I have so many questions- are there other fields in pharmacy I can go into if the traditional positions are flooded? Like making medicine or working for a lab? Does college offer opportunities for jobs like through job fairs or other events like that? Do you get paid for internships? Is it possible to do a residency while working part time?
I mean I have some connections- my mom’s friend’s brother owns a pharmacy, my cousin is a doctor at a hospital in CT, uh that’s it.
@sharebear111 Bro it seems we’re in the same boat!! I’m a senior in high school and I’ve always wanted to be a pharmacist because it seems so easy and the salary is very good. But I’ve read forums and blogs where people keep complaining that the job market is saturated. I’m really confused as to what I want to do. I don’t want to waste 6-8yrs in college and be unemployed!
Maybe you should research the job outlook for pharmacists online. A good starting place is the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
@JustOneDad that site says pharmacists are very much in demand and many forums say that’s not true.
My dd wants to go into pharmacy and unfortunately, every pharmacist we’ve spoken to agrees that the market is saturated. New pharmacists have to take part time hours here and there. The BLS says it’s a growing field, but that’s not what we’re hearing from many established pharmacists who are not retiring (as was predicted by the labor market analysts).
It’s not necessarily a conflict to say it’s a growing field and a saturated field. The demand for pharmacists may be increasing but not at the pace of new graduates from the exploding number of pharmacy schools.
^^ and that’s exactly the problem.
so what do I do? Can I apply to nursing and pharmacy schools and see which’ll give me more scholarship money. Like if St. John’s University offers me full tuition for 4/6 years I’ll be very tempted to choose it over a nursing school
Looks like St. John’s offers scholarships but not for the 5th and 6th year.
@DonMilton I can assure you, it is not “so easy”. If the fact that you think it’s an easy job is what’s motivating you to become a pharmacist, I would implore you to start seeking out other career paths. Pharmacists are frequently mentioned among the careers with the highest suicide and depression rates, and they boast somewhere around a 20% above average substance abuse rate. I’m not trying to crush anyone’s dreams, but it is certainly important to be aware of the fact that being a pharmacist can come with a lot of stress. There are some individuals that thrive in a high stress environment. It fits their personality, and in turn makes them a great fit for that field. There are happy pharmacists, I personally know more than one, but that isn’t the case for all. That being said, @sharebear111 there is absolutely more than one field to enter into with a pharmacy degree. There are many subfields within the field of pharmacy itself. Areas such as retail pharmacy (ex. CVS, Walgreens), hospital pharmacy (ex. operate a pharmacy within a hospital, working closely with nurses and doctors to ensure proper treatment), clinical pharmacy (ex. emphasis on the science behind medications, much more direct interactions with patients and physicians), research pharmacy (ex. understanding medicine and developing new and sometimes revolutionary medications, offering consultations on your area of expertise), pharmaceutical marketing (ex. drug representative, spreading the word on a new medication that could improve lives), teacher/professor (ex. educating the next generation of pharmaceutical healthcare professionals, or travel and hold seminars and drug conferences). Just like any degree, a PharmD can open many doors for you. Being a pharmacist is an important responsibility, and if there is one thing we need more of, it’s good pharmacists. Whether or not you get paid for an internship depends entirely on the company you intern with. Pharmacy residents are typically paid anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 dollars a year. How much you get paid during your residency will be determined by the university you attend. I suppose it would be possible under certain circumstances to have a part-time position in a minor capacity during residency, but generally residents live off the stipend they are granted (their resident salary).
Are you saying that residency pay depends on what school granted the Pharm.D. degree?
@GavinKing * “How much you get paid during your residency will be determined by the university you attend.”*
No, it’s determined by the residency program you get into. The school where you got your PharmD has nothing to do with it.
It’s possible (maybe) to get a part-time job during a residency. It’s going to depend on your residency program. D1 averaged about 12 hours a day at her hospital during her PGY-1.
And yet, the unemployment rate for pharmacists is very low. Go figure.
The big problem new pharmacists face right now are these numbers:
***"From 1987 to 2012, the number of accredited pharmacy schools in the United States grew from 72 to 128. Existing schools expanded their class sizes, as well.
