My GF just got accepted to the University of Iowa's pharmacy school, which from what I understand is a pretty decent one. This after a BA at Colorado College in Biochemistry. She didn't really know what she wanted to do after college, and pharmacy sounded like a nice career that pays well, has a flexible range of hours, and seems to have plenty of demand.

But now that she's officially accepted, she (and I) wants to make sure it is the right decision for her. I'm guessing that when she doesn't have much experience, she'll probably have to get a bad shift at Walgreens or something, but it always pays well and hopefully in a few years she can find a place she enjoys working at and has good hours. But it seems like there are fewer and fewer "mom and pop" pharmacies with friendly people and a neat environment and more and more Walgreens / Rite Aids / etc, and I'm afraid working at one of those for many years would get to be a bit bland.

So I guess I'm looking for opinions if any of you know much about Pharmacy and how people enjoy it, or maybe what other jobs a PharmD can lead to.

Money - dispense pills in a pharmacy and eventually own the pharmacy - you will make most of your money from selling shampoo

Interesting work - usually when you are working in a clinical hospital environment

Of course there's always pharmaceutical research and maybe even becoming a professor but that comes with it's own publish or perish pressures.

he likes it alot, the difference between the pharmD and BS was 2 semesters extra of internship for the pharmD. the pay is excellent, about 40-50$ an hour in austin and you make your own hours. he works weekends and goes to grad school on weekdays which is a big plus.

my aunt's ex had a pharmD and does research in chapel hill and likes that too.

its a great career for a woman who wnts to have a family and work at the same time.

wish her luck.

im in the college of pharmacy here at utexas, but im not getting a pharmD im going for a phd so i cant practice as a pharmacist.

I wouldn't want to be one.
They are verbally assaulted every day. People don't equate problems with insurance companies and their drugs. They equate problems with pharmacists and their drugs. My ex used to come home every day stressed and angry as a result.

Another ex-gf... her father was a pharmacist and he hated it. The stress also makes them prone to abuse drugs as well. I think there is a very high rate of drug abuse with in the field.

They make bank though to compensate for the stress. You can usually get a signing bonus that pays for your education the first year out. In California starting can be $150K for retail.

Pharmacists actually can have very interesting careers.
You can go in the direction of running clinical trials for pharmaceutical/biotech companies
You can go into hospital administration
You can go into patient oriented work as well in hospitals and retail.
You can also go into drug sales for drug companies as well.

All are very lucrative.

The least lucrative aspect of pharmacy probably is the hospital work, but it is generally the most rewarding.

Dishing pills is only a part of the job. THere is a lot of math and chemistry in most pharmacy jobs. The amount of problem solving is quite great. It requires a lot of brain power.

From what I heard, it's not that much but I could be wrong.

I was thinking about the pharmacy field but went dentistry instead. That's a whole different ball of wax that I won't get into. :-(

...She likes it, but there's a bunch of thing she dislikes too. The pay-scale maxes out at around $65,000. After that you need to go and do your own gig. The hours can be long, and you'll have to work the weekends in the beginning, but if you don't mind that, you're gold.

seriously!

... and dealing with people sucks, especially if they are sick and feeling miserable and just want you to give them their drugs.

difficult than other areas.

Heck! One day my ex was at work and a headhunter call her boss to offer him $50K signing bonus to take a job in Texas.

Two others are attorneys (1 FDA attorney and 1 patent attorney); three others sell drugs for Eli Lilly and Fizer; and one other works at a hospital conducting clinical trials (and dispensing drugs at the hospital pharmacy on the side). They all seem to enjoy what they're doing. The drug sales people get really good tickets to sporting events and a lot of free stuff like gloves, gym bags, Viagra and windbreakers, so I would go that route. :)

I got my undergraduate degree at the University of Iowa. Iowa City is a fantastic place to spend a few years. She will absolutely not regret it.

Her hours are flexible, her pay is good, her healthcare is free and her kids got to go to school there for free.

are the most miserable people in the world. I would not suggest being a pharmacist w/ a drug store chain to anyone I know. Granted they are not overjoyed to see me walk in and want to talk with them, however, from everything I've witnessed, they are miserable throughout the work day. I think anyone who is thinking of this career needs to spend some time interning with a busy corner pharmacy to be sure it is a good career choice for them in the long run (in fact, I believe interning is part of the course work required to get your pharma degree?). As for me, there is no way I could take doing what they do years on end.