<p>Which one of these fields have more potential?</p>
<p>My husband's family has a lot of pharmacists. The best thing is that there are ALWAYS jobs available. No matter where you end up in the United States, I don't know about internationally, you can get a job with a very decent salary and good benefits.</p>
<p>Pharmacy. You won't be outsourced.</p>
<p>Pharmacy also offers a lot more flexibility in working hours.</p>
<p>IMO, it depends which one you're more interested in. Earlier this year, i was deciding btw. pharm and eng. too until i talked to a pharmacist, and he complained about long hours, impatient customers, and other stuff...</p>
<p>but if you look at if from the education/salary standpoint, I would also say that eng. is better because they generally get about the same salary, but they only have to go thru 4 yrs of college, which a pharm.d. is 6 yrs.</p>
<p>on the other hand (this post is becoming a lot longer than i expected), pharmacy does have its benefits, like everyone else stated above</p>
<p>These careers couldn't be more different. There is no creativity in being a pharmacist and only so far that you can go. Engineers can do rote jobs, but they can be inventors, developers of all sorts of things. They can run companies, consult, become venture capitalists. The sky is the limit. So if you want a safe, rote job that probably won't be oursourced (though more and mor mail orfer durgs are coming from other countries) and is fairly sure to be secure throughout your lifetime, a pharmacist is a steady job that will give you a middle class life. If you're more ambitious, engineering has a lot more options and much more upside.</p>
<p>No, PharmD is only four years.</p>
<p>PharmD is SIX years (two prepharm, 4 professional). I agree about pharmacists always being able to get a job anywhere and schedule flexibility. I think the safest engineering discipline that can't be outsourced is civil because it's a hands-on job (same as pharmacy).</p>
<p>I would rather be an engineer. The PharmD is technically 4 years, but you have to have 2 pre-pharm years, I think. Unless you own a pharmacy, your hours will be horrible however. My friend's mom owns a pharmacy, and she said her main motivation was to work the hours she wanted more</p>
<p>"Horrible" hours vary for each person. As a mother, I am glad to have the flexibility to work part-time hours in my chosen profession that blends the best with my family's needs. Not too many jobs pay this wage and let you choose to work either days, evening, nights, weekends, partial shifts or self-chosen consulting hours. In fact, I don't even have a schedule...I just choose which times I want to work each month. Can't beat that!</p>
<p>If you want to think of it that way, pharmacy is 8 years, 4 undergrad since 99% of all pharmacy school applicants have a bachelors. Very very few take the two years preprofessional four years professional route. The old two years preprofessional is a dying tradition, as my mom took that route to UCSF without receiving a bachelors. However, nowadays it is almost impossible to finish up all the requirements for pharmacy school. The rigors are worse than premed!</p>
<p>There's a reason why the average applicant age is much higher now. Unless one started at the very beginning of college with those requirements in mind, it would be impossible to graduate within 4 years in a nonscience major and fulfill those required courses.</p>
<p>Well it's a lot to say pharmacy is what I want to do when you don't really have any experience in it. Getting a bachelors' allows you to say, well pharmacy is interesting, maybe I want to pursue that</p>
<p>perhaps you can volunteer or job shadow a pharmacist and an engineer to get a better idea of what they do.</p>
<p>i'm volunteering at a hospital this summer in the pharmacy dept.</p>
<p>I suggest that interested students check out the web sites for Pharmacy schools of interest and review entrance requirements. If you can do it in 2 years, why take 4? You will not be paid any more as a pharmacist with a bachelors degree than you would as a pharmacist without one. There is no intrinsic value in obtaining this extra degree before entering pharmacy school. I believe the reason the applicant age is higher is the same as when I was in Pharmacy school 30 (!) years ago. Many people who have struggled to make a career with a BS or a BA, or some displaced from other types of jobs, relish the chance to have a solid professional career with guaranteed employment in any city they choose. Pharmacy is the "second" career for many people.</p>
<p>There's a good reason to take four years in college: Because it's enjoyable and you learn a lot.</p>
<p>That, and you leave yourself options if you want to change careers down the line.</p>
<p>My grandfather was a pharmacist. He hated it and admonished me to never go into it because there's no real challenges and it has no real upward mobility. I know it's depressing, but that's my image.</p>
<p>It is becoming a more and more common trend that spending 2 years in preprofessional school is not enough for preparation of pharmacy school. This did not use to be the case, but it is much much more difficult to gain admission to pharmacy school in this manner. Also, additional undergraduate studies provides a more solid background for the rigors of the science education one will be receiving in graduate school.
There are many different aspects of pharmacy other than what one would find at a Longs or a CVS. That is only one (retail pharmacy) option that often gets the most pay (20k on average more than hospital) for the smallest bang and excitement. However, some people really find this aspect of work rewarding, but it's highly individual in preferences. Working in a hospital is challenging because you not only play secondary doctor, but you find that there are new and interesting cases everyday.</p>
<p>thanks i think i'm going with pharmacy</p>
<p>i've heard that alot of engineering jobs is getting outsourced so it might be difficult to get a job unless you get a phD or masters.</p>
<p>is working in a hospitol pharmacy similar to being a doctor?</p>
<p>There is so much misinformation. Please:
1. Look at your college websites for facts on entrance requirements and available programs.
2. Gain some firsthand experience in dispensing pharmacy, since this is where most jobs are. Shadow, volunteer or visit in a retail and hospital workplace.
3. Learn about clinical pharmacist jobs that require a residency/work experience and their availability (or lack thereof)
4. Explore other areas of work in pharmacy, such at drug R&D, manufacturing, consulting, management, sales, computer systems, robot systems, etc, and find what qualifications are needed.</p>
<p>It makes no sense to discuss and argue without good information.
Good luck with your decisions.</p>
<p>lfk has given you some good points to research and ponder. Even within each discipline, there are different jobs geared toward different personalities and temperaments. Consider future lifestyle choices too- those can factor in heavily, also.</p>