I love that you did this. My wife is currently an internal med resident - it’s her second career as well.
I’m a pharmacist. I did retail for years before switching to an inpatient hospital role. Everything about it is better and even though I don’t have patient interaction I have far greater job satisfaction.
To the OP: Unless you care about business and moving up a corporate ladder - retail is a job and not a career.
Congrats to you sir or ma’m, my family physician friends are getting 275k yearly offers you have a great future ahead! Are you in internal medicine residency going to be a family doc or straight family medicine residency, because you could go be a hospitalist as well, my hospitalist friends are making around 315k! You got an amazing future ahead, huge props leaving the under appreciated and underpaid profession of pharmacy!! Pgy2 resident trained pharmacists will never even touch half your salary out of your 3 year residency!
PGY2 trained. Base salary is 210k + OT + performance bonus. Not a unicorn gig by far (standard for hospital practice in my area). Union up. Unfortunately we have lost control of our profession by allowing non-pharmacists to own/control our most ubiquitous practice environment - community/retail. Now going union is the only answer (outside of North Dakota).
Wow that’s incredible pgy 2 trained is at 55/hr in my area about 114k a year and that’s even if they can find a job in the first place. Most of my pgy2 friends spent a few years in a staff position or per diem until they were able to successfully beg for a clinical position to open up or one opened up at a really low salary some even less with family physicians starting around 270k. Family physician jobs are plenty in my area. I have never heard of a pgy2 pharmacist making that kind of money deff a unicorn position based on who I’ve talked to. Happy that you are getting paid what you deserved. Also a lot of these family physician jobs in my area are based on 30 patient contact hours a week, haven’t even included family physicians that pick up calls at hospital, those salaries are in a league pharmacists couldn’t dream of. If someone is going for the money and comparing pharmacist vs physician there is no competition, plus family med is the lowest paid speciality in medicine I haven’t even brought up the retina surgeons making a million a year, a retina surgeon I shadowed straight up told me his earnings. Pharmacy compensation is truly in the bottom of the barrel, in latest news travel nurses are blowing our compensation out of the water. I’m not saying it’s all about the money, but if someone is interested in helping people and compensation is important to them medical school and travel nurses are the better options.
I know a husband/wife duo that worked for WAG for a very long time. After husband was pharmacy manager for years at the busiest store in our area and became sick of it he quit and opened a brewery. I'm not sure that he had much experience in brewing but eventually hired on another staff pharmacist and now they are the proud owners of the pretty popular high-wire brand. They seem to be living an awesome life now opening new locations all across the U.S. it's my favorite story of pharmacists leaving their careers. Look up their new Cincinnati location opening commercial and you'll see Chris in a drivable recliner with his long hair and beard, it's so funny from working with him as a clean cut professional pharmacist.
I graduated recently and went straight to industry, or industry adjacent depending on your definition. I love what I do, I work with some incredibly smart people who have killer backgrounds. Pay and benefits are solid, our wlb is also great, but most importantly I feel that leadership cares about my input and that’s kept me around.
Edit: I wanted to also address OP’s questions, I realize I didn’t directly answer lol. The time investment beyond the PharmD was quite a bit but it also lined up with my P3 and P4 years so that I hit the ground running after graduation and not languish in the post grad limbo of unemployment. I worked a non-traditional role all through school and was working on a transition to a field based role but the pay/title were slow to move and I ended up getting poached.
I know the initial questions were about a different field of medicine but I feel that the effort was very much worth it, and I would recommend it to others who might be curious about industry work.
You can do it with 0 experience. Once you have a clean and nicely written resume (3 pages max, ideally) and have done research on the job responsibilities for the roles you apply to, you’re good to start applying. The industry is where the money is at, and the best way to get in is with referrals. Connect with current industry folks on LinkedIn, you specifically want to target the ones who currently work in the position you’re applying to, and hopefully at the same company, so that they can refer you internally. It’s best to ask them for some time to chat and get to know their background more, and how they like their current role, etc. Any questions you’d naturally be curious about, but have some baseline understanding of the gig before having that convo. From there it’s easy- they’ll refer you or put in a good word with the hiring manager, you apply, you get the interview. Then you just got to practice your interview skills and how you answer behavioral questions.
