Students should think twice about pharmacy

Everywhere I've looked has over 95% graduate employment rate. Many places have 100% employment.

I'm not an expert, but this seems to be pretty impressive.

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Everywhere I've looked has over 95% graduate employment rate. Many places have 100% employment.

I'm not an expert, but this seems to be pretty impressive.

Posted from TSR Mobile

I feel sorry for the people who failed to get into medicine and choose these sort of courses as the next best thing. These are nothing like medicine at all, it's far more unstable. Many I know were forced by parents. It's a good thing this thread is here to warn about the truth, hell, I know people who did rubbish at a-level and are going to uni now thinking its a walk in a park, but they really have got a nasty surprise.

actually in my case, my parents wanted me to become a lawyer, teacher or accountant. I have always been a fan of human biology and at the time I did my uni applications (2008-2009), there was a massive demand for pharmacists, so much so the government gave accreditation to 5 new unis (with cohorts of 200-400 students). its because of unregulated numbers that a lot of people cant find work as a pharmacist or pharmacy graduate and because of competition, basic locum wages have dropped from £30-40/hour in 2011/2012 to £10-25 in current era (yes thats ten to twenty-five). in fact, locums for big companies (who shall remain anonymous) are actually earning less for their locum work than they did during pre-reg due to non-compete clauses in contracts and having to work 15-20 hours a week.

isn't that because after the 4 years of study they have a 1 year pre reg place thing which counts as employment :/

isn't that because after the 4 years of study they have a 1 year pre reg place thing which counts as employment :/

If you look through my started threads, I made a similar thread talking about a cap, literally like this one.

The reason I knew pharamcy was just too full is when I saw 3 or could be 4 forgot now, pharmacist quite literally, I mean literally, NEXT to each other!
I also realised this with the fact that so many people with grades that sucked got in without a problem in aston uni. this meant that they had far more places than they needed so just filled it up to make sure the course is full.

I just decided to stay out of this whole thing the second I learnt the over-saturation and go in for engineering. Getting a job as an engineer is not easy but if you go to good uni and do well, with internships it's not the hardest thing in the world. If you decide not to, you have so many graduate jobs stuff like actuary because of how much engineering is valued in it's maths/physics/sciene dept.

Too many people don't know the truth of job markets, colleges don't teach them. Many don't even realise that they have only one ungrad student loan. You get one shot, so you should make sure you choose something worth doing. If you are rich by all means do a degree that doesn't give a good chance of job but if you are like me, then find something which will give you a good chance at getting a good job.

Pharmacy in the end is like optom, it used to pay well before but times have changed and salaries don't look so great.

Forget that, they the multiples don't want brilliant pharmacists they just want cheap ones. The person who charges least will get picked over the straight A student.

if you wan to be a brilliant pharmacist start going to the gym and building up your stamina, there is no let up in pharmacy.

You are on your feet 10hrs straight, working your nuts off at flat out pace all the time. Everyone has an off day now and then when they are just not 100%, this is not allowed in pharmacy. If you have an off day and it affects your performance, expect a reprimand.

Work on your fitness and stamina and how cheap you are prepared to work for and you may then become a good pharmacist.

I totally agree Johnny. I did over 600 items yesterday in 9 hours, mostly this bloody ETP which is the latest ball ache!!! Now, we have to print all the sodding scripts off, so basically we are being a prescription clerk! DO NOT DO COMMUNITY PHARMACY!! Not had a pay rise since 2008!! The Unis are businesses now, they want your fees. you will be lucky to find a pre-reg. i am offered work now, for £15 an hr. I was earning this in 1998!!
I really cannot believe all the muppets on here all dying to do community pharmacy!! Go and speak to those on your high street, yes, pharmacy is an interesting degree, but the job market is saturated. I hate to be negative about my profession but go read the Chemist and Druggist website. The Unis and GPhC still WON'T cap student places. This is leading to over-supply and falling wages and the multiples love it!
Add in EU pharmacists and immigrants and no matter how much they tell you all the wonderful ''clinical'' services you can do or go and work FOR a GP, note, not with! There will still be pharmacist unemployment.
Locum GPs are earning £60-70-80 an hour. Pharmacists are lucky if there is a 2 at the start! I really hate what has happened to pharmacy the last few years, and I'm sad and sorry to say, I feel it will get worse.
Please do some research before you sign up to a 5 yr course and thousands of pounds of debt!

You can certainly accomplish those things if you are committed.
I know a fair few paediatric pharmacists in hospitals, and the senior ones are amazing pharmacists. They are so on top of their knowledge, and will often give advice to other pharmacists, nurses and doctors regarding childrens medications. And the paeds pharmacist where I'm working at the moment runs her own clinic, and has a lot of input into treatments for cystic fibrosis patients.
I think paediatrics is a really good speciality for pharmacists as there's a lot of input you can have into treatments, since most paediatric medications are unlicensed. However, unfortunately, paediatric jobs don't come up too often, especially for band 6 pharmacists!

And its almost scary what a coincidence this is, but I have a friend who's about to do a phd in the area of patient compliance! He's hoping to work for the rpharms eventually.

So I think its great that you have an idea of where you want to end up in the world of pharmacy, and so long as you remain committed you can certainly achieve those goals.
Most of the people who complain on here seem to be community pharmacists who don't seem to want to make the effort to improve their role, or don't seem to realise that there are other areas they can work in, people who only chose pharmacy cause it would get them a job, or medical rejects who are bitter inside!
/rant

£15/hour, I assume you work for lloyds?

Not really for OTs. There is actually a major shortage. Where I am, they have to use agency staff to ensure that there aren't people waiting years for some therapy.

As it is we have hundreds of families waiting for OT.

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I'm new to this job lol.

So far I've worked at some places that I liked but got a relief position at a big chain for two days a week (I locum the other days). At this big chain I just check baskets and have no patient interactions or sort out problems. I find this very boring and I don't understand how people can do this all the time.

whats interesting is that the government is cutting pharmacy budget by 6.1% next year. as it is, pharmacists are earning ~£20/hour less than 2012/2013

lloyds with their crappy non-compete contracts are offering £15/hour for 15 hours work in some parts. if you look at that, those pharmacists are earning a lot less than i did during my pre-reg (albeit they have to put in a third of the hours).
in some parts of the country people are already being paid £12/hour so i wouldn't be surprised if £18 becomes the norm in the next year or so from £20-22 and in 5 years, pharmacists are earning £10/hour.