it is a daughter of family friend who was having hard time getting employed after graduation. You can trust it or not.
I was lucky enough to find a new job in two months. I had few offers but they were all underwhelming part time jobs with no benefit. One of my connection lead me to get a full time job, but I must relocate 1100 miles next month.
While I work on a new license for new state, I met a girl who graduate in year 2018. She moved to new state from Texas because she could not find a job and had to move in with her sister.
Some students are exceptionally talented. I know many new pharmacist students will be very successful no matter what.
Going to pharmacy school is a big investment, but I currently don`t see any merit pursuing this career. I would go back doing something I was more passionate about if I could travel back in time.
While I search for jobs last 2 months, I found so many independent pharmacies offering $25~$35 for pharmacist position.
Do you think these people would have hard time finding someone at that rate? You will be surprised when you hear what they have to say.
Last edited:
Thanks to both Timbo and TerryTerry for writing down your personal experience in this field. I think it would be of great service to all pre-pharmacy students to hear about the journey recent graduates have experienced, whether they be good or bad. It would really help bring more insight into the job market.
And if you like the idea of employers throwing offers at you left and right, six figure starting salaries, signing and relocation bonuses, and cushy and flexible work conditions that pharmacy used to offer expect without the $200k+ loans and 4 additional years of schooling, go study engineering or computer science instead.
How in the world does it cost 25k?
One of the annoying things about alot of these doomsday people is they like the over/under exaggerate facts as part of their scare tactics to the curious pre-pharmers. Want to go to pharmacy school? 200k debt, CS degree 25k? I don't really believe that so much, I'm inclined to believe that number means 2 years of community college and 2 years elsewhere to finish the bachelors, and doesn't include any of the living expenses associated with it. I mean my pharmacy school is 16-17k tuition yearly which i think is great, i went into school with zero debt, and estimate my max debt when finished will be ~120k
I've said it many times before, I agree wholeheartedly that pharmacy is in a rough spot right now and people that know zero about it should give it a proper thought process. I went in regardless of the signs because I know I really enjoy the field, and have some pretty good connections to the point where I'm not worried about job prospects, which I get most people don't have that luxury.
Another point that is at least worth making is that even if the hourly goes down to $45-50/hr, (i refuse to entertain this notion that $25/hr is out there), you have to remember that there are plenty of people graduating with degrees in stupid stuff like lesbian underwater basket weaving from wildly expensive schools and have the same 120k+ debt, but they cant get a job making more than $12/hr outside of starbucks. I certainly feel no sympathy for these folks that get useless degrees, but assuming you can find a job in pharmacy at least you'll be doing well enough to pay your loans off and live, if you're smart, versus these other crazies.
Well here in Florida it only costs about $3-4k per year at any college as long as you have in-state tuition. It only costs me $8k to get my CS degree (2 years to do core classes) since I already have all my pre-reqs out of the way. And also, I have one friend who went to virginia for pharm school and he is about to graduate this year. He says he has $150k debt and considers himself lucky due to all the scholarships he got.
And if you want to compare your profession to people getting lesbian underwater basket weaving degrees off 4chan, then so be it. Im sure that argument goes well for pre pharmers.
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2017
- Messages
- 324
- Reaction score
- 353
just go to pharmacy school. it’s not like it’s hard to get in anymore so no point trying to discuss stuffs here
good luck. it’s good to be an exception in tough job market
and it’s never about how much tuition costs. don’t get confused
Average debt for a bachelor's degree is ~30k. Cost of pharmacy school can vary widely depending on public vs private, in-state vs out-of-state, and personal living expenses. Average total tuition+fees for a public in-state program is ~$100k and for private it's ~$160k. You can check every school's tuition on ACCP's website. So +$200k debt is actually very likely if you go to a private school after you add living expenses. Congrats on your estimated debt only being 120k, that is exceptionally low. I graduated from a public school and my debt was 150k and that was 3 years ago so tuition has gone up since.