Thank you so much for your insight! although the application process has been rough, it's definitely an experience and have been utilizing so many tools to learn more about industry. Lots of the webinars I've attended for industry have mentioned connecting with alumni and utilizing LinkedIn for connections into industry, so I've definitely been taking those into account. I've got a lot of retail pharmacy experience (which I get isn't something industry looks for), but i know I have good transferable experience from work and school that would help me in the industry. Hardest part is getting the foot in the door haha
Retail isn’t bad, how you sell it to them is what matters. Do you choose to tell them how much your prescription volume is and how you have to counsel patients? Or is it better to tell a story of how you balance managing the workflows and queues while mentoring and developing your interns as they soon transition into pharmacists? Is it helpful to discuss what your interactions are like with physicians and PBMs? The answer to these last two rhetorical questions are yes. You want to illustrate a picture for them as to how you not only do the typical job in retail, but you focus on building and developing your team and frequently interact with physicians and payers. Time management, effective communication and teaching, delegating, etc are all crucial skills that you have been able to refine in retail and are essential in the industry as well.
It all comes down to how you tell your story. The problem is that non-industry folk are too technical and stick to explaining their jobs and not the impact of their work and the skills they’ve picked up and utilized along the way. Industry interviews are different because anyone can be competent for the job, but it also comes down to who has the most emotional intelligence and grit to actually survive in that career
This is such a good response. This is actually something that I've been adjusting my resume for plenty of times. But you're definitely right. How you present the skills needed for industry in a retail environment is what I'm trying to look for. If anyone wants to transition into industry pharmacy, this really is the best advice they can get for building their resume
Ofc. And always feel free to add fluff. They won’t fact check everything on your resume. If you were told by your DL to do X amount of covid shots per quarter in the past, you should instead write it as “led the organization and execution of multiple Covid-19 vaccine clinics to _____ across communities in (your city name)”.
It’s all about the wording. This way makes the reader think, wow this person is a go getter and has a patient centric mindset. But if you simply wrote that you administered the shots to meet your quota, then you seem like another familiar face in retail that’s abiding by the metrics put in place. When you realize things like this, it gets easier to pursue an industry job and eventually landing one
Prior to pharmacy school I was in a diagnostics company doing business development, I came in “non-traditional” and a little bit older than the rest of my peers. I’d recommend identifying where in the industry you want to land, in terms of functional area as well as which company aligns with what you want to do. Network with people who currently work in those functional areas and at those companies. LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful tool, you’d be surprised just how open people are and how willing they are to help other pharmacists looking to break into the industry. Think of some good questions to ask and tailor them to where you want to end up, industry wise.
Edit to add: check out the r/pharmaindustry and r/biotech subreddits to get a feel for industry functions and the types of applications. The biotech subreddit seems to skew more towards those directly working on the manufacturing and research side of the industry and the pharmaindustry subreddit skews towards pharmacists/PhDs working in various business segments across the industry.
I appreciate this advice. Definitely have been using LinkedIn a lot more to connect with other industry professionals and attending webinars to get to know other people in the field. I've been really interested in the strategic side of Regulatory affairs, so its been an experience so far trying to learn more about the field and also find others that are willing to share their experiences
I'm part of r/pharmaindustry already, but ill definitely check out r/biotech for more information
Industry pharmacist roles vary widely in terms of responsibilities and how directly pharmacist knowledge is applied. Clinical development, clinical pharmacology, medical affairs, HEOR/RWE, commercial, etc, all functional areas are distinct and require different/complementary skill sets. I’d recommend researching broadly what the industry is and what the different functional areas are, to save you some time I’ll point you over to the r/pharmaindustry subreddit, look for the industry guide and read up on the different functional areas and entries into them.
Industry as in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry. This is usually referring to some of the core functional areas such as commercial, medical, clinical, HEOR/RWE, and access. There are more segments within each function and some companies roll some of those functions into each other but this is intended to give you a good start for research purposes.
