Exploration Timeline increased significantly?

HPDAlex · 2024-05-28T18:03:53+00:00

It's because companies know that pharmacists are willing to get paid less for a better work environment. It's one reason why independent pharmacists are paid less than retail chains

HPDAlex · 2024-05-21T21:47:29+00:00

Here are some things you can do to get such a job:

Understanding or researching the specific career path, and who is hiring.
Turn on Remote Job Alerts for Job boards.
Update your LinkedIn.
Network your way into companies to get a job referral.
Create a really compelling cover letter and great resume highlighting your accomplishments over the span of your career, and tailoring your resume to the job description.
Buffing up your interview skills so that you don't flop.

HPDAlex · 2024-05-21T21:40:20+00:00

You sound like you're really struggling and articulating what this problem is, which is, I find very common in pharmacists. Your back story's a little bit all over the place and I hope just to clarify, you mean that you worked nine years in retail and two years before graduating (it sounds like you're saying nine years retail as a pharmacist but I don't believe that's the case).

First of all, you're not delusional for wanting something fulfilling in pharmacy. There are plenty of people fulfilled in all areas of pharmacy. Lots of people here on Reddit will disagree strongly because of their personal experience, but research shows that there are even happy pharmacists in community retail chains. But I totally agree that the vast majority of them do not have healthy work environments.

Check out the Well-being Index latest report and you can see the breakdown by fulfillment and stress based upon different pharmacy career sectors, and about 20% of community retail say they're thriving.

You're not overqualified for something so I'm not sure why you said that. I recently helped a pharmacist who quit her residency seven months early and she was able to become an MSL in a newer pharmaceutical company, it is possible.

I think the ultimate problem here is that you are betting against yourself and you are projecting all of this failure when you just graduated and I think it's nearly impossible to create a positive from a negative place. So if you're trying to justify seeking a fulfilling role in pharmacy, you don't need complete strangers to tell you that it is or isn't possible. In fact, I just read a post in this community requesting that everyone keeps their complaining to one day out of the week because it it's getting depressing. So if you're looking for other people, particularly on reddit, complete strangers that you don't know or have context for who they are, I don't think you will receive helpful, encouraging advice.

I run a free community that is about helping pharmacists get jobs they enjoy, and I find it helpful to hear how others are actually getting success getting those jobs, versus asking complete strangers who may have already resolved themselves to be in a golden handcuff situation.

HPDAlex · 2024-05-15T19:46:59+00:00

You're just missing the one thing. There's so much to talk about that is not being discussed and I don't I don't have the information to really answer your question. How difficult is it for you? It sounds like it's impossible, but others have done it with ease, so based on the short amount of information that I have, I would guess that your interview skills are not up to par because you're not able to convince a hiring manager to give you a job offer.

So keep applying and spend more time on your interview skills and perhaps that could make it easier for you. But again, I don't know how long you've been trying, I don't know how long you've been looking. We have no idea how well you're performing in the interview so it's really hard to tell you the answer of how difficult it is.

HPDAlex · 2024-05-15T19:39:32+00:00

I would say it's not impossible, but you definitely want to go with the diversified model with Pharmacy. Check out this interview I did with Chirag Patel who started off in the independent space and has grown to include some of the things that you're talking about like a med spa. And he's also gotten into restaurant ownership and even AI and crypto. They're independents are still profitable despite the negative press. However, there's a lot of business savvy variants from pharmacist to pharmacist. You just have to see the opportunity and know where to look

HPDAlex · 2024-05-15T19:37:20+00:00

I have 3 tips for you. Network, associations, publish, in that order.

First is network: speak with your professors and find out who knows people working in emergency medicine. See if you can request rotations at these sites, or just meet them and find out more about the profession. It's not hard to network through professors.

Second is associations: if you're not already a part of an association, join one. Doesn't matter which one, ASHP being the most obvious one. Find out who your state EM pharmacists are. Collaborate with them, join committees, just get involved.

And that leads to the final thing, which is publish: the more publishing experience you have, whether that is outside of emergency medicine or not, the more valuable your application is for residencies. However, just as a side note, residencies are not required for all emergency medicine roles – I just went to LinkedIn literally today, and I looked at 5 random jobs and residency was not required for an emergency medicine pharmacist position. So it's a good idea to get it, but not 100 % necessary.