Okay yes, pharmacy is better than a BA in lesbian underwater basket weaving but that's not saying much. If you do find a job in pharmacy but your salary is $70-80k and your debt is ~200k, then after loan payments but pre-tax your salary is actually ~$50k or less for the next 10 years. And your salary will not likely go up either unless you pick up more hours or climb the corporate ladder. If anything it should go down if the current trend of raise freezes and hour cutting continues. Now according to payscale.com the average salary for a bachelor's degree holder is $42k starting, $60k after 5 years, then $74k after 10 years. If you compare pharmacy vs working immediately after your bachelor's by graphing out your net worth, you'll be better off financially just working after your bachelor's. And that's just with a bachelor's too, you'd even be way better off with a master's or MD/PA/dental degree.
Last edited:
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 199
First step for students: Don't listen to the naysayers and cynics.
Market conditions are hostile, and nothing will be handed to you. But you control your outcomes.
If you want a job that few people get, do what other people won't
If you want to make more $$, give employers a reason to give you more
If you want to be happy in your career, start by relentlessly executing the Pharmacist's Oath no matter the circumstances
Don't listen to all the people who hate retail pharmacy. Don't let them skew your view of what could be.
I work for a big chain, and I love what I do. There's so much more to being a corporate pharmacist than what people complain about.
Sticky Post - Not For The Pharmacy Cynic – The Corporate PharmD
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2018
- Messages
- 60
- Reaction score
- 48
Sounds very inspirational, but your post is all buzzwords and no substance. What is your attitude or advice for pharmacists who are afraid to take lunch breaks, who stay late after close for hours and who come in off the clock on their days off because the store is hundreds of scripts in red, all because they are afraid to get fired for not meeting metrics?
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 199
For pharmacists afraid to take lunches - focus on operational management. If your team isn't able to set proper expectations with patients, teach them. Culture doesn't change over night. Train your patients & techs that breaks are mandatory.
Staying late or coming in early happens to everyone. But if you're coming in early or staying late to fill a few scripts, you're not going to make a big impact. Instead of throwing more pharmacist hours at tech duties, focus on your Profit & Loss. Are you spending your budgeted Operating Cost (meaning if you are over sales budget, are you flexing up on payroll or just blindly listening to the DM cut hours?). Are your techs maximizing productivity (or can you type, fill, & service patients more efficiently/effectively)?
Pharmacists who are afraid of not meeting metrics - Learn to see the big picture & use metrics for root cause analysis.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 199
Also, that original post has hyperlinks to related content with more detailed advice.
Here's post about how to see the big picture:
Business Metrics are Like Lab Values – The Corporate PharmD
Here's post about conquering budgets:
Chains that Shackle Us – The Corporate PharmD
And here's my attitude towards micromanaging leaders:
No One Owns Me – The Corporate PharmD
Hope this helps.
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2009
- Messages
- 245
- Reaction score
- 293
Spoken like a true corporate puppet. Blind and Clueless. I love what I do as well, but you are speaking fairy tales to these kids.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 199
I appreciate your honesty.
I don't see it as fairy tales if I've endured the same adverse conditions, overcome them, and taught others how to do the same.
I'm here to exchange new ideas. What do you have to add that hasn't been said before on these forums?
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2018
- Messages
- 60
- Reaction score
- 48
Doesn't matter. If pharmacists at every other store keep working for hours off-the-clock every week due to corporate pressure, your store's numbers will fall behind every body else's the moment you decide not to.
I agree maximizing productivity is important. I no longer work retail but when I floated I definitely ran into stores for which I believe workflow could be improved. However I've also worked in stores where doesn't matter how efficient you are, you will always be behind because the amount of hours given simply doesn't match the workload. And you know as well as I do, every store has its own individual needs based on location and patient population. If you're in an impoverished area you're going to have a bad time with patient adherence and people not being able to afford their meds. If you're in a tourist location you're going to have a hell of a time with entering in new patient profiles and prescription transfers. If you're surrounded by 3 pain clinics, you're going to spend an insane amount of time dealing with early refills, ordering CIIs, etc. Yet DMs don't care, they just stick to the metrics they know and if your store that's located in a ****ty neighborhood is not doing as well as the ones in an affluent retirement community then your head's on the chopping block.