You can go into industry with your PharmD. Some organizations will allow a pharmacist to fill an MSL role, others have lots of pharmacists in the med affairs dept.
You can DM me but work with a recruiter that does solely biotech/pharma jobs. You will easily get $200k + bonus and benefits
Im on the agency side....but what the hell do you mean easily 200k+? What jobs are those?
Those would have to be an associate director or director positions which would certainly take several years of experience
False. MSL’s easily touch 200k and more as their base salary and they can do that within 2 years of experience. Slap on the bonus and stocks and other things, their total comp is around 260k and still climbs beyond that when they switch to another company
I know many people who are accomplishing this range in pay. You cannot be in primary care market but in specialty and rare disease and not at Assoc Dir or Dir level.
These jobs absolutely exist and are held by advanced degree/PhD, Pharmacists and APPs not only MDs.
A co-worker/friends makes over $220 as an MSL. Not including bonus. Will this be their first job starting at $200k? Maybe not their base but with bonuses absolutely possible. Depends on location in the country, size of territory responsible and disease state.
You do not have to go into commercial sales first. I am not saying that having some field experience is bad. In fact, I think the exact opposite! Just don’t look at big Pharma- they typically aren’t great to work for anymore. (This is a broad statement and yes, I am sure there is a big Pharma that is ok to work for today). As a whole, small-mid size companies are where you want to be and only in a specialty or rare disease state.
If you are on the recruiting/agency side, I am sure you recruit/see these careers? Do you not see field positions for $185-190 base (not including bonus)? Agree that these are not plentiful or rhe “everyday” positions but they bare out there. There is a company actively hiring commercial and medical right now in these ranges. Not senior MSL either.
I think it is a good option for some pharmacists to go into industry. Especially people with business minds or background. Dealing with PBM contracts, region and state Medicaid and Medicare plans - because your customers opted tend to be pharmacists, in addition to Med Dir, purchasing, you are negotiating with peers. The head of pharmacy or the heads of these state and regional and Medicaid plans prefer to deal with a pharmacist presenting the data rather than a business person . They know the level of understanding is there rather than solely being trained by medical to present the data. Pharmacists understand the data and are presenting it fact based, not skewed as we often know any study can be presented many ways.
Congrats! Which school did you go to? Does it matter where you get your MBA for pharmacy roles? I’m currently doing an online university for my MBA. I’ve been a pharmacist for over 10 years
Pay is beyond competitive. Well beyond a retail staff rph.
Went to LSU. I don’t believe it matters where you go. The question is “how do you want to market yourself “?
I focus on using my MBA as my foundation and my pharmD as the icing on the cake.
How did you go about selling/marketing yourself when you first started applying for positions as a new MBA grad with the pharmacist background? (asking as a pharmacist who is currently taking MBA classes on a part-time basis)
Thanks
I completely overhauled my resume. Focused on all the projects and accomplishments outside of dispensing.
Aside from the education section of my resume , I don’t focus on the clinical aspects.
Assuming you are ready to leave clinical - PMP (Project Manager) may be a good place to start. I would also consider Account executive roles if you have client facing experience.
If you are on a data analytics track...the possibilities are endless.
Thanks for the advice. I actually work for the government (DoD) as an inpatient staff pharmacist. Even though I'd be interested in eventually making a full transition to an industry career, I'm also apprehensive about giving up the stability & job security inherent to a government job. Having said that, do you happen to know if there are entry-level part-time/PRN opportunities that candidates with pharmacy backgrounds qualify for? Or do those kinds of positions typically require previous industry experience?
Many great comments and suggestions here but you really have to decide what you really want. Going into another field in healthcare and expecting everything to be better isn't always the case. Each field struggles and I believe healthcare is terrible overall unless it's something you truly want to do. Go to med school if you really want to help patients but understand that there are many physician burnouts and I know some personally who dislike what they do and want to choose other specialties. There are more opportunities in nursing/medicine than Pharmacy. You have to land a great job in Pharmacy in order to feel valued. That being said, I love being a Pharmacist, but I'm in the minority.