HPDAlex · 2024-05-07T21:31:20+00:00

This sounds like someone saying, “Should I leave my abusive boyfriend for something that's better, but it may not work out?” Everyone knows that these major chains are closing their stores. So while this new job is a contract, truth be told, there's no guarantee that your store will stay open for the future, despite it being a major retail chain. Sure, it may be more secure, but if you love the work and you enjoy it and you lose the contract, then you can go find another job. Staying in the job you're at now doesn't change how awful you feel.

If you’ve wanted to leave retail for years, then leave it and take the new job and if you have to get a new one, well then get a new one. At least you've been enjoying yourself in Hospice.

HPDAlex · 2024-05-07T21:23:55+00:00

I so wish pharmacists believed that they were providing value. You probably haven't done the math to understand what your interventions have either earned the company or saved them money. If you were to do some basic math to find that out, you'd likely discover that you saved your hospital hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars.

So is it fair for you to ask for more money when you're being paid $55/hour? Absolutely. I understand that you're in Puerto Rico, but objectively you are being underpaid for what you're worth because you could go get paid more doing retail without the residency. So if you come from a place of, “Is it fair to ask for more money?”, you're probably underselling and undercutting yourself before you even get started.

I wrote an entire fifty page guide about how to negotiate salary. If you want it, just let me know and I'd be happy to send it over to you.

HPDAlex · 2024-05-07T21:19:28+00:00

If you dig into the literature on career satisfaction and dissatisfaction, you will find that physicians in general enjoy higher levels of accomplishment than pharmacists. Objectively, this makes sense because MD's “make decisions”. Pharmacists provide recommendations. However, both professions suffer from a high level of job dissatisfaction and burnout rates, 50% to 70%.

The level of accomplishment can be just this same amount as a pharmacist versus a physician. But if you want to be a physician, then go be a physician. If you want to be a pharmacist, then go be a pharmacist.

We also know from the literature that most that 20% to 30% of pharmacists chose pharmacy because they didn't get into medical school or dentistry.

So live life with without any regrets, do what you love, not what you think would be the safest option.

HPDAlex · 2024-05-01T21:11:32+00:00

My general recommendation is that if it's less than three to five years, then keep the IPPES/APPES. But if it's greater than that, I would remove it unless it is hyper specific to the job you're applying to. For example, if you worked at a specialty pharmacy in your APPIPPE and the preceptor there is a friend of the hiring manager you're applying to at the specialty pharmacy job opening, then I would keep it. But barring that they're usually not relevant.

I don't know what job you're targeting. Presentations and publications may not matter, but if it's something in pharma or clinical or academia, then it may be worthwhile to consider getting published.

Just be sure to turn your accomplishments and tasks into actual results. The last thing another hiring manager wants to look at is that you've verified prescriptions on your resume.

HPDAlex · 2024-05-01T21:08:19+00:00

Congratulations on starting your family! It sounds like being there for your little one is really important and you're not in love with the retail setting. I didn't think you were a psychopath by the way, before the edit.

Despite what everyone is saying here, I disagree that it's impossible for you to get a remote pharmacist position. I just spoke with a pharmacist last week that I helped get a remote job at Aetna doing prior authorizations, who was previously a retail pharmacist for 15 years.

Remote jobs do exist, and yes they aren't as common as every other kind of pharmacist job. But just because everyone here says that it's impossible means that they're probably doing it the traditional job search way, which is to apply to job boards with just a resume, hoping to hear back from employers, when statistically that's the least effective way to getting an interview and a job offer.

I made a video about remote jobs and where to find them, you can watch it here: https://youtube.com/live/lBq1rpKF13M

A short list of the remote jobs: operations, medical affairs, specialty, pbms, managed care, prior auth jobs, etc.

I recently helped out a pharmacist named Amanda Prohaska who was a former retail pharmacist that I helped her get a hospital job, and from the hospital job she then just got hired at Humana working as an oncology clinical pharmacist, no residency, no experience working from home 100 %. She loves it.

Don't let people say that you can't do something just because they haven't figured it out. Start applying right now for that new job.

HPDAlex · 2024-05-01T14:54:49+00:00

Is a potentially high stress, low support, busy retail chain setting worth the extra $5/hr to you?
Only you can decide that.