Furthermore I have some issues with "maximizing" productivity when it can hurt patient care and safety. I've seen stores where pharmacists do all the data entry and verification themselves. Heck if I did that, I would be a filling beast - I can type 100 wpm, I know all our software's keyboard shortcuts, and I can verify faster than any pharmacist I know. But I don't because two sets of eyes on a prescription is always better than one and me verifying my own work puts you at higher risk of dispensing error. The problem with corporate is that they don't keep track of dispensing error. They don't even keep track of how many interventions you made discovering drug interactions, how much time you spent working with the doctor trying to come up with affordable solutions for your patients, or how much time you spend counseling patients. In fact you're better off not doing any of those things (unless it could result in a lawsuit) because that's time spent that you could have filled prescriptions instead.
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2017
- Messages
- 324
- Reaction score
- 353
One advice.
Git Gud
Git Gud
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 199
I agree that everything you say is what the majority of retail pharmacists feels. However, there are a lot of generalizations in your testimony, and I'm not sure how many DM's you've worked with.
I'd like to share my perspective, though.
With any company, there are both good and bad leaders. Every corporation, whether pharmacy or not, is cut throat when it comes to financial execution. It's no secret that they are all for profit.
The pattern I see with unhappy, stressed out pharmacists in retail is that they feel constrained by the corporate directives and are unequipped with business knowledge to respectfully, and successfully, push boundaries.
I work for a big chain with all the same adverse conditions, budgets, and metrics. I've been through it all: coming in 2 hours early and staying 4 hours late; not for one day, but weeks on end.
I didn't know any other way except to muscle it. Until I started looking at my job and the business differently.
Metrics are not the purpose of our work. They are indicators of our work, just like lab values are diagnostic tools for clinicians.
Would a clinician who only chases lab values be successful? Can they treat and rehabilitate patients with only a micro-level analysis and ignore the connections between organ systems and pathophysiology?
Retail pharmacists who only obey textbook business metrics are like clinical pharmacists who only check if lab values are within normal limits.
This is the reason why bad supervisors feel they need to micromanage our pharmacists.
If pharmacists truly understand every line of their Profit and Loss report, combined with metric expertise, they would be able to leverage their payroll when they see a business need. They would be able to see that true demand far surpasses a silly paper budget.
How do I know this? Because I do it every single day, every month, and my boss respects my decisions. He doesn't like it, sometimes; but the moment he interferes, any pharmacy failures then belong to him.
I had to earn the privilege of autonomy by delivering results and showing I can do it responsibly. No one knows my business financials and metrics better than I do. And no one should. I am the 'busines owner' of my pharmacy. And I expect to be treated as such.
I overspent more than 50 tech hours each month in Q1. And I am still profitable after 4 wall expenses are factored in. My operating costs as a percent of topline sales is right in line with my budgeted percentage (even though I am technically overspending). Thats okay because it is proportional to my sales growth.
I track my 6 month script trends, compare with last year, project my sales using company metrics, and crush my budgeted goals with the additional payroll I use.
Do I feel like I ever have enough help? Of course not. My bleeding queue bothers and strains my eyes. But I also do not feel powerless. The computer is just a tool and not my boss.
The big picture mindset is what corporate expects from us. Why else would they hand over their multi million dollar businesses and pay us six figures without expecting a single dime of investment? In any other profession, executive positions like this are highly sought after.
Most pharmacists expect to work in retail and only think clinically. The patient is always number one. But I think we can all agree that without a properly managed business, we cannot be effective clinicians.
Pharmacists need to step up their corporate executive skills. We all have doctorates who have no problem sharpening our clinical skills off the clock. We do hours upon hours of CEs each year for the sake of our patients and licensure.
What's stopping us from learning a thing or two about leadership and management on the job to achieve the same goal and be even more effective pharmacists?