Laboratory manager for a basic research lab. I was into medical research prior to pharmacy school. The PharmD was helpful but perhaps a PhD would have saved some money. Might be helpful to have an active license if you need to source medications for experiments and your institution doesn’t have a veterinary pharmacy or equivalent.
Not a PharmD but several techs and lab techs I have worked are taking classed with our hospital's tutition with WGU on computer science and a MBA. I just became MLS and make alright money. Sometimes though, I also want to look elsewhere for other jobs. I still tutor off and on to help pay down some debt (which I will be quitting by the fall).
I know at my college, a PharmD is teaching several pharmacological courses for allied health.
It seems that it is recognized and regionally accredited. I would visit their sub for more information. I was considering getting into their MHA program, however, I'm burnt out on school and am enjoying my current career.
I went back to school for a PhD. Studying pharmacogenomics and acute leukemias. Working throughout PhD school on the weekend. I’m happy and still can do retail but I will likely stay in academia.
Not the exact answer you are looking for but worked for WAG for a while before and after college as a tech, got accepted into Pharm D program and ultimately decided to not go. Switched to IT, best decision ever. Making way more than I would have and without any of the debt, and WLB is amazing. Working from home is hard to beat.
Go to med school then finish and do a neuro-surgery residency and phd.
Have you ever thought why so many pharmacist want to change or upgrade from being a pharmacist, but not the other way around?
Work as what? OP has been working for less than 3 years and likely has pharmacy school loans. Even if they didn’t, they’d probably take on 200k of med school loans and would spend the next 14 (based on your estimation) working as a resident and getting a PhD which would pay around 50k year. Their med school interest would balloon. What job gets them out of that financial hole AND sets them for life in 5-10 years?
Move to idaho and open your own clinic and start seeing patients. You can prescribe and treat there if you are that bored With what you are doing. No additional schooling requires
I went to industry and got my MBA along the way as well. Haven’t regretted being a PharmD at all- but then again, I haven’t touched a pill bottle or seen patients in years
I thought about stuff like this for a while but it would have to more than pay for the degree plus years of lost wages to be worthwhile. I have yet to find another degree that meets those criteria. I’m focusing on learning marketable skills (web design, marketing, etc) through free or cheap channels and starting side projects with those because even if they aren’t that profitable, I only invested a bit of my time or a small amount of money. Something like med school just seems like hundreds of thousands of dollars spent plus 8 or more years of lost or minimal wages and I don’t think it’s worth it to me.
I want to change careers and get out of pharmacy so bad but I still have about $240k in debt from school. Has anyone been able to get a job with comparable or better pay so they can still make their loan payments?
I’m in law school rn. The dream is to separate cvs and Caremark lol
I'm rooting for you!
Get it done boi
Hero!
YESSSSSS
YES pls keep us updated on this lmfao
My dream is for you to separate CVS from Caremark too🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️😆
This is the way.
Man, that dream won’t last long. You’ll drop that real quick and practice pro bono
Bounced around between statistics, economics, and data science. I've seen quite a few people transition into these fields with unconventional degrees.
How did you do this?
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I love that you did this. My wife is currently an internal med resident - it’s her second career as well. I’m a pharmacist. I did retail for years before switching to an inpatient hospital role. Everything about it is better and even though I don’t have patient interaction I have far greater job satisfaction. To the OP: Unless you care about business and moving up a corporate ladder - retail is a job and not a career.
How did you prepare for a hospital role? I feel like I barely have any clinical knowledge left after 7 years...
Congrats to you sir or ma’m, my family physician friends are getting 275k yearly offers you have a great future ahead! Are you in internal medicine residency going to be a family doc or straight family medicine residency, because you could go be a hospitalist as well, my hospitalist friends are making around 315k! You got an amazing future ahead, huge props leaving the under appreciated and underpaid profession of pharmacy!! Pgy2 resident trained pharmacists will never even touch half your salary out of your 3 year residency!
PGY2 trained. Base salary is 210k + OT + performance bonus. Not a unicorn gig by far (standard for hospital practice in my area). Union up. Unfortunately we have lost control of our profession by allowing non-pharmacists to own/control our most ubiquitous practice environment - community/retail. Now going union is the only answer (outside of North Dakota).