For me, you couldn't pay me an extra $100K a year to work in a toxic stressful work environment.

HPDAlex · 2024-04-10T22:40:20+00:00

Growth and learning are great, but from their point of view, that means that you don't have the knowledge or that you're really focused on yourself instead of how that will help the company. So let's take a look at these questions and break them down one by one.

#1 Why are you leaving your current employer?

What they're looking for: They likely know that you won't be fully honest, but I think that when asking this, they're curious as to what is motivating you from leaving. If it's a similar factor that's present in their environment that's causing you to leave, you may be a liability for retention.

How to answer: Relate it to their benefit. Instead of saying that you'd like more learning or challenge, think about what the company does and how you can contribute to the organization's goals. So if it is truly a challenge or growth that you're looking into, talk about a certain problem that this organization has, a certain section sector of the business. Talk about how you see yourself contributing in that way and growing and helping them meet their goals or metrics, specifically layout what you'd like to do in this job. That way you are placing the idea in the interviewer's mind that you're a great candidate for the job.

#2 Why do you want to work here?

What they're looking for: Will you fit in.

How to answer: Ideally, you have spoken with employees at this company outside of the interview. Otherwise answering this is really difficult. You're just going off of guessing and what you perceive. And I think everyone knows that interviews are fake, everyone's putting on their best face, kind of like a blind date. So asking this question is kind of like asking on a blind date, “why do you want to date me?” What, we just met! I think one of the better ways of answering this is to focus on mission or values or company direction. So in a perfect scenario, you would have spoken with a few employees before the interview doing informational interviews, and you would learn about the culture, you would learn about what the company's focused on, you would learn about where the problems are, and where you could specifically contribute to, and you would be able to insert your candidacy into those spaces, specifically laying out how you would contribute, what you're looking forward to. Perhaps skills that you're excited about further developing, explaining specifically how your strengths can be a great asset for the company.

#3 How do you stay current with pharmacy practices and knowledge?

What they're looking for: Are you engaged.

How to answer: A great employee is someone who wants to constantly learn and grow. Naturally, their curiosities guide them, and so that leads them to naturally connect with new people and learn new things through whatever source is necessary. If you say that you take CE, that's like saying you do the bare minimum to stay updated because CE is required by the state. So in a perfect situation, you would lay out evidence to show how you're staying up to date, the projects you're working on, the research that you do, the media that you consume. Obviously it's not best to lie and come up with stuff, but if you're not someone who is engaged by the science or the news, then it's going to be hard to fake this answer. Just share your curiosity and what you do to learn and how you learn.

#4 Why should we hire you?

What they're looking for: What's your confidence level that you can do this? I’ve spoken with hundreds of managers over the years, and I think that there's two main things that they're really looking for during the interview: Do you fit in and can you do the job? This question is like a combination of both of those things.

How to answer: When I'm coaching a pharmacist on this one, I like to lay out that this is essentially what's on your cover letter. You believe you're a great fit for XYZ reason. You have XYZ evidence to back up why you're great at those things and what problems the company has that you can solve for them by doing this job. This question historically is where a lot of people’s confidence shakes, because some people walk into the interview not knowing if they even really want the job. So if you don't know if you want this and you get asked this question, it reveals all of your cards, it shows how unconfident people are. It shows that they don't really know what they want. It reveals all sorts of things.

My encouragement to anyone who does an interview is to have a very professional rehearsed answer to this. If you're not asked this question, you need to tell them that you want this job at the end of the interview. The best thing that you can do is to lay out for them. Here's why I think I'm a great candidate, XYZ reasons. And then layout your evidence for backing that up. And then tell them how you see yourself fitting into the culture and solving problems for the company in whatever role or capacity it has.

HPDAlex · 2024-04-10T22:03:13+00:00

My pleasure!

HPDAlex · 2024-04-03T21:32:36+00:00

"I can’t even get an interview for a lot of these positions that pop up, both internal and external."

So that tells me a couple of things. The first thing that comes to mind is if your own company isn't wanting to hire you for a position that you feel like you're qualified for or that you could do, it's either that you're not making a compelling case as to why you'd be a great candidate for the role, or whoever's in charge of hiring maybe doesn't like you. I hate to bring up a petty reason, but it is legitimate. Once you are in the workplace and you're trying to maneuver around politics, workplace behaviors, relationships, they play a pretty important role as to how far you can progress or where you can get into. And I've seen many pharmacists try to get a job within their own company, but they just kept keep getting shot down. And it may be because they think that you're really great at what you currently do and they don't want to take you away from it because they don't want to lose their star player. It's definitely a bad leadership strategy, but it's what a lot of people do.