- Joined
- May 5, 2018
- Messages
- 167
- Reaction score
- 104
State-funded, not-for-profit pharmacy schools have their problems as well. Do not forget this fact: out-of-state tuition for some public pharmacy schools is higher than that of some private institution's base rate. For example, USFCOP's in-state tuition is among the cheapest ever seen. However, their out-of-state tuition is much higher than LECOM Bradenton's base rate. Tuition alone is not the only factor influencing pharmacy education.
Education of pharmacists on the whole is a problem, not just with private but with public institutions. I do see your point about the negotiation part. The question is: how would they negotiate that rate with little experience? Once graduation hits, there is no reaching into the past.
Last edited:
- Joined
- May 5, 2018
- Messages
- 167
- Reaction score
- 104
Cliched sayings are the bane of progress.
I can't tell if you are being ironic or not.
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2017
- Messages
- 1,294
- Reaction score
- 738
As they say in Starcraft, GG.
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2009
- Messages
- 7,939
- Reaction score
- 8,097
Good for them but they most likely got their offers last year. No one is getting $60/hr in 2019 onward. Closer to $50/hr is the norm now. That was before Walgreens announced they will shed $1 billion in costs. Guess how they will shed it?
Last edited:
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2009
- Messages
- 7,939
- Reaction score
- 8,097
No, OP does not. Nothing is clear in pharmacy especially in 4 years! Need I remind you what happened to Target, Kmart, Stater Bros, Aetna, Duane Reade, Rite Aid, CVS pharmacy supervisor position, Whole Foods, Cigna/Express scripts, United/Optum, Boots, Pillpack, Fred's, CVS/Wags 24hr stores, Omnicare etc in the past 4 years?? These are just off the top of my head, I'm sure I missed many. Aquisitions and closures are occurring at a historic rate and anytime it happens there are LAYOFFS. OP's supervisor and coworkers may not even have a job by the time she graduates, if the company even exists anymore.
You can call this post doom and gloom all you want, but there is no denying what happened in the past 4 years to the companies above. Those are facts and reality.
Last edited:
Genuinely curious but is all of this just assumption or is this a fact? I actually want to see citations because I am bit worried for my friend who is about to graduate with his pharmd
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2009
- Messages
- 7,939
- Reaction score
- 8,097
It has been discussed extensively in the pharmacy forum. Walgreens and CVS definitely lowered wages, average seems to be $50/hr based on new grad offer threads, conference calls etc. Wags hasn't given a raise since 2016. CVS is giving 33 cent raises. Expect other companies and hospitals to follow. Walgreens earnings report was disappointing and their stock plumetted even more, they announced they will shed 1 billion in costs so expect Rph salary to drop more.
Based on my knowledge, I know that new grads within the past 3 years in Georgia and Florida were all offered rates in the mid 50s because I have close friends that graduated from different schools from these states. I don't know anyone who were offered hourly wage of $60 or more as a new grad (excluding places with high costs of living like Cali). This much I know...
So an assumption with anecdotal evidence? I wish pharmacy grads would revisit this site to talk about job offers post graduation date.
I see, I see. Well, I will come back to this site to post up my friend's offer (if he gets one that is) and how long it took to get the offer after date of graduation. Maybe in another thread that is not dead in the future.
Not sure what you are thinking about. 100's of applications for 1 pharmacist job and trying to tell them to not work for that. Think any of the 99% of pharmacist not on SDN will take it? So the people here that follow your advise not to take that low of pay will be unemployed while others will not. We all have bills and families and expenses. Take what you can and try to find something better or find a side business or interest to generate some income and help you keep your sanity. My wife was smart enough to go back and get a masters in Health Informatics and teaches several classes online. Not the same as pharmacist pay but very nice extra income and she really enjoys it. Smart lady.
The job market is changing for pharmacists with no improvement in sight that I can see. I really feel sorry for the new grads. I hear walmart only giving full time to pharm managers. New hires float part time. Over 48 hours every 2 weeks is eligible for benefits. How sad to see a great profession going down the tubes.
