California Pharmacists - The Real Story on Job Outlook

[Jackie B]

SOO I consistently look up pharmacist job postings just to see what's out there and what the trends are and I see PLENTY of these:

http://www.soliant.com/jobs/inpatient-pharmacist-needs-california/j/50000688510908/b/

It's just interesting to me how demographics works....there was in influx of pharmacists a few years ago, most pharmacists in CA are female...and now all those females are starting to take their pregnancy leaves so most postings are for 2-3 month temp assignments

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[xXRAYNEXx]

It's upsetting to me that pharm schools are getting away with tuition increase due to demand for pharmacy schools from people who see dollar signs and are ignorant of the real current and future market for pharmacists. To make matter worse, new schools pop up due to the demand, when jobs are few. Schools don't go away when demand is gone (too much money invested). They will continue to accept low quality applicants (fools who believe in false promises) and make money. This will hurt the profession because of the surplus and incompetent pharmDs. I can't believe the ACPE and AACP don't seem to do anything to prevent this from occurring, to protect the profession. Don't they understand basic supply and demand principles? It's Econ 101. Medical association understands it. What about the board of pharmacy? They wait till we are the bottom of the health care ladder to do something? Which is coming, it's our next stop. Damn it, elect me as Board president, I'll do something about it. Eeehh...maybe it's harder than I thought.

This is just like the market for pharm techs. You have an abundant pharm tech programs that fuel the huge surplus. There are no jobs for the new grads. You're competing with techs who have 5+ years of exp. 95% of the jobs that are available require at least 2 years of pharmacy experience. Jobs that don't, just dont respond back. And these are supposed to be entry level jobs. Yet, you see TV ads claiming great demand in health care, be a pharm tech in one year, great benefits. Total B.S. Some of these programs cost like 25k or more, in order to make $10/hour in retail? Hospital? Good luck. I had pharm experience through volunteering. So I just took a test and got licensed but it took me a year to find a job which i give credit to mostly luck, persistence, and determination...and my charming self. If you don't have all the above, you're Screeewed.

This is like deja vu for me as a pharmacy student, except with $200k in debt, instead of $125 for passing a pharm tech test. If only I had a six-pack, i would switch over to becoming an exotic dancer and retire early.

/rant

 

[confettiflyer]

In fact, in every single category that the report looked at — housing, utility bills, transportation, groceries, health care — Truckee outpaced the national average by a long shot. . . . [/SIZE]..

OHHh...this makes sense, they're looking at these costs specifically. Truckee is isolated like hawaii.

But if you're smart, you drive 30 minutes to reno and buy everything cheap and haul it back. This article is not smart. Truckee is not "high end" by any means, and other values are probably skewed by the small #'s of people living there.

 

[PharmboyinNC]

I don't understand why everyone is flaming the OP.

People, this is capitalism and economic business practice! If the OP can successfully hire pharmacists for $81k/year, then there is a supply for those that are willing.

If you want to make more money, then look and go somewhere else.

Heck, I have PharmDs interested in positions that make less in industry. Am I a bad person? <<Spank me>>

If your schoold tells you that you need to become a clincial pharmacist, but you decide to go into retail for a higher salary, are you a bad person? <<Loser!>>

IMO, it is because pharmacists have transitioned from independant owners to corporate employees, where they lost there social, political, profession influence. This is why dentists make more money and why medical doctors are fighting HMOs.

So tell me why a new PharmD should demand a ~$120k salary? Sorry guys and girls, but it is the market that demands it. Once that market becomes saturated with supply, pharmacist salaries will stagnate (not go down) and eventually nurses/PTs will be makeing more/command better salary ranges. Mark my words, don't whine about current salaries, worry about future trends.

I challenge all new pharmacists and students to get involved professionally and strengthen our voice, because if you don't contribute, the overall profession will devolve and all out salaries stagnate with worse hours and no breaks. It will take a fire-sale of pharmacists for these schools to close, so we might as well take full advantage of our growing numbers and leverage that.

 

[THE MTL]

Wow 81K, I mean good job getting them. If they accepted the job, then more power to you. But I honestly think 81K is extremely messed up especially when most pharmacists in Cali are getting about 40K more.