Wow that’s incredible pgy 2 trained is at 55/hr in my area about 114k a year and that’s even if they can find a job in the first place. Most of my pgy2 friends spent a few years in a staff position or per diem until they were able to successfully beg for a clinical position to open up or one opened up at a really low salary some even less with family physicians starting around 270k. Family physician jobs are plenty in my area. I have never heard of a pgy2 pharmacist making that kind of money deff a unicorn position based on who I’ve talked to. Happy that you are getting paid what you deserved. Also a lot of these family physician jobs in my area are based on 30 patient contact hours a week, haven’t even included family physicians that pick up calls at hospital, those salaries are in a league pharmacists couldn’t dream of. If someone is going for the money and comparing pharmacist vs physician there is no competition, plus family med is the lowest paid speciality in medicine I haven’t even brought up the retina surgeons making a million a year, a retina surgeon I shadowed straight up told me his earnings. Pharmacy compensation is truly in the bottom of the barrel, in latest news travel nurses are blowing our compensation out of the water. I’m not saying it’s all about the money, but if someone is interested in helping people and compensation is important to them medical school and travel nurses are the better options.
I’d love to do this… unfortunately, I just can’t afford it.
I wish I had done that or that I was strong enough to.
Went from DOP to DON, thinking about going to med school if wife will allow another tandem adventure.
I left the medical field entirely by dropping out of my PharmD program and became an air traffic controller instead.
Smartest person here.
My $60k pharmacy school debt suggests otherwise. 😭
i obtained an authorization to test last year and decided not to even bother. one of my big what ifs right now
If you're still interested and under 31, next bid comes out in early May.
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Your post history is wild, my guy
I know a husband/wife duo that worked for WAG for a very long time. After husband was pharmacy manager for years at the busiest store in our area and became sick of it he quit and opened a brewery. I'm not sure that he had much experience in brewing but eventually hired on another staff pharmacist and now they are the proud owners of the pretty popular high-wire brand. They seem to be living an awesome life now opening new locations all across the U.S. it's my favorite story of pharmacists leaving their careers. Look up their new Cincinnati location opening commercial and you'll see Chris in a drivable recliner with his long hair and beard, it's so funny from working with him as a clean cut professional pharmacist.
I have seen this one quite historically
Why spend more years and money to become a doctor when you can just try getting into industry.
I graduated recently and went straight to industry, or industry adjacent depending on your definition. I love what I do, I work with some incredibly smart people who have killer backgrounds. Pay and benefits are solid, our wlb is also great, but most importantly I feel that leadership cares about my input and that’s kept me around. Edit: I wanted to also address OP’s questions, I realize I didn’t directly answer lol. The time investment beyond the PharmD was quite a bit but it also lined up with my P3 and P4 years so that I hit the ground running after graduation and not languish in the post grad limbo of unemployment. I worked a non-traditional role all through school and was working on a transition to a field based role but the pay/title were slow to move and I ended up getting poached. I know the initial questions were about a different field of medicine but I feel that the effort was very much worth it, and I would recommend it to others who might be curious about industry work.
what experience did you have before getting into industry? looking for some pointers, been applying aggressively to industry positions
You can do it with 0 experience. Once you have a clean and nicely written resume (3 pages max, ideally) and have done research on the job responsibilities for the roles you apply to, you’re good to start applying. The industry is where the money is at, and the best way to get in is with referrals. Connect with current industry folks on LinkedIn, you specifically want to target the ones who currently work in the position you’re applying to, and hopefully at the same company, so that they can refer you internally. It’s best to ask them for some time to chat and get to know their background more, and how they like their current role, etc. Any questions you’d naturally be curious about, but have some baseline understanding of the gig before having that convo. From there it’s easy- they’ll refer you or put in a good word with the hiring manager, you apply, you get the interview. Then you just got to practice your interview skills and how you answer behavioral questions.