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2009
- Messages
- 7,939
- Reaction score
- 8,097
It baffles me that prepharms are not aware of what's going on in the profession that they want to pursue. All of the information is in the pharmacy forum, I don't need to spoon-feed it to you. Multiple threads from real working pharmacists confirming the paycuts to low $50s or worse. You can believe whatever your want, but ask yourself why would so many anonymous pharmacists say the same thing about the pay? You don't see any doctors, dentists, PAs, NPs, optometrists etc complaining about a 20% reduction in new grad offers.
As I said, these new batches of students are mostly aware of the saturation therefore they are not doing this for the money. They are doing this out of passion. I have faith their passion is strong enough that they will stand up for our profession instead of demeaning it by accepting pathetically low wages
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2008
- Messages
- 762
- Reaction score
- 690
It was for me. I am in CS.
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2008
- Messages
- 762
- Reaction score
- 690
You could get a CS degree for less than 25k. Just pick a community college and then transfer to the cheapest state school in two years and commute. Heck with tuition that low your parents might just cut you a check for your whole tuition.
Yea another assumption you made was that i am a pre-pharm student. Also you assumed I was insulting you instead of just stating the fact that what you stated is an assumption of whats going on in this country based off anecdotes. You should have seen that in my second sentence I also wanted recent graduates to state their situation to get more insight. Never once did I say what you are saying is a lie. I was just curious where you got your numbers from.
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2018
- Messages
- 60
- Reaction score
- 48
If you are salary fine, but if you are wage why do that? You are ****ing up productivity measures by working off the clock and setting unrealistic expectations from corporate. I mean you'd get in trouble almost anywhere else for doing that. What's preventing corporate from cutting tech and pharmacist hours even further because pharmacists are willing to work for free anyway?
I'm glad you still consider patients to be number one, but boy does that seem to become less and less true everyday. So many times I've seen pharmacists continuously refill both old and new prescriptions for meds that had their dosage changed (eg patient had lexapro increased from 10 mg to 20 mg but pharmacists keeps filling 10 mg Rx as well as 20 mg). A lot of times patient doesn't even notice and keeps paying for both. Even worse sometimes they take both. Are they just doing this out of carelessness or to purposefully increase script count? Also why does corporate keep track of everything from script count to how much time you spend checking a customer out in drive through, but there is no metric to measure how many drug interactions you found and had to intervene? Why is there no measure for how much time you spent trying to contact a prescriber to switch an antibiotic due to an allergy?
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 199
Yea, those were the days of ignorance and poor strategy on my part lol. I don't throw pharmacist hours at tech work anymore.
I don't really concern myself over what corporate may or may not do regarding hours. I just look at budgeted dollars and I use whatever hours I see fit to make it happen.
I can totally see that scenario happening with mindless filling, and that's why a lot of big companies are getting sued for negligent practices stemming from faulty systems. At the end of the day, it's up to us to use the system to help the patient, not satisfy a metric.
Too many leaders crack the whip on numbers instead of patient outcomes. So, the pharmacy teams drive numbers mindlessly without thinking about actual healthcare and liability. Big problem for many districts.
We definitely could track things like dispensing errors and time to make an intervention. But it's harder to use these to forecast profit. Measuring dispensing error rate and using it as a scoreboard may deter pharmacists from truthfully reporting. I can see why they wouldn't.
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2009
- Messages
- 7,939
- Reaction score
- 8,097
Again the pharmacy forum has all of this information in multiple threads, in fact there is even an entire job market subforum over there. If you're a pharmacist then just ask your colleagues and they'll tell you how much 2019 new hires are getting. If you're not a pharmacist, call your local CVS or Walgreens and they'll probably still tell you.
- Joined
- Jul 21, 2004
- Messages
- 1,505
- Reaction score
- 2,431
It's pretty cool to see people who are passionate about their future profession despite the worsening market conditions. I used to be a pre-pharm (15+years ago) in one of those accelerated programs (naive, thought it was easy money, and knew nothing of the profession). Then I realized that I absolutely hated the profession and bailed before going to pharmacy school. The important lesson I've learned is that you should like the profession you are pursuing and know something about it before going into your respective field (especially if it makes little financial sense). That's hard to know with absolute certainty unless you are in practice (whether you will like the profession or make lots of money).