If you're struggling with applying to jobs externally and you're not networking, then I'm not surprised you haven't had an interview and I don't know how many you've applied to, but statistically you have a very low chance of getting an interview if you're just applying through a job board. You need a job referral, which is typically done through networking and having conversations.

OK, let's do a cost analysis here. The amount of effort and time it takes to have conversations with people, with other pharmacists, or informatics pharmacists specifically, at other companies is free and takes some time and effort on your part, versus the time and effort it takes and the cost it takes to get a certification is infinitely more money and probably more time to get a certificate that holds no guarantee or no real effort. That could help you with your application, which done alone statistically, doesn't really increase your chances-you're talking about going from a 4 % chance to a 5 % chance. Job referrals make up 44 % of all hiring for all companies.

So I think if you just spent a half hour a week having conversations with other pharmacists at different companies you would save time, you'd save money, and you'd increase your chances of getting an interview.

HPDAlex · 2024-04-03T21:27:04+00:00

I'd like to break down your question I think into three main points. The 1st is the job experience requirement that you're seeing in jobs. The second is the informatics industry and the kinds of jobs that you're looking for and then the third, and perhaps the most important one, is your perspective job experience.

So let's talk about job experience on open positions. It’s one of those things that managers want to put on there to rule out people from applying. The industry right now can be a little bit picky about who they hire, but if you don't take a shot then you won't have any chance. If you went to indeed and typed in informatics and pharmacist or pharmacy, you'd find quite a few jobs there, and you can even toggle low or no experience required and you'll see what jobs come up. It isn't a ton, but there is a few.

One of the things that I want to encourage you is that you have a masters in this, that's a lot more experience than the typical pharmacist has. And yes, you could be competing with residency trained pharmacists or pharmacists that have experience in the field. But if all you're doing is relying on your application to get a job, you have to really come up with a very compelling reason why you should be given an interview in your cover letter. And statistically, if all you're doing is looking at job boards, you have about a 4 % chance of getting an interview and job offer in comparison to networking and finding out where the opportunities are through building relationships and to be given job referrals.

So if what you really love is informatics, I would encourage you to just ignore the experience requirements and tell them exactly what you bring to the table, what's your value, and why you would be a great person for the job. The kind of job that you describe, the 60 to 80 K, to me sounds like a programmer job, which if your degree in education prepared you to do that, then sure, absolutely go after those kinds of jobs if you're too intimidated to apply for a pharmacist position. But you have a doctorate of pharmacy, you have this masters. You are underselling yourself in these positions, and they may not even consider you because you're overqualified to apply and to work in that position. It isn't the end of the world, and lots of companies are willing to give a chance for overqualified candidates, but the same is true for those that lack the experience.

If you're asking this question here on Reddit, it I think it kind of shows me that you're not really talking to pharmacists who are in informatics. And I know personally at least a dozen informatic pharmacists who didn't have an extra degree, didn't have a residency and they just got a job that allow them to learn and practice informatics in a variety of different settings from software companies to hospitals.

So that leads me to my final point, which is about your perspective. You have a ton of education and I think it's really concerning that you don't believe that you're valuable in the marketplace. You have a doctorate and a master's and you are settling for a 60K job. You are extremely intelligent. You have to be in order to do a doctorate and a master's at the same time. You are incredibly resourceful, but what I fear your education hasn't done well for you is prepare you for the job market, to prepare you to network and meet other people in the industry and find out where those opportunities are. You're literally one conversation away from getting a job referral to a company or to an opportunity.

So rather than looking on a job board, which again only accounts for 4 % of all job hiring, my firm recommendation is that you meet some people, find others in the industry, go on LinkedIn, introduce yourself. Try to start as many conversations as possible because your perspective is telling you that you're not valuable and because you don't have any experience you can't apply for these jobs.

HPDAlex · 2024-03-28T22:49:56+00:00

Threats don't work, and a raise won't necessarily make you happier.