I just think people are freaking out with this whole job market thing. Pharmacy is still lightyears ahead of other careers and that is the truth.

 

[BidingMyTime]

There are a lot of issues in this thread.

I most take acception with MoutainPharmD's assertion that working retail is nothing more than proofreading techs works & that anyone can do it. That indeed may be all that Mountain does at his job, but I doubt that is what his employer is paying him to do. Dr Wario already pointed out an example of why pharmacy is more than just correctly filling prescriptions, even at the retail level. I have no doubt that I have saved more than one life by calling a dr to change or by refusing to fill a prescription that would have been **fatal** if filled as written (sometimes because of a math error, sometimes because the dr was clueless about what they were prescribing. Much more common are the questionable scripts, the ones which if filled as written probably wouldn't have killed or maimed anyone, but which would have led to unnecessary side effects and/or unnecessary higher costs of the prescription. Technicians do not have the training or ability to recognize most of these. Even with the DUR prompts that every computer system has, it takes a pharmacists training to recognize which ones to ignore and override, which ones to call the doctor about, and which ones require talking with the patient before filling. We can debate whether pharmacists are "overpaid" or "underutilized", but to say that pharmacists only exist because the law says they must, is ludicrious. Pharmacists perform an important niche in health care, and there would undoubtedly be many more iatorgenic errors, because filing prescriptions is more than being able to read and proofread.

As for the op, I do agree freedom of the market rules. Whether he is going to come out with the better end of the deal, remains to be seen. When someone is paying so much lower than average, undoubtedly they are getting the pharmacists that are unhirable elsewhere (perhaps the pharmacists like Mountain that think the job is solely about proofreading), the brand new pharmacists who will take any job to tide them over while they search for their ideal job, or pharmacists looking for temporary work because they are planning to retire, be a SAHM, or move out of the area. Even if the op is correct that pharmacist wages are going to be dropping, when the op is one of the first pharmacies to be offering drastically lower wages, then the op is going to be getting the pharmacists from the bottom of the barrel. There is more than training costs involved in hiring a bad pharmacist, there is also the cost of lost business, cost of lawsuits/increased insurance premiums from errors, training and hiring costs of ancilliary personnel because nobody wants to work with the bad pharmacist, employee theft, the costs of increased unemployment payments if the pharmacist must be fire, the risk that the bad pharmacist who is fired will sue for wrongful termination, etc. The op may have lucked out in just hiring a newly minted pharmacist who will get a little training than move to their new job in 9 -15 months. But the op also may have hired a bad pharmacist, who can dearly cost his business.When someone is paying below market wages, the chances are much higher they will be hiring a "bad" pharmacist, which is the real reason chains pay top of the line wages (they know they are much likely to get only good pharmacists when they are paying the top end of the wage scale, and avoid the big costs involved with hiring bad pharmacists.)

The OP mentions lifestyle issues, and yes, people are willing to take the lower end of average for lifestyle issues, but 25-30% lower than the average wage is not the lower end of average, and quite frankly, the op hasn't mentioned in lifestyle issue at his pharmacy that can't be found at a pharmacy paying the prevailing wage.

Pharmacists wage have dramatically increased since I graduated 25 years or so ago. Anyone with a basic knowledge of economics knows that such an increase was not sustainable. Since I've been involved with pharmacies since the 80's, there has always been talk that retail pharmacy was dead, mail-order was taking over, yadayadayadayada, and yet pharmacist is still here with the gloom and doom talk. There have always been peaks & troughs with pharmacy demand. Since we had a higher than normal peak for demand in the mid 2000's, it make sense that it will be followed by a lower than normal trough. But I don't believe the trough will last forever, 10 years from now the market will be different.

 

[akpharm]

If you did that to me, I'd just start my own pharmacy with everyone else you laid off for cheaper labor and make it my damned goal to put you the hell out of business and into the poor house.

And if that didn't work, I'd burn down every pharmacy you owned.

But that's just me.