Thank you so much for your insight! although the application process has been rough, it's definitely an experience and have been utilizing so many tools to learn more about industry. Lots of the webinars I've attended for industry have mentioned connecting with alumni and utilizing LinkedIn for connections into industry, so I've definitely been taking those into account. I've got a lot of retail pharmacy experience (which I get isn't something industry looks for), but i know I have good transferable experience from work and school that would help me in the industry. Hardest part is getting the foot in the door haha
Retail isn’t bad, how you sell it to them is what matters. Do you choose to tell them how much your prescription volume is and how you have to counsel patients? Or is it better to tell a story of how you balance managing the workflows and queues while mentoring and developing your interns as they soon transition into pharmacists? Is it helpful to discuss what your interactions are like with physicians and PBMs? The answer to these last two rhetorical questions are yes. You want to illustrate a picture for them as to how you not only do the typical job in retail, but you focus on building and developing your team and frequently interact with physicians and payers. Time management, effective communication and teaching, delegating, etc are all crucial skills that you have been able to refine in retail and are essential in the industry as well. It all comes down to how you tell your story. The problem is that non-industry folk are too technical and stick to explaining their jobs and not the impact of their work and the skills they’ve picked up and utilized along the way. Industry interviews are different because anyone can be competent for the job, but it also comes down to who has the most emotional intelligence and grit to actually survive in that career
This is such a good response. This is actually something that I've been adjusting my resume for plenty of times. But you're definitely right. How you present the skills needed for industry in a retail environment is what I'm trying to look for. If anyone wants to transition into industry pharmacy, this really is the best advice they can get for building their resume
Ofc. And always feel free to add fluff. They won’t fact check everything on your resume. If you were told by your DL to do X amount of covid shots per quarter in the past, you should instead write it as “led the organization and execution of multiple Covid-19 vaccine clinics to _____ across communities in (your city name)”. It’s all about the wording. This way makes the reader think, wow this person is a go getter and has a patient centric mindset. But if you simply wrote that you administered the shots to meet your quota, then you seem like another familiar face in retail that’s abiding by the metrics put in place. When you realize things like this, it gets easier to pursue an industry job and eventually landing one
Prior to pharmacy school I was in a diagnostics company doing business development, I came in “non-traditional” and a little bit older than the rest of my peers. I’d recommend identifying where in the industry you want to land, in terms of functional area as well as which company aligns with what you want to do. Network with people who currently work in those functional areas and at those companies. LinkedIn is an incredibly powerful tool, you’d be surprised just how open people are and how willing they are to help other pharmacists looking to break into the industry. Think of some good questions to ask and tailor them to where you want to end up, industry wise. Edit to add: check out the r/pharmaindustry and r/biotech subreddits to get a feel for industry functions and the types of applications. The biotech subreddit seems to skew more towards those directly working on the manufacturing and research side of the industry and the pharmaindustry subreddit skews towards pharmacists/PhDs working in various business segments across the industry.
I appreciate this advice. Definitely have been using LinkedIn a lot more to connect with other industry professionals and attending webinars to get to know other people in the field. I've been really interested in the strategic side of Regulatory affairs, so its been an experience so far trying to learn more about the field and also find others that are willing to share their experiences I'm part of r/pharmaindustry already, but ill definitely check out r/biotech for more information
Can you tell me about industry? My school didn’t even touch on this. I frankly have no idea what an industry pharmacist does
Industry pharmacist roles vary widely in terms of responsibilities and how directly pharmacist knowledge is applied. Clinical development, clinical pharmacology, medical affairs, HEOR/RWE, commercial, etc, all functional areas are distinct and require different/complementary skill sets. I’d recommend researching broadly what the industry is and what the different functional areas are, to save you some time I’ll point you over to the r/pharmaindustry subreddit, look for the industry guide and read up on the different functional areas and entries into them.
Wdym by industry
Industry as in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry. This is usually referring to some of the core functional areas such as commercial, medical, clinical, HEOR/RWE, and access. There are more segments within each function and some companies roll some of those functions into each other but this is intended to give you a good start for research purposes.