- Joined
- Nov 12, 2017
- Messages
- 1,294
- Reaction score
- 738
CS is way harder than Pharm though. Trust me i took CS classes.
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2008
- Messages
- 762
- Reaction score
- 690
Yeah it is. Not for noobs.
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2018
- Messages
- 60
- Reaction score
- 48
Good. How do you feel about reporting employees who are consistently working off the clock to corporate?
Exactly. That's why pharmacy sucks now and is getting worse and worse.
Personally I would like to see a corporation implementing a way to keep track of all your interventions. I work in a hospital now and our software has a way for us to keep track of all our interventions: every med we renally adjust, every warfarin or vanco dosed, every patient education, every interaction with physicians where that ask for consult, etc. And while these aren't used directly in our productivity calculations, we can use them as a way to justify why we need the hours we have. We also keep track of "days since last error" here and every safety issue is discussed and used as a learning opportunity at our meetings. I don't see why that can't be done in retail also if the patient is truly #1.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 199
The real question is not whether they should be reported, but rather if they need support from leadership. Too many pharmacists resort to using pharmacist hours instead of technician hours. Maybe because that's the message their supervisors are conveying. Too many pharmacists think they need to clear all the "orange prescriptions" on the screen in order to satisfy a metric. Maybe because they are feeling the whip of micromanagement. Personally, I don't think reporting anyone for a poor business strategy is going to help.
Your concerns about skewing productivity measures don't really translate to the profit and loss report, which is the real measure corporate cares about. Leadership around the importance of metrics is the real reason pharmacists suffer. Imagine in healthcare if all practitioners cared about was keeping all lab values within normal limits, obsessively chasing every number at the detriment of real outcomes. That's where the disconnect with resources and outcomes in retail pharmacy comes from.
I completely agree that more internal transparency with dispensing errors could help us protect patients. Something my district is encouraged to do is remote into our cameras during the time of the dispensing error to check for environmental root causes. But there are lots of improvements and efficiencies that could be implemented for sure.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 199
tylenolnumber3
Full Member
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2018
- Messages
- 27
- Reaction score
- 31
If you truly love the profession you should work for whatever amount is offered. The only reason wage went from 50k to 120k was because of corporate in the first place. You can’t have it both ways. Say nothing when wages go up and then complain bout corporate when your wage goes back to reality.
The PharmD is a 4 year degree +/- residency degree that you paid $150k for. Why should pharmacists make less than PAs or master's degree holders whose degrees are only 2 years? The more pharmacists accept low wages the further wages will drop. Meanwhile pharmacy school tuitions are at an all time high. If you are a passionate about the profession, you would play no part in devaluing its worth.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 199
Agreed, except you must also fight for the position and pay you want and deserve. Not just boycott.
Many pharmacists lack the skills to network, negotiate, and position themselves in the market to achieve what they're worth.
We graduate with clinical degrees, but get roasted in the job market.
The problem is that corporations have an army of desperate new grads with $200k+ in loans that they unleash upon us year after year to force us to work harder and longer or to get rid of higher paid employees. Instead of looking for talent, companies would rather just hire someone for cheap who will take and do just about anything so they could have a job.
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2019
- Messages
- 220
- Reaction score
- 199
That is one way to look at it. Economics play a huge role, and it is cyclical.
For a long time, the highest paying jobs were in retail.
That's no longer the case in this market. But just like any other profession, the highest wages go to the ones who can leverage their skills in the right settings, lead others, position themselves favorably, or maneuver through corporate politics.
Or, they seek employment in niche areas, specialize and differentiate, or find unmet needs in the community and capitalize. The possibilities are endless.
Finding a good, high-paying job now just became as difficult as every other field IMO
If I were a new grad, I would accept the circumstances and make a plan to get what I want. If I didn't love retail or business, I would steer clear of corporate retail pharmacy.
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2017
- Messages
- 324
- Reaction score
- 353
You are constantly repeating yourself and it`s getting old.
Just tell people to get good enough to land a job by the time they graduate and be done with it.
The money spent, time spent and a degree earned alone aren`t enough.
Similar threads
- Question