You're missing the point. People are taking these jobs at 85k for a reason. Don't get angry because you're not getting paid what you THINK you're worth. It's an issue of labor supply

 

[xtsukiyox]

You're missing the point. People are taking these jobs at 85k for a reason. Don't get angry because you're not getting paid what you THINK you're worth. It's an issue of labor supply

I think you're missing the point if you thought WVUPharm2007 was remotely serious.

 

[lamasacrerx]

1st -- Before you jump on me, understand this: I am only speaking about what I know from extensive analysis of the California market (maybe some of this will translate into other states but again this is for California people primarily). If you attend, UCSF, USC, Western, UCSD, etc this job market post is for you.
2nd -- Feel free to disagree but cite your numbers/evidence
3rd -- My analysis is meant only to help new people coming into the field seriously understand the job market.
4th -- This analysis is based on my understanding of the graduation numbers from the following schools of pharmacy: USC, UOP, Loma Linda, UCSF, UCSD, Touro, Western, California Northstate. This does not take into account the 3 other planned school openings within the next 2 years and the high potential school at UCR. Also, I can tell you as my family are donors to the UC system, I know there is a heavy push especially within the UCLA medical campus community for a school of pharmacy there. This is low radar still but point is the same...we have 8 operating schools, 3 potentials in the pipeline and potentially even 1 more. This is insane on so many levels and it doesn't take a genius to figure this out but I'm going to give you my two cents.

My background - my family owns 8 independent pharmacies in the state of California. Two are very big operations within hospitals. I am not rich (the business is divided among many partners, cousins, uncles, etc)...I myself own about 12% of the show as I am new on the scene (and FYI I draw less than 40,000 dollars of personal salary a year and put many hours of sweat equity for this stake). Yes, it is a family business and I am taken care of but I just want to share this detail because I think some people will be able to see that I am not some spoiled kid trying to rain on the pharmacy parade here. This is a true warning form someone in the know. My family is connected to many other owners in the state and many of my comments are not just for my business but for other owners as well.

All the prime counties in the state are literally saturated with pharmacy labor right now. 100% saturated. Floater jobs only. 6 out of 8 of our pharmacies are in prime counties (one in SF, some in LA, one in Irvine, OC etc) and 2 are in the less desirable areas (San Bernardino county). 4 out of the 6 in the last 1.5 years needed new staff pharmacists (due to retirements etc)...we hired about 6 full time pharmacists in the last 18 months essentially. 5 at the prime locations and 1 at a not so prime location. **I am younger and in the business (have a BA in Finance and a CPA before pharmacy school and so am involved with all contracts and accounting for the entire operation). For the 5 prime locations for work comparable to a chain (40 hours a week etc) we paid an average annual wage of 81,000 a year. Are benefits package costed us another 11,000 per employee and we incurred other costs (payroll taxes etc) that added to the total employee cost for us. But that is beside the point...you should focus on the 81k. The employees we hired had minimal loans (parent help or whatever, but that is the truth) but one of the employees did have up to 70kish in loans. For the non prime location pharmacy, we paid 102,000 for a new staff pharmacist with 4 yearsish experience.

The 81k a year was the average but most were around that average. My family is not cruel...we were able to get these employees fairly easily we did not sell ourselves etc. After interviewing/hiring we found out that we could have easily paid 75k (but probably not lower) and have got these people to sign our contract. All 6 people we hired were graduates of USC/Western so I can't generalize to all schools but I can say we did get applicants from nearly all California schools we just settled on these two schools because we liked the folks and thought they would stay at our pharmacies for many years etc.

From a business perspective, we cut 6 pharmacists that were at 130ish in salary to 5 pharmacists at 81k and 1 at 102k. Substantial savings and we are getting more productive, better educated labor here. However, we don't feel good about paying the wage we do. My parents are the first to call our association networkers to try to protect pharmacy from over satuartion etc. But at the same time, they run a business and they are going to get what they can get especially in a recession when we have 2 pharmacies barely breaking even after all the costs.