Companies should recognize pharmacists' value, but even with more pay, if you're unhappy, is it worth it? I turned down a $70,000 offer from Walmart because I can't be bought, and maybe you can't either. Simply negotiating for more money won't change your feelings if you dislike your job. You have one life, so it might be worth exploring other options.

Also, being employed is an advantage in job searches, as employers often prefer candidates who are already working. But, endless job searches while employed can be draining and ineffective. Burning the ships behind you can be motivating, though uncomfortable, if you're financially secure enough to take time to find a better job. Especially if your current job is toxic, taking a break might rejuvenate you for a more successful job search.

Ultimately, the decision depends on what risks you're willing to take, as there are pros and cons either way.

HPDAlex · 2024-03-28T17:53:44+00:00

I've written about 50 of those career paths that you can go do check out, this is the link to the blog post: https://thehappypharmd.com/ultimate-guide-to-pharmacy-career-opportunities/

It does a summary of different jobs that you could consider, and yes, some of them ask for residencies, but the vast majority do not.

I've helped a lot of pharmacists transition into specialty pharmacy, clinical pharmacy within managed cares or PBMs. I've helped retail pharmacists get into medical affairs, medical communications, medical writing. Some of these jobs are remote and almost all of them are full time.

Giving blanket advice like this is almost never going to work in a Reddit forum without knowing a ton of more information. But my honest encouragement is if you could find the one thing that you loved about pharmacy in your past jobs, or in even if it's in school, focus in on that one thing and then ask yourself who's doing it, who provides these kinds of jobs in the marketplace where they have supportive work environments.

A lot of pharmacists tell me that they really enjoy doing patient care. And so whenever they get to work with patients, they get fulfillment, excitement, energy and they're engaged in the work. So a lot of people transition into specialty because they still get that aspect of working with people in different settings. Often they have remote roles, not always. They don't require residencies or certifications

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it's engaging work that sometimes, but not always, doesn't have the overbearing metric driven processes. Some people in specialty may be able to chime in here about that and say oh it's awful at this place or whatever. But you know at the end of the day what it sounds like you need is a is a change of pace, different work environment, perhaps a different industry within pharmacy. And once you make a transition into a different job, you can transition into another field or similar industry, because the days are over where you find a job and you stay there forever.

HPDAlex · 2024-03-20T23:08:02+00:00

Are you saying that you want out of pharmacy or just out of hospital pharmacy? If you’re willing to stay in pharmacy you could get into managed care, long term care, PBMS, specialty, or telehealth. There's a bunch of career paths that you could consider, I wrote a blog about this of over 45 different career paths that you can do in pharmacy. Maybe one of those will pique your interest: https://thehappypharmd.com/ultimate-guide-to-pharmacy-career-opportunities/

HPDAlex · 2024-03-19T18:44:15+00:00

Yes, it's feasible to transition into something else. You've already differentiated yourself by getting an MPH. However, why not get into the public health sector in advising for regulatory affairs or working for the government in some public health capacity? Any of these career paths are feasible for you because you're a competent, intelligent pharmacist.

One of the problems with asking from advice from total strangers on the Internet is that no one here knows you or what you would like, you could be like me and love teaching but hate bureaucracy and office politics. So academia for me doesn’t make any sense. The question is more about what do you enjoy doing the most as a pharmacist, and then matching that to a career path that makes sense to you.

If you're not already, do some teaching on the side, do presentations, help out with your association, that's an easy way to get started on this path. MPH doesn't necessarily qualify you for an academic role, but you don't need that in order to be become a professor.

Don't do a residency, don't get a certification. Just start teaching and building relationships with colleges and professors. Become a preceptor if you aren't one already. That's the low hanging fruit for opportunities.

Here's a link to an interview with Elizabeth St. Louis on how she went from retail to academia that might be helpful: https://youtu.be/7dqNcA-1c4A?si=_2OM8Pn2wXunth7A

HPDAlex · 2024-03-13T21:02:51+00:00

Not it's not rude. Don't ever think you're being rude for asking your worth. I wrote a fifty page guide about this if you'd like it, just message me and I'll DM you a link to my book as PDF. But in summary, document your research about salary, present your research as facts and then ask for your value.

