Is there any hope for pharmacy students??

I don't really get why you'd work over 40 hours a week as a pharmacist if your takings are decent already. Work on a side hustle. In the grand scheme of things pharmacy provides a decent standard of living but your life won't change much working an extra 10-20 hours a week. Is your life actually that much greater earning £70k a year as opposed to £50k? Better spent on yourself or developing secondary incomes/investments. And really no need to flout your £80k salary on 60 hours, no ones impressed and there's far richer people than you earning the same amount in a fraction of the time. Just be better productive and work on your second incomes.

Christ, sounds like a hell shift. Been there, done that. Vividly remember the negative experiences over the years. Don't need to let my sanity suffer. Growing tough skin is nothing to be proud of in a profession. There's better ways to live life out there. Earn your money in pharmacy, pay the bills, have a bit extra left over. Go focus on something else. I've got investments in the financial markets, another pharmacist I know has a wedding planning business as a side hussle, another pharmacist is making a recruitment agency, another pharmacist is working on generic supplies. Working overtime in CP is not investing in yourself! You're trading your sanity for money.

This is why I don’t get a person who says Pharmacy is the best of all the Healthcare professions. I can’t decided whether the person has lost all their marbles or is intentionally winding us all up! 😂🤣


The vast majority of University degrees aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. Even the “professions” are not all they’re cracked up to be. Young people are put off apprenticeships in the trades (ie Electrician, Plumbing etc) because they are not seen as glamorous enough or because Careers teachers see them as “beneath” their students.These teachers would rather push them to the “prestigious” jobs like Medicine, Dentistry, Law etc. It’s looks better for them as well. Let me tell you, any Pharmacist or Doctor who’s been at the coalface for 10 or 20 years will tell you there’s zero glamour in the job!

Interesting post Hogan.

My retirement from Community Pharmacy temporarily postponed because of requests from a small independent group of pharmacies in the North East for cover. They have just lost two pharmacists and a third is leaving in January.

All 3 are in their 30s and all fed up with the stress, poor future prospects and in one case also the persistent customer abuse they find in CP.

Of note is that in all 3 cases the individuals are leaving pharmacy completely and none their future career paths requires a degree. I am confident they will prosper and be a lot happier.

This phenomenon sounds to be part of 'the great resignation' going on. It's been happening already for years in pharmacy but not to this extent. And now it's affecting all job sectors at once, globally.

https://www.businessinsider.com/jobs-great-resignation-reshuffle-gen-z-millennials-quitting-switching-careers-2021-10?r=US&IR=T

Some stats from the USA - younger generations seem to be leading the charge. Young people are more likely to transition jobs anyway but the increase points to a dissatisfaction with working conditions and low pay. People are looking for better prospects out there including pharmacists. Almost every pharmacist I know is working on secondary income sources.

Another article about bus drivers:

https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/bus-drivers-hgv-lorry-drivers-297934/

“So the mindset is now, if we’ve got to work in these Victorian conditions, then we might as well get £20 an hour driving the lorry, as opposed to £10 an hour driving a bus. So the bus drivers are leaving in droves to go to the other industry.”

It's the same thing with CP. The acute rates for locums doesn't change that CP can be hell but at least you're earning up to £50/hr doing it. Even the affluent Clare is a full time locum now.

This I very much agree with because prior to recently, I was doing 3 long days as an employed pharmacists and also working a day or 2 on my day off. I'm now a full time locum and have chosen to work only 3 days a week and no more. Hopefully, in a couple of years when the mortgage is paid off, I can reduce my working days to one or two a week.

I'm confused. You have spent a long time on here telling us how wonderful CP is and how you earn a "GP salary" and drive a Range Rover, and live in a mansion, and love CP so much you would do it for free. Then last month or so, you're asking about working in a GP practice, although previously you had said that that was a pretty rubbish salary and you would drop from about 80k+ a year to 40k.

Now...... you have left your 16 hour days at the supermarket and stopping your locuming on the side, and are now a full-time locum doing just a few days?

So.......the question everyone on here who has been reading your posts over the last couple of years wants to ask is..... What happened????!

Have you suddenly seen the light, that people like SarahH and Hogan talk about? Have the supermarket screwed you over and cut your rate or salary? Were you fed up of getting up at 5am to drive 100 miles to a job and then not get home till 9pm? I am very curious, as I'm sure many others are as to this total 180 U turn?

I would like to add that I think you are making a good decision, mainly from a physical and mental health point of view. The hours and travelling you were putting in were dangerous and not sustainable in the long term.