My opinion on the California job outlook for Pharmacists is that it is BLEAK. Extremely extremely bleak. I am telling you 80k a year for a pharmacist wage isn't some future saturation myth...it is here now...we PAY it...that's our new rate, we don't pay a dime over 85k and won't in our new store openings either...doesn't matter about your experience. We don't need experience, we need a license (until pharmacists are able to bill for real services). I hate it, I don't like to cheapen our profession but with the margins the way they are this is what we have to do to survive. And with the new schools opening up, with cut throat people...I am telling you all...your classmates will take a job at our pharmacy for 75k. I know it for a fact. Heck some may go lower. That should scare you...it scares me!

All I can say is-- if you are pre pharmacy in California ...RE CONSIDER now until things get resolved. Lots of other healthcare professions are not having it as bad as we are right now in California.

If you are in pharmacy school -- do something to distinguish yourself. The people we still pay well are either extremely good at running a compounding operation or essentially business managers doing pharmacist staff work as an extra. Complain to the associations, the state board...anyone that will listen. GET up and GET involved fast ladies and gentleman becuase I am telling you we are in a free fall and there is an influx of graduates right now and the supply and demand is all out of whack. DONT listen to all that bull**** about MTM jobs and healthcare reform and baby boomers. This is absolute garbage. This is California...everyone wants to live here, work here etc...we have one staff Pharmacist who essentially came to California to work 25 hours a week, live in Newport Beach and die after working 30 years in Arizona. The California job market for pharmacists in prime areas is completely shot. The chains haven't dropped their new salaries yet (they're just cutting hours, benefits and bonuses etc) but they will...

As someone involved in the pharmacy business, I can tell you for a fact that in the last 2 years many people are getting into the pharmacy labor market at 85k or less. Chains are simply just not going to hire...but then what you have to go to a hospital staff pharmacy or independent or clinic and take 85k and that day where that is the standard is coming. Be careful everyone. God bless and I hope we can fight this trend, we need pharmacists to bill for clinical services and we need to stop the school openings. Do this and business owners will be happy to pay 130s and up for the pharmacist.

I would like to add to the above the negative impact of having super powerfull PBM plans pushing to pay less for rx filled and the lack of unity among the big chains to strike back. No other chain stud up against ESI but WAG. WAG played it alone. At the end everyone is going to suffer the consecuences of this lack of unity. CVS, Walmartm, Target etc...they all have accepted the new lower reimbursement rates from ESI.

Furthermore ESI is about to get even more powerfull if they finally clear out they way to merge with MEDCO! If that happens a lot of independents are going to be forced to go out of business, Then the weaker chains are going to quit offering rx like BJ´s already did. Really scary folks! So go ahead and speak out! Do everything you can to stop the trend!

 

[Its Z]

First day I posted a part time benefit position, i received 7 applications. 2 were from 2011 grads without a full time job. The pay rate range is $65 to 80 per hour. There still are good pharmacy jobs especially in hospital settings. And the vacancies will occur as it always has. It will just be more competitve. i hired a candidate with PGY2.

 

[Hello2000]

From a business perspective, we cut 6 pharmacists that were at 130ish in salary to 5 pharmacists at 81k and 1 at 102k

Wow, how can you just do that? Is it legal in the USA to just cut someone in favour of some cheaper labor?

OMG, you would get hung out to dry here in the UK and Europe!

Over this side of the pond we have very strict labor (labour in real English lol) laws that protect against things like this especially with regards to age discrimination. How can you get away with just chopping 6 pharmacists, what reasons did you give them for letting them go?

Totally dumbfounfed by this. And over here the first thing we are asked on day 1 of the job is "when would you like to take your vacation", we get 5 weeks paid vacation (holidays) time each year from day 1.

 

[Jackie B]

We have "at will" employment here which means an employee can be cut any time for any reason, likewise an employee can choose to leave anytime for any reason. Obviously this is meant to benefit the employer lol. The only place where you will have a hard time getting cut is government jobs where you basically need to break the law before you're dismissed and even then...it'll take 2 years before it comes to that. Lol

 

[Shnurek]

Wow, how can you just do that? Is it legal in the USA to just cut someone in favour of some cheaper labor?

