Is anyone here a pharmD? Are the hours flexible enough for you to get out? Everyone else: what's your career?

Hi all. Considering pursing a pharmD, as I'm interested in healthcare and patient care. Additionally, a pharmD opens a lot of career paths and that's very attractive. You can be boring in retail, or have some excitement in the clinic if you do a residency.

Anyways, my hobbies (Skiing, Climbing, Cycling, Backpacking...colorado hobbies) are important to me. Important enough that I won't take a career that chains me down too much. 

So, I'm asking if anyone here is a pharmD and if as a practicing pharmacist, whether it's clinical, retail, hospital, or non-traditional, has still allowed them to get after week long backpacks and taking a day or two off every month to go climb something big. In other words, how's the work/life balance?

Non PharmDs, please chip in. What's your career? How much free time do you have?

I work in an emergency room as an ER- Tech. Not a career in the sense that I dont want to be stuck at $20/hr forever, but the scheduling is similar to nursing. I have up to 2 weeks off or more if i want it, and have friends with benefited positions as RNs that work 4 on 9 off, etc. Some of the more outdoor focused providers (Docs, NPs, PAs) I work with have killer schedules, 4 on, 7 off, 4 on, 14 off. Ultimately, theres tons of options and flexibility with how you want to orient your schedule if youre willing to work for it. Hope that helps, shoot me a PM or let me know if you have more questions.

I'm a PharmD. Would not recommend it as a career path. Market is overly saturated with pharmacists, and it is only going to get worse in the near future.
Supply and demand means you'll be expendable (if you can even find a job), and starting salaries for pharmacists are trending down as a result .PA school would be a better bet - 2 years of schooling, not as much debt, and you get to do things PharmDs wish they could do.

My wife is a PharmD for the VA and if she climbed, it would be a really good option for a fairly high-paying job that allows lot of time to climb - 4x 10 hour days a week, government PTO, no takehome work, etc. Plus it's an incredibly fulfilling job - she sees patients every day, has a scope of practice, and runs clinics.

However, T-Tran is definitely right - a decade ago PharmD's were in shortage and schools started pumping them out like crazy. Unless you have 2 years of residency, top of your class at a top-tier school, Rho Chi, etc, you won't get a job like that - you will likely be doing retail.

Pharm had sparked my interest years ago, but decided i wanted more patient contact. I’m now a critcal care Respiratory Therapist. Relatively low stress, incredible pay, and you get to do some really cool stuff. I work 3 on 4 off every week. Only a good choice if you live on the west coast. Specifically the Bay Area. Same amount of school as an RN. Many RT’s go on to become PA’s or Perfusionists. 

Define "flexible enough."  If you have a regular job, then you are pretty much going to have a regular schedule.  That may mean 4x10 hours a week, 5x8, 3x12...  My wife is a nurse and does 3x12, so in theory she has 4 days off, but the 3 days are overnight shifts on Th, Fri & Sat, so she has a really tough time getting away on weekends, and she has to flip back and forth between a night and a day schedule.  I have a 'normal' career, and my schedule is a 9/80, so in theory I get every other Friday off.  So I could go on a 2 day trip every other weekend, but my climbing partners don't have the same schedule and I often put in extra hours.

Have you thought about remote medicine or Crisis response?

I know PA's and Paramedics that work 1/2 the year and have a good career. 

I work on Oil rigs and other remote camps and provided you are single it's a good trade off for 6 months of freedom. Only down side is your future partner/family may require a career change pending how they/you can handle it

My wife and I are both registered nurses. We got our degrees, worked in one place long enough to get the needed experience, and now travel nurse together. Demand is high, supply is low in most specialties. We work one or two 13-week contracts a year and take the rest to climb and travel. We have no kids obviously... The job is certainly not for everyone, and I never thought I would be a nurse, but it is fun and I love the ability to take off and do what I want.

We only take contracts near climbing, or at a very minimum, in a town with a decent climbing gym. Schooling was reasonably priced so school debt was at a minimum. There are lots of different specialties in nursing and if you are interested in this route, make sure there is demand for travelers in the specialty you like. 

Good luck finding something that you like and that works for you.

T-Tran wrote:

I'm a PharmD. Would not recommend it as a career path. Market is overly saturated with pharmacists, and it is only going to get worse in the near future.
Supply and demand means you'll be expendable (if you can even find a job), and starting salaries for pharmacists are trending down as a result .PA school would be a better bet - 2 years of schooling, not as much debt, and you get to do things PharmDs wish they could do.

Tran, could I ask where you live? I know the market is saturated, but in my area it seems like new graduates are able to land some retail gigs but the clinical stuff is definitely full. 

Are you clinic or retail?

RB Simon wrote:

My wife and I are both registered nurses. We got our degrees, worked in one place long enough to get the needed experience, and now travel nurse together. Demand is high, supply is low in most specialties. We work one or two 13-week contracts a year and take the rest to climb and travel. We have no kids obviously... The job is certainly not for everyone, and I never thought I would be a nurse, but it is fun and I love the ability to take off and do what I want.

We only take contracts near climbing, or at a very minimum, in a town with a decent climbing gym. Schooling was reasonably priced so school debt was at a minimum. There are lots of different specialties in nursing and if you are interested in this route, make sure there is demand for travelers in the specialty you like. 

