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Anyone in here a Pharmacist?

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Rockinacoustic

Platinum Member
I'm currently in the midst of my Junior Year, majoring in Biochemistry. Initially I was interested in Research but have yet to find a lab whose concentration I enjoy. This past semester I've garnered a huge interest in looking into Pharmacy school after I get my bachelors. I've taken a practice PCAT, and it seems like a reasonable test. Some of the reasons I'd be a Pharmacist over a Research scientist would be: 1). More interaction with people and the community. 2). The flexible work hours. 3). Substantially larger salary.

I guess my question to those who have their PharmD degree would be: would it be better to get involved in a research lab that deals with pharmacological principles (such as medicinal chemistry), or would it be better to get a job/internship as a Pharmacy Tech? Perhaps maybe even shadow a Pharmacist for a day? The later is probably the best start, but If I do want to get into a four year program, what would suit me better?

Also, feel free to give me insight on your job; burst my bubble if you will, whatever it takes to get a real world idea of the profession.

Thanks in Advance 🙂
 
There's a couple different routes you can go in pharmacy.

The main two are retail & clinical. Retail being Walgreens/Target/Grocery Stores. Clinical being hospital based.

There are a couple outliers like homecare & infusion where you make up IV bags and various other infused based drug treatment products and consulting to places like nursing homes and assisted living on drug treatments and counseling.

Retail will rot your brain and test your sanity. You basically hand out perscriptions and listen to people bitch about insurance and ask you which cream to use for a various itch or pain they have. The turnover rate for retail pharmacists is pretty high. You see a lot of them move to a clinical job or move employers often.

Clinical can offer a number of different choices depending on your interest. If you want, you can camp out in an IV room all day filling up IV's and doing chemo drugs. Or you can specialize in various areas and doing dosing on speciality things (chemo, neuro, cardiac, peds, ect). Depending on the hospital and you initiative, you can have as much or as little interaction with other clinicians and patients as you want. My wife is an ICU pharmacist and knows probably 75% of all doctors and surgeons in a 600 bed hospital. Other pharmacists that she works with probably couldn't pick 75% out of a linuep. It's all in what you want to make of it.

If your desire to actually make up and compound drugs, then I think you will probably be a little disappointed to know that it's a very small part of the job and it's usually not in the same job description as those that deal with a lot of interactions with other people. There are those jobs out there, but they are definitely in the minority.

I can't speak at all about research positions or drug labs...I have no experience and don't know any pharmacists that are in that career.
 
Wouldn't that depend on what you want to do?

My sister-in-law is a PharmD and has a research-related job history. I think she actually wanted lab work but since she is part-time she had to work as a travelling pharmacist.

My cousin is in pharmacy school and wants to work in a actual pharmacy so she is currently a pharm tech.
 
What vi said. My friend graduated with her PharmD and did a few years in retail. She just about wanted to shoot herself until she got a spot at a hospital. She's much happier now.

I would think pharmacological lab work would be more impressive on a resume. Depending on how many/few hours are needed in the lab, you could possibly do both.
 
My dad's been a pharmacist for 35+ years now. I've been listening to him complain about working retail for my 27 years of existence. 🙂
 
Thanks so much for the opinions! I'll probably see if my University's Hospital offers any undergrad positions in their Pharmacy department.
 
My dad's been a pharmacist for just over 30 years. He works retail and he LOVES it. He's been a pharmacy manager for over 20 years, but a few years ago he switched to an overnight pharmacist job. They work 7 10 hour days, then get 7 days off. Essentially, get paid 100K and work 70 hours every other week ... In my dad's case, he is a workaholic, so he works 5+ days of overtime usually on his weeks off ....

I spent 5 years working as a pharmacy tech, I enjoyed it, but the pay was miserable .... I left that position in 2001 when I went to work for their "help center", but in my current position (software developer for pharmacy software), I am supposed to have a couple of tech days every year ... it's kinda sad, I used to be a badass tech, and now the workflow is so different that I am more or less "in the way" as much as "helpfull" ....

Anfhow, to answer your question, I'd recommend taking a job as a pharmacy tech in a retail store. It's stressful work, but if you work with a good pharmacy manager, it can be fun. Also, Most companies will pay their pharmacy interns more than pharmacy tech pay after a year or so of grad school ...
 
Originally posted by: vi edit
Retail will rot your brain and test your sanity. You basically hand out perscriptions and listen to people bitch about insurance and ask you which cream to use for a various itch or pain they have. The turnover rate for retail pharmacists is pretty high. You see a lot of them move to a clinical job or move employers often.
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LOL, my sister is a Walgreens pharmacist and she has lots of entertaining stories about the people she serves. A common theme seems to be women in expensive SUVs pulling up and rolling down the window and greeting my sister with a face full of cigarette smoke as it billows out of the car. These women are usually quite weathered looking and cranky, and generally have a pile of kids in the back of this expensive SUV. She then hands her medical assistance card to my sister and proceeds to bitch about the cost of the co-pay, while taking huge drags off her cigarette and occasionally screaming at her children.

