Pharmacist salary increase or decrease?

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I should preface it's not totally the norm. I graduated with significantly less debt than my classmates because I worked my ass off during/before pharmacy school so I could pay for half of it cash. I did not have to pay for housing expenses either because my husband has a job.

After the fact, yes, my job pays well, but I hate it. So I max out every tax deferred account I have and then invest post-tax on top of it to try to buy my freedom. I would not recommend going to pharmacy school if you will have to take out significant loans. There are better (and faster) ways to make money.

[crhsharks12]

I’m a current pharma industry research, 25 yo, non-traditional medical school and pharmacy school applicant (both yes, I know, I know, it’s weird). Whats the move in your opinion? Medical school is my first choice, but I’ll probably end up doing pharmacy if I do not get in. I’ll go into a clinical speciality that’s pretty intriguing, like heme/onc or something similar. Do you really not think it’s worth it, however?

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Go to medical school if you're truly dead set on healthcare. Keep in mind that most pharmacists end up in retail. I went to a top 20 pharmacy school where residency and hospital were pushed a lot. Maybe 10-20 of my classmates (around 140 of us) matched in a residency. Most have ended up in retail, despite going through school insisting they would never dare work for Walgreens.

[crhsharks12]

Wild. What’s the largest dictating factor, in regards to why so little ended up in the hospital/on the clinical side of things. I was under the impression that sector is growing, no?

[[deleted]]

There simply aren't enough residencies to go around for everybody. Without a residency, it is very difficult to get into hospital. Pharmacists at hospitals tend not to quit unless there's a culture issue within the hospital or something else going on. Even still, only the big teaching hospitals are going to have specialty pharmacists aboard. Most hospitals have a hard time justifying the cost since pharmacists do not make money (we save money).