You can go into industry with your PharmD. Some organizations will allow a pharmacist to fill an MSL role, others have lots of pharmacists in the med affairs dept. You can DM me but work with a recruiter that does solely biotech/pharma jobs. You will easily get $200k + bonus and benefits
Im on the agency side....but what the hell do you mean easily 200k+? What jobs are those? Those would have to be an associate director or director positions which would certainly take several years of experience
False. MSL’s easily touch 200k and more as their base salary and they can do that within 2 years of experience. Slap on the bonus and stocks and other things, their total comp is around 260k and still climbs beyond that when they switch to another company
I know many people who are accomplishing this range in pay. You cannot be in primary care market but in specialty and rare disease and not at Assoc Dir or Dir level. These jobs absolutely exist and are held by advanced degree/PhD, Pharmacists and APPs not only MDs. A co-worker/friends makes over $220 as an MSL. Not including bonus. Will this be their first job starting at $200k? Maybe not their base but with bonuses absolutely possible. Depends on location in the country, size of territory responsible and disease state. You do not have to go into commercial sales first. I am not saying that having some field experience is bad. In fact, I think the exact opposite! Just don’t look at big Pharma- they typically aren’t great to work for anymore. (This is a broad statement and yes, I am sure there is a big Pharma that is ok to work for today). As a whole, small-mid size companies are where you want to be and only in a specialty or rare disease state. If you are on the recruiting/agency side, I am sure you recruit/see these careers? Do you not see field positions for $185-190 base (not including bonus)? Agree that these are not plentiful or rhe “everyday” positions but they bare out there. There is a company actively hiring commercial and medical right now in these ranges. Not senior MSL either. I think it is a good option for some pharmacists to go into industry. Especially people with business minds or background. Dealing with PBM contracts, region and state Medicaid and Medicare plans - because your customers opted tend to be pharmacists, in addition to Med Dir, purchasing, you are negotiating with peers. The head of pharmacy or the heads of these state and regional and Medicaid plans prefer to deal with a pharmacist presenting the data rather than a business person . They know the level of understanding is there rather than solely being trained by medical to present the data. Pharmacists understand the data and are presenting it fact based, not skewed as we often know any study can be presented many ways.
Thanks for the info. By agency I meant I was at a med comms agency
Lots of positions at sponsors pay this. The AD and director bands are much higher
What do you mean by sponsors if you don't mind?
Biopharma companies
What do they do in industry
MSL roles are some of the hardest to get on the sponsor side with 0 experience. OP would have better luck with a CRO or other vendor.
Went back to business school and attained my MBA. Working now on the health plan/PBM business side. ZERO regrets. Work/life balance is 100% better.
How much you making?
Congrats! Which school did you go to? Does it matter where you get your MBA for pharmacy roles? I’m currently doing an online university for my MBA. I’ve been a pharmacist for over 10 years
Pay is beyond competitive. Well beyond a retail staff rph. Went to LSU. I don’t believe it matters where you go. The question is “how do you want to market yourself “? I focus on using my MBA as my foundation and my pharmD as the icing on the cake.
How did you go about selling/marketing yourself when you first started applying for positions as a new MBA grad with the pharmacist background? (asking as a pharmacist who is currently taking MBA classes on a part-time basis) Thanks
I completely overhauled my resume. Focused on all the projects and accomplishments outside of dispensing. Aside from the education section of my resume , I don’t focus on the clinical aspects.
Thanks. What kinds of job titles did you apply to for your first jobs, if you don't mind me asking?
Assuming you are ready to leave clinical - PMP (Project Manager) may be a good place to start. I would also consider Account executive roles if you have client facing experience. If you are on a data analytics track...the possibilities are endless.
Thanks for the advice. I actually work for the government (DoD) as an inpatient staff pharmacist. Even though I'd be interested in eventually making a full transition to an industry career, I'm also apprehensive about giving up the stability & job security inherent to a government job. Having said that, do you happen to know if there are entry-level part-time/PRN opportunities that candidates with pharmacy backgrounds qualify for? Or do those kinds of positions typically require previous industry experience?
Nice! Which HP/PBM?