Good luck finding something that you like and that works for you.

Could you tell me more about your job?

You work basically half the year with the other half off? That sounds incredible. And I have to ask about the pay. Is it just enough? Or is it enough to live on and have a few nice things, save for retirement, etc. 

How easy is it to find new contracts? Is a traveling nurse something that every hospital will accept? 

Matt Himmelstein wrote:

I suppose lots of this is employer dependent. 

7 day shifts, 7 night shifts, 7 days off working as an engineer on an oilfield supply boat. But the money ain't all but so great

I'm on a railroad thermite welding gang, 16 miles from Vedauwoo. 

Don't start your own company...your employees get vacations and time off...you don't. And you are not your own Boss. You have more Bosses, including the new 21 year year old graduate at the bank (always get the new guys, not a big company) that you have to explain your business and hope he continues your line of credit. And the 150 emails per day. OK, make good coin and have great gear, but little time to use. You can recognize me, my gear is always so shiny and new it blinds everyone else. It was choice, not unhappy with it, but definitely not a climbing choice. But sometimes very envious.

Edit - went down this path so that I could have job security...and that has paid off. 

Software Eng... I generally work from wherever I can get an internet connection. Normally show up around 10-11am for online meetings and go home / stop working around at 3pm but normally keep watching chat encase someone needs something for the next 2 hours but can do that from a phone. Have to do extra random hours of work for publishing software or fixing random bugs if things go wrong off hours... get paid pretty well for doing it.

Lardtazium, A career option for Pharm Ds with quite a bit of flexibility is getting into biotech/pharma as a Medical Science Liaison.  The money is great, you work from home and travel quite a bit. It is not devoid of BS but you can plan free time and have the $ to enjoy it.  I was a MSL as a PhD and retired after 7 years.  You can PM me if you want more details.

James

IT dude here. Infrastructure focused. Similar story to ViperScale except my job is nominally at the office, though I can work remotely when I feel like it.

Can be a good deal if you enjoy it and are good at it; but expect it to consume more than 9-5 of your life if you want to stand out.

Downside is relatively constant learning else you risk being seen as irrelevant, positive flip side is people don't pay too much attention to formal qualifications.

Can be pretty good paying if you're good

I am an elementary teacher and summers off are pretty fantastic. However, knowing what I know now, I would probably go RN, speech and language pathologist (in public ed), or p.e teacher. My wife is a RN with a great schedule. While I think the medical field is a solid direction, it seems that outside of nurses and techs, everybody else works too damn much. 

I just graduated Pharmacy School, and am 0 for 7 on jobs as a hospital pharmacist. I currently work at a grocery pharmacy and hated the first several weeks, but it is getting better. I work mostly 12 hour shifts so I have a lot of days off, but have been injured this summer, plus studying for boards and trying/failing at the job hunt. I love the profession overall, but hate many aspects of it too. 

Anyways, it's nice to have the potential for income (aka dealing with a lot of loans is about to crimp my style) and having the days off is nice for climbing or training, but it's been tough doing those too- life fills up pretty quick. If you were to go for it, it'd behoove you to live near a larger climbing scene, so you could find partners with similar schedules. 

Just note that PharmDs who are employed by pharmaceutical companies or clinical trial contract companies have regular corporate hours.  In fact, most of the jobs demand overtime, without "comp time".  (I worked as a financial systems consultant in pharma myself.)

I'm a CPA in private practice, but most of my life prior to this required hours that wouldn't allow for many good climbing trips.

James Witowsky wrote:

Lardtazium, A career option for Pharm Ds with quite a bit of flexibility is getting into biotech/pharma as a Medical Science Liaison.  The money is great, you work from home and travel quite a bit. It is not devoid of BS but you can plan free time and have the $ to enjoy it.  I was a MSL as a PhD and retired after 7 years.  You can PM me if you want more details.

James

I graduated with a PharmD in 2016 from a large university in the northeast.

With a MSL position you require clinical knowledge that you can then speak to. Someone coming right out of school would not be able to score a MSL position. They would need at least 2 years of residency for sure or a clinical job immediately out of school in order to be a qualified applicant for most MSL positions. 

OP, I do not recommend pharmacy for flexibility of hours. Sure you get days off during the week if you work retail, but working retail is not enjoyable for a lot of people. If you work in a hospital you will have to work weekends still which eats up a lot of climbing time. That being said it is very job dependent. Working overnights would be your best bet and that is usually 7 on 7 off at most hospitals, but that can be a tough gig to land as well. Depending on the area of the country you are in, the job market is going to be saturated as well, there are so many new pharmacy schools cropping up. 

During school I worked every other weekend as a retail pharmacy technician and most of the time I was studying. Last year during my PGY-1 Residency I worked every other weekend and did not have much time off to go on climbing trips. That also included most days being 10-12 hours at the hospital. This residency year I work every 3rd weekend with a more normal 8-5 schedule during the week so there is more time for day trips and short weekend jaunts. Next year I don't know what it will be, it really depends on where I end up. 

Soruce: PGY-2 Pharmacy Resident at a large academic medical center.