It makes a person proud to pay their taxes to help the unfortunate among us, with their cigarettes and expensive SUVs.
 
Originally posted by: BurnItDwn
My dad's been a pharmacist for just over 30 years. He works retail and he LOVES it. He's been a pharmacy manager for over 20 years, but a few years ago he switched to an overnight pharmacist job. They work 7 10 hour days, then get 7 days off. Essentially, get paid 100K and work 70 hours every other week ... In my dad's case, he is a workaholic, so he works 5+ days of overtime usually on his weeks off ....

I spent 5 years working as a pharmacy tech, I enjoyed it, but the pay was miserable .... I left that position in 2001 when I went to work for their "help center", but in my current position (software developer for pharmacy software), I am supposed to have a couple of tech days every year ... it's kinda sad, I used to be a badass tech, and now the workflow is so different that I am more or less "in the way" as much as "helpfull" ....

Anfhow, to answer your question, I'd recommend taking a job as a pharmacy tech in a retail store. It's stressful work, but if you work with a good pharmacy manager, it can be fun. Also, Most companies will pay their pharmacy interns more than pharmacy tech pay after a year or so of grad school ...
Click to expand...

My dad worked the overnight shift for about 6-7 years, until he was robbed at gunpoint. He promptly switched back to the day shift and has been there since.
 
Originally posted by: aphex
Originally posted by: BurnItDwn
My dad's been a pharmacist for just over 30 years. He works retail and he LOVES it. He's been a pharmacy manager for over 20 years, but a few years ago he switched to an overnight pharmacist job. They work 7 10 hour days, then get 7 days off. Essentially, get paid 100K and work 70 hours every other week ... In my dad's case, he is a workaholic, so he works 5+ days of overtime usually on his weeks off ....

I spent 5 years working as a pharmacy tech, I enjoyed it, but the pay was miserable .... I left that position in 2001 when I went to work for their "help center", but in my current position (software developer for pharmacy software), I am supposed to have a couple of tech days every year ... it's kinda sad, I used to be a badass tech, and now the workflow is so different that I am more or less "in the way" as much as "helpfull" ....

Anfhow, to answer your question, I'd recommend taking a job as a pharmacy tech in a retail store. It's stressful work, but if you work with a good pharmacy manager, it can be fun. Also, Most companies will pay their pharmacy interns more than pharmacy tech pay after a year or so of grad school ...
Click to expand...

My dad worked the overnight shift for about 6-7 years, until he was robbed at gunpoint. He promptly switched back to the day shift and has been there since.
Click to expand...

Ahh that would fvcking suck. In my 5 years in the pharmacy, worst think we've had was some guy who was seriously mentally disturbed and had missed a dose of one of his pills, and he threatened to climb over the counter because he "needed" his medicine (this was after he was told that there were no refills available and that the Dr would have to be called) ...

This guy was skiddish and I didn't think he would actually do it ... But the RPh on duty made the decision to get this guy some of his Valium or whatever because he clearly needed it ... free of charge ... saw the same guy a few times later after that ... and he seemed like he was more in control of his actions ... Musta just had a really really bad day and been really desperate ...

Anyhow ... I got lucky, and never really had any "scary" circumstances... My dad's never mentioned anything about being held up, but if somebody came in with a gun, my dad isn't stupid, He'd give the guy the key to the narc safe and a bag and tell the guy to help himself ...
 
Originally posted by: RKS
Wouldn't that depend on what you want to do?

My sister-in-law is a PharmD and has a research-related job history. I think she actually wanted lab work but since she is part-time she had to work as a travelling pharmacist.

My cousin is in pharmacy school and wants to work in a actual pharmacy so she is currently a pharm tech.
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I hear traveling/consulting pharmacy = $$$$. I met one who makes great money doing contract work throughout the midwest. Great if you like travel, good work, and money.

My good buddy is a pharmD in Seattle. Hospital work with a strong research component. he finished his pharmD ~ 2 years ago.

My uncle has been retail/counter pharmacist for 30+ years, with Kmart. From my experience, this is one of the worst paths you can take. I guess your own personality depends, but you deal with way too much shit from all sorts of people. Understandably, of course, but you have to have some seriously thick skin to stand behind that counter and shovel pills while being yelled-at by confused elderly people for 10-12 hours per day.

Also, it seems that the majority of pharmacists are alcoholics. go figure 😉
 
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