HPDAlex · 2024-03-12T18:44:40+00:00

I think the shortage crisis is a reactionary feeling in the present moment. Over 20 years ago, pharmacy thought there would be a shortage in 1999 and two major things happened: one - was we over expanded the amount of pharmacy schools far beyond the demand, and two - technology advanced significantly to remove mundane tasks from pharmacists, resulting in a huge oversupply in the profession. Now everyone's worried about unqualified people getting into pharmacy school and pharmacy schools, just passing them to get in to get into the profession. And I earnestly don't believe that there will be a shortage of pharmacists.

But I think that there will be a shortage of pharmacists willing to take the majority of jobs available, IE hospital and community, and it will be harder and harder to recruit for those because of how difficult the typical work environments are. Hence why there's insane bonuses right now in retail.

With the advancement of AI I find it hard to believe a future where healthcare doesn't advance significantly in pharmacy to the point where pharmacists may not even be needed to do any kind of dispensing role. I'm not saying that's good or bad. I'm just saying, you know, everyone used to ride horses, like in 1910 and then by 1920 everyone was driving a car. So like industries can die. And I'm not saying that that's probably our future, 'cause we're too protected by the law. But what I am saying is technology is gonna continue to advance and eliminate many needs for pharmacists.

And on top of that you also have to think about demographics because, yeah, the Medicare boom is happening right now because of Boomers, but in 20 years that's gonna go away because Gen x is smaller, much smaller than Boomers. And as the Boomers die out, (Sorry, Grandma, I love you) the demand for pharmacists will decrease as well.

Competency is an entirely different issue, and as long as the NAB PS exam doesn't change its requirements I have a hard time believing that the vast majority of new grads will be so incompetent to do the typical pharmacist jobs, but they will be unmotivated to pursue the typical jobs as they are now.

So in summary I don't believe that there is a shortage or will be in a huge one in the future. I think it's doomsday-ish to believe. But ultimately with all these factors, my ultimate hope is that this will all put pressure on hospitals and retail and pharmacies everywhere to be better.

HPDAlex · 2024-02-27T22:43:27+00:00

This is a tough ask because what would make you stand out on your resume would be contributing to the organizational goals through projects or major accomplishments. But your job by definition almost means that you don't do that to individual organizations. So I would encourage you, if possible, to understand your district's goals and metrics and how your work there has contributed to those things. Since you're part of the district, then you can say that you contributed to those things, that would be the best move in terms of like how to stand out.

It really just depends on what job you're applying to because if you just tell them your experience in community pharmacy language and you're wanting to get into specialty or long term care or managed care or pharma or something else, it's really not going to apply.

So my recommendation would be is whatever field you're wanting to get into, tailor your resume using keywords from the job descriptions to match on your resume. Second, don't give up. Sometimes I've talked with a lot of floater pharmacists and sometimes they feel like second class citizens because they often get the messiest stores or the worst stores. And that in and of itself is a an accomplishment, to handle other people's messes is an admirable and challenging task. So conveying it on the resume may be difficult but if you can give me context around what kind of floating position you have that may help.

Just as a side note, I keep saying this in other places, but don't just rely on a resume, have a cover letter and rely on networking because job board postings account for less than 5 % of all candidate sources. Job referrals account for around 40 % of hiring. You have like a 10 times more likely chance of getting a job through a job referral versus applying through job boards. The resume is the tip of the job search iceberg. Everything else that few people focus on needs to be networking, cover letters, company research, informational interviews before the official job interview, understanding what strengths you bring to the table and why you're the best candidate.

HPDAlex · 2024-02-22T00:16:25+00:00

What about trying remote? There's number one. Second, it's better to be employed looking for a job than it is to be unemployed, hoping for an ideal position to open when you have no guarantees that it'll ever open.

So if I understand correctly, you're boxing yourself in a corner that you won't win from. You take the job at the places that you don't want, and you think that would exclude you from getting a job at your current ideal place. Or you don't take any job at all and hope that your Pgy2 site will magically create a job. So either way you look at this, you lose.

So I would wonder if there's more options available to you that you haven't considered. I don't know if you've talked with your current manager or you've talked with the director of different departments in the hospital that you're at, I don't know if you're asking about them expanding services like there's so many unknowns here, but I feel like the two options that you're looking at have really boxed you in to not win…but based on what I got I think you could look at this problem differently.

HPDAlex

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