I have not read the responses above so excuse me if I sound repetitive.
There is definitely hope for you. Like yourself, I enjoyed the Mpharm course, but slowly realized while studying that the job isn't as glamorous as my 6th form science teachers made it out to be and the remuneration is average at best (compared to other career options requiring the same level of intensity).
I graduated in my Mpharm degree in 2016, sat pre-reg for 1 year, and hated it as I knew I would. I had worked as a dispenser for the previous 3 years during university. After 1 year pre-reg I left pharmacy completely without looking back, and without qualifying as a Pharmacist! In hindsight, it would have been good to qualify as a Pharmacist back then as locuming while looking for a new career would have been a great flexible source of income and is always a decent 'back up' plan in case I didn't find a job for 6months+.
note: I landed a grad-scheme role within 2 months of intense applications!
I had thought long and hard about leaving Pharmacy way before graduating and so I had already done extensive research on what other career paths would suit me in a more corporate world, and so because of this, as soon as I left Pharmacy I started applying for graduate roles immediately as I already had a good idea of what job I wanted.
Fast forward to now and I'm in a completely unrelated career to Pharmacy with 3.5 years of solid experience. The salary is good, the intensity level is manageable and more importantly there is sustainable growth for my future career with regards to both money and responsibility.
Ironically enough, the saving grace for me securing a new role in corporate (IT incase you're wondering), was my Mpharm degree. Mpharm is a very tough STEM masters degree which is recognized by a lot of companies, especially if you make to sure paint a proper picture of all the skills it has taught you, both personal and analytical/academic.
What's even better is that I recently decided to give the pre-reg March 2021 exam a go this year and passed it with 95%, so I should be officially qualified and on the register soon. Although I don't enjoy the job overly much, I'm happy to do the odd locum shift on bank holidays etc just for a bit of extra cash if I feel like it. I dont mind doing some long weeks while I'm young, but I know its not sustainable life-long. I can handle community pharmacy in small doses haha! So now as someone in their 20s with dual-income careers, I should be able to purchase my first home in London with 0 help from family (not that I have that option anyway).
My point is that, even if you don't want to be a Pharmacist long-term, in my humble opinion for you at this point it is worth graduating and getting onto the register as it can provide you decent flexible income while searching for a new career and always provides a decent 'back up'. Even in the future just say for the example the worst happens and you get made redundant from your new career, you can cover the financial gaps while searching for a new job by locuming. It cant hurt to have the extra option there as a failsafe.
If you are adamant on changing careers, I would strongly suggest to start researching asap now what you want to do. Before you know it you will be graduating, and it gets much tougher to figure things out like this once you're in full-time employment.
If you want any advice/tips feel free to DM me.
Wish you all the best on your journey

I have not read the responses above so excuse me if I sound repetitive.
There is definitely hope for you. Like yourself, I enjoyed the Mpharm course, but slowly realized while studying that the job isn't as glamorous as my 6th form science teachers made it out to be and the remuneration is average at best (compared to other career options requiring the same level of intensity).
I graduated in my Mpharm degree in 2016, sat pre-reg for 1 year, and hated it as I knew I would. I had worked as a dispenser for the previous 3 years during university. After 1 year pre-reg I left pharmacy completely without looking back, and without qualifying as a Pharmacist! In hindsight, it would have been good to qualify as a Pharmacist back then as locuming while looking for a new career would have been a great flexible source of income and is always a decent 'back up' plan in case I didn't find a job for 6months+.
note: I landed a grad-scheme role within 2 months of intense applications!
I had thought long and hard about leaving Pharmacy way before graduating and so I had already done extensive research on what other career paths would suit me in a more corporate world, and so because of this, as soon as I left Pharmacy I started applying for graduate roles immediately as I already had a good idea of what job I wanted.
Fast forward to now and I'm in a completely unrelated career to Pharmacy with 3.5 years of solid experience. The salary is good, the intensity level is manageable and more importantly there is sustainable growth for my future career with regards to both money and responsibility.
Ironically enough, the saving grace for me securing a new role in corporate (IT incase you're wondering), was my Mpharm degree. Mpharm is a very tough STEM masters degree which is recognized by a lot of companies, especially if you make to sure paint a proper picture of all the skills it has taught you, both personal and analytical/academic.
What's even better is that I recently decided to give the pre-reg March 2021 exam a go this year and passed it with 95%, so I should be officially qualified and on the register soon. Although I don't enjoy the job overly much, I'm happy to do the odd locum shift on bank holidays etc just for a bit of extra cash if I feel like it. I dont mind doing some long weeks while I'm young, but I know its not sustainable life-long. I can handle community pharmacy in small doses haha! So now as someone in their 20s with dual-income careers, I should be able to purchase my first home in London with 0 help from family (not that I have that option anyway).
My point is that, even if you don't want to be a Pharmacist long-term, in my humble opinion for you at this point it is worth graduating and getting onto the register as it can provide you decent flexible income while searching for a new career and always provides a decent 'back up'. Even in the future just say for the example the worst happens and you get made redundant from your new career, you can cover the financial gaps while searching for a new job by locuming. It cant hurt to have the extra option there as a failsafe.
If you are adamant on changing careers, I would strongly suggest to start researching asap now what you want to do. Before you know it you will be graduating, and it gets much tougher to figure things out like this once you're in full-time employment.
If you want any advice/tips feel free to DM me.
Wish you all the best on your journey