Alternative Careers with an MPHARM - aimed at current MPHARM students

im just wondering, say someone does MPHARM degree, what other career options are there? have you guys heard from your peers or your professors about students that go into finance sector or even marketing? particularly perhaps marketing in GSK or any other pharmaceutical company rather than the R&D side of things?

Reply 1

petrolhead

Everyone I've spoken to with an MPharm degree is a pharmacist of some description. The variety of jobs available within the pharmacy industry is huge but I've not heard of people going into other industries. That's a biased view though because I have spoken to loads of pharmacists and not many people from other industries. I'm sure people do go into other sectors, but it is pretty uncommon

Reply 2

mxmx

yh people do go into other sectors, a pharmacist i work with, only works as a pharmacist on sundays and during the week he works with a company in IT developing some systems for making prescriptions and also does some marketing. so it is possible to move into other fields.

Reply 3

TigerSwift

I think you can go into marketing but its not that common i don't think, but i have heard of it. Quality control is another one you can go into.

You could get a job at a pharmacy journal, such as the PJ and C&D. They advertise for pharmacists with some background of journalism work.

Politics is another option as well. Whether you become a member of the all part pharmacist group or join the professional body (currently RPSGB, but whatever it will be in 2 years time) and campaign for the good of pharmacy.

Reply 4

petzneo

Also teaching...

Reply 5

e-lover

Although not to do with Pharmacy, I know somebody who did Optom. Loved it. Got bored of it. Went to LSE and did 'Health Economics' and is now in New York with a major health business consultancy sipping margarita's with her clients ... lucky cow! :p:

Well, I'm sure you can do something similar with pharmacy but you may need to do extra qualifications.

Reply 6

TigerSwift

petzneo

Also teaching...

Thanks for that addition! Don't know how i forgot Academia... seeing as it is one of my major options as a career when i have done my preregistration year!

But yeah, Academia is really good to go into as RPSGB is fairly concerned at the lack of students from this generation considering academia and taking up research positions within unis.

Reply 7

Portishead

whats the pay like for a professor at a university then :s-smilie:

Reply 8

pharmgirl

About £55,000. And you'll need a PhD and at least 10 years experience post-doc to get to that level, and a lot of people dont ever get near that level.