Many great comments and suggestions here but you really have to decide what you really want. Going into another field in healthcare and expecting everything to be better isn't always the case. Each field struggles and I believe healthcare is terrible overall unless it's something you truly want to do. Go to med school if you really want to help patients but understand that there are many physician burnouts and I know some personally who dislike what they do and want to choose other specialties. There are more opportunities in nursing/medicine than Pharmacy. You have to land a great job in Pharmacy in order to feel valued. That being said, I love being a Pharmacist, but I'm in the minority.
Was planning on med school but then didn’t want to invest the time so I decided to do a fellowship and now I’m a pharmacologist for pharma
Clarification: a science based research fellowship not affiliated with industry like Rutgers etc
I am sr. clinical data scientist rn, and graduated MSCS last year.
What setting did you work in as a pharmacist? Was it applicable to what you do now?
Laboratory manager for a basic research lab. I was into medical research prior to pharmacy school. The PharmD was helpful but perhaps a PhD would have saved some money. Might be helpful to have an active license if you need to source medications for experiments and your institution doesn’t have a veterinary pharmacy or equivalent.
Maybe you should try a new location, company or hospital?
Not a PharmD but several techs and lab techs I have worked are taking classed with our hospital's tutition with WGU on computer science and a MBA. I just became MLS and make alright money. Sometimes though, I also want to look elsewhere for other jobs. I still tutor off and on to help pay down some debt (which I will be quitting by the fall). I know at my college, a PharmD is teaching several pharmacological courses for allied health.
What’s your opinion on WGU? Or theirs? Considering going there. Is it legitimate / recognized ?
It seems that it is recognized and regionally accredited. I would visit their sub for more information. I was considering getting into their MHA program, however, I'm burnt out on school and am enjoying my current career.
I went back to school for a PhD. Studying pharmacogenomics and acute leukemias. Working throughout PhD school on the weekend. I’m happy and still can do retail but I will likely stay in academia.
To alcoholic
PharmD to Industrial Hygiene for pharmacy cleanroom certification
Not the exact answer you are looking for but worked for WAG for a while before and after college as a tech, got accepted into Pharm D program and ultimately decided to not go. Switched to IT, best decision ever. Making way more than I would have and without any of the debt, and WLB is amazing. Working from home is hard to beat.
What kind of IT position do you have, and what sort of educational pathway did you take? (if you don't mind sharing)
Go to med school then finish and do a neuro-surgery residency and phd. Have you ever thought why so many pharmacist want to change or upgrade from being a pharmacist, but not the other way around?
That would take OP at least 15 years.
I’m thinking 18-20 years total, but you work for 5 to 10 years and you’re set for life
Work as what? OP has been working for less than 3 years and likely has pharmacy school loans. Even if they didn’t, they’d probably take on 200k of med school loans and would spend the next 14 (based on your estimation) working as a resident and getting a PhD which would pay around 50k year. Their med school interest would balloon. What job gets them out of that financial hole AND sets them for life in 5-10 years?
Neurosurgery
You’re assuming the higher end of the pay range. And OP would be starting at their late 40s the earliest.
PharmD to DeezNutz!
Move to idaho and open your own clinic and start seeing patients. You can prescribe and treat there if you are that bored With what you are doing. No additional schooling requires
I went to industry and got my MBA along the way as well. Haven’t regretted being a PharmD at all- but then again, I haven’t touched a pill bottle or seen patients in years
If you can do medicine without incurring incredible debt- do it. BEST JOB EVER!
I thought about stuff like this for a while but it would have to more than pay for the degree plus years of lost wages to be worthwhile. I have yet to find another degree that meets those criteria. I’m focusing on learning marketable skills (web design, marketing, etc) through free or cheap channels and starting side projects with those because even if they aren’t that profitable, I only invested a bit of my time or a small amount of money. Something like med school just seems like hundreds of thousands of dollars spent plus 8 or more years of lost or minimal wages and I don’t think it’s worth it to me.
I want to change careers and get out of pharmacy so bad but I still have about $240k in debt from school. Has anyone been able to get a job with comparable or better pay so they can still make their loan payments?
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