Instead of creating 6,000 new doctors of pharmacy a year, as was the case in 2002, U.S. higher education is now putting out around 13,000."***
Here’s a link to the source article:
http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2013/10/27/Pharmacy-schools-turning-out-too-many-grads/stories/201310270094
@QuietType Clearly my remark was misunderstood. The fault is probably my own due to my operating under the assumption that all of the individuals interpreting my comment possessed prior knowledge or experience in pharmacy, such as myself. Which, of course, is a big mistake and I apologize; however, to say “The school where you got your PharmD has nothing to do with it.” isn’t exactly accurate. In addition to the fact that there are teaching hospitals with attachments to a university that acts as a feeder program, the university you attend does often play a role in determining the residency program you get into. While residency is a postgraduate program, where a PharmD completes their residency is influenced by a number of factors that tie into the school they attended. These factors include things such as how you performed academically while working toward your PharmD, references and letters of recommendation from faculty within the department at your school that have connections in certain facilities, the fact that some schools are geared more toward those that seek to work in under privileged areas or metropolitan areas and in turn heavily influence where you seek out a residency program, and organizations that work in collaboration with certain universities to aid graduates from those universities in getting into a residency program. The residency program a student seeks out and is granted a position in is very much influenced by where they got their degree, and the program you are in determines what you will be paid, so the school where you got your PharmD has a lot to do with how much you will get paid during your residency and it would be very unfortunate if you were deluded into thinking otherwise. I would like to apologize again for the ambiguity of my original comment. I should have included more detail. That being said, I hope any information I have provided has been of some help to someone. @Madison85 @sharebear111
@sharebear111 @Madison85 You’ll find a lot of different numbers regarding the unemployment rate of PharmD graduates. These numbers can sometimes be misleading. A strategy many surveys employ in order to guage unemployment for recent graduates is to survey them within several months (it varies) of their graduation date, but there are PharmDs that prefer to not jump the gun immediately following graduation. Instead, they wait around 5 or 6 months (again, it varies) for graduation season to die down so the number of candidates isn’t so high for the position they are applying for. These graduates sitting on their degrees can affect the numbers in the surveys measuring unemployment because these individuals will be surveyed in regards to whether or not their degree has gotten them a job yet, and waiting isn’t necessarily an uncommon strategy. If someone has elected to wait, they will add to the unemployment percentage even though their degree may very well award them an excellent job. This is just one example though, and no survey is perfect; however, it is good to be aware that the statistics have the potential to be misleading. It is also important to note what others have already mentioned in regards to the ratio of schools and graduates to available positions.New graduates are often wet behind the ears and think with the mindset that the first job they get after graduation will be their dream career they have worked so hard for, but that is often not the case and they do not have positions when surveyed because they have started to give up in the face of adversity (not getting the position they wanted). There are still ladders to climb, even after graduation.
@GavinKing Yes, i would never deny the influence of networking in any occupation. And certainly the faculty of your school has it’s own network that the students tap into. I would say that one’s academic profile and letters of recommendation are probably the largest components that a residency program uses to select candidates, And that some programs will not accept candidates from the newer schools, although I doubt that that is ever explicitly stated.
D1 received eleven interviews out of twelve applications for her PGY-1 search. She applied to a range of institutions nationwide, from university research hospitals, VA programs and large public hospitals. She matched with her number one choice. Ironically, the lowest stipend offered of the 11 programs was at one of the internationally known university-based research hospital located in a large city. It’s very possible that her wide range of choices was partially as a result of her school’s reputation, but still, the amount of the stipend’s offered are from the residency program itself, not the degree-granting institution. I can attest that your range of the value of the stipends ($30,000 - $50,000) is quite accurate, at least as of 2014/2015.
@QuietType “And that some programs will not accept candidates from the newer schools, although I doubt that that is ever explicitly stated.” I admit to sharing your doubt in that regard, and find your other comments to be factually sound. I can tell you are educated in this field and the way in which it operates, so I’m sure you know as well as I do that the unwritten guidelines many organizations follow often share equal or more importance than those that are explicitly stated. This unfortunate truth ties largely into my previous points. In a perfect world, a graduate would be accepted into a superior residency program based purely on merit, but we obviously don’t live in a perfect world. I believe it is critical for an individual to be educated in how their prospective career field truly operates before they attempt to become a part of it.
If not pharmacy then what career??? Any profession out there with good employment rates and salary(6 figures)?