Which career is better? Pharmacy or engineering?

Which career would you say is better in terms of job satisfaction, salary and employability?

A pharmacy degree or an engineering degree?

It depends on what you prefer, but I'd say there's a lot more choice of career path in engineering. Pharmacy careers might be a bit more limited although both a good, solid degrees for a stepping stone to other, more general careers.

The issue is that I have seen so many bad reviews on pharmacy. Particularly community.

I wanted to do pharmacy but not get into the community route - rather get into more of the pharmaceutics / research side. If not then I don't mind going into hospital - but apparently those instances are rare.

Engineering seems ok in terms of pay - but I am not sure about employability or the future of engineering.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend selecting a career path only because of employability. Don't get me wrong, job security is important, but if you are going to hate the job, it's going to have a huge detrimental impact on your mental health regardless of pay and other benefits. I'm talking from personal experience here - spent 10 years of my life on a career (finance/business ops in retail) which I hated, and which I had only chosen because I was told that's where I get the money. I did get the money, but I regret wasting so many years living the hell that I could have avoided if only I listened to myself, what I really wanted to do, who I really wanted to be.
Besides, if you become a really good specialist you are always going to be in demand regardless of the career/industry you choose.

Now since I'm an engineer, who went through it all and who currently works in a large corporation, occasionally hiring engineering graduates, I have to say that the job is fun (if you like the technicality of it that is), I feel quite secure about my future (I pretty much can find myself a job within a week or two in any part of the UK), and the pay is decent.

I've no clue about pharmacy so I can't say much here, besides the fact that I noticed the pharmacies in my area struggle to find enough pharmacists and they get to share a few of them between the many pharmacies around this place (Boots, Lloyds, etc.). To me that means there is more demand then supply at least from what I can see. Again, I have no idea of the real picture so can't compare to engineering.

Regarding the professional growth it feels engineering can be more supporting from the wide range of potential career opportunities. There is space for research and development if you're into that, you can pursue a career in academia, you can grow in "ranks" and climb the corporate ladder either deepening your technical skills or going into managerial roles, from where you could continue growing into managing more people, teams, and potentially business operations if that's what you want. I find engineering to be a quite an empowering career, but a lot of the success depends on the individual.

I hope that helps a little.

Al

May I ask what type of engineering you two have studied and what you do in your daily jobs? I'm asking for family who have no idea what A-Levels to pick and what they want to do. Thanks!

May I ask what type of engineering you two have studied and what you do in your daily jobs? I'm asking for family who have no idea what A-Levels to pick and what they want to do. Thanks!

I graduated with BEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, currently work as a lead engineer for large energy technology corporation, within electromechanical assembly manufacturing facility. My main responsibility is New Product Introduction which is as challenging as it is exciting

I studied a BEng in mechanical engineering. Worked in various research, quality, design, and testing roles. Now I work as an Eng project manager for a healthcare company in medical device R&D.