Yeaaaa lol. America is a land of extremes and business rules this country. We have a huge population under the poverty line (46.2 million) and a separate population of extremely rich individuals. There are less socialist laws here.

 

[Hello2000]

Avoid companies that do not have pharmacy as a core business (grocers etc).

The most shrewd bet on a stable income for the rest of your life--join Wal Mart pharmacy and never look back, don't do a residency. Wal Mart will survive any chaos/change that this country's healthcare market will go through.

These last two sentences are totally contradictory. You say DON'T take a job in a grocery with a pharmacy attatched then you say TAKE a job in WaL-Mart! WaL-Mart is the biggest grocer you can get in my book. Make up your mind man!

 

[Jackie B]

Walmart is NOT primarily a grocer, like ralphs, albertsons, vons, etc. You're not fom the US....so...no offense, but what do you know?

 

[Hello2000]

I know a hell of a lot in fact, yes I am from Scotland but I am fpgee certified. I lived in hermosa beach for a year, Miami for 4 months and NYC for 3 months. I have back packed all over the States and have probably visited more states than you could name and yes I have frequented many a wal-mart in my time and in my book they are primarily a supermarket and not a pharmacy. If you do some research they operate in the UK as ASDA supermarkets and I have done some per diem work in their stores here and I can tell you they specialise in grocery more than pharmacy. Wal-mart started off in grocery then moved into everything else, hell you can even buy a hand gun in one of their stores. Try that in Europe or the UK lol, seriously your gun laws are a laughing stock throughout the whole world!!!!

Sent from my iPhone

 

[Shnurek]

I know a hell of a lot in fact, yes I am from Scotland but I am fpgee certified. I lived in hermosa beach for a year, Miami for 4 months and NYC for 3 months. I have back packed all over the States and have probably visited more states than you could name and yes I have frequented many a wal-mart in my time and in my book they are primarily a supermarket and not a pharmacy. If you do some research they operate in the UK as ASDA supermarkets and I have done some per diem work in their stores here and I can tell you they specialise in grocery more than pharmacy. Wal-mart started off in grocery then moved into everything else, hell you can even buy a hand gun in one of their stores. Try that in Europe or the UK lol, seriously your gun laws are a laughing stock throughout the whole world!!!!

Sent from my iPhone

Maybe I can mediate this Wal-Mart argument. Wal-mart is a huge conglomerate of everything you can buy. Pharmacy and more so recently, Optometry are becoming ubiquitous throughout the Wal-marts. So they are part of Wal-Mart's core. Wal-mart wants to expand more into the healthcare market.

As for your gun comment, we laugh at you guys in Europe when the criminals hold up guns to your police with their batons.

 

[confettiflyer]

hell you can even buy a hand gun in one of their stores. Try that in Europe or the UK lol, seriously your gun laws are a laughing stock throughout the whole world!!!!

what's wrong with our gun laws? i think they're TOO strict, IMO.

 

[Jackie B]

I know a hell of a lot in fact, yes I am from Scotland but I am fpgee certified. I lived in hermosa beach for a year, Miami for 4 months and NYC for 3 months. I have back packed all over the States and have probably visited more states than you could name and yes I have frequented many a wal-mart in my time and in my book they are primarily a supermarket and not a pharmacy. If you do some research they operate in the UK as ASDA supermarkets and I have done some per diem work in their stores here and I can tell you they specialise in grocery more than pharmacy. Wal-mart started off in grocery then moved into everything else, hell you can even buy a hand gun in one of their stores. Try that in Europe or the UK lol, seriously your gun laws are a laughing stock throughout the whole world!!!!

Sent from my iPhone

walmart is NOT primarily a supermarket or a grocery store, its some kind of conglomerate that sells everything, like Target, maybe even Costco. Grocery stores that later added pharmacies include ralphs, albertsons, and vons/safeway plus others depending on the state. If these stores drop their pharmacies it'll be fine because they are mainly grocers. That's the point the other person was trying to make.
I don't need to do research to know what category walmat lies in and I think most people in the US would agree with me that it is not your average grocery store. If walmart holds a different position in the UK that's different but were talking about the US here...

 

[xiphoid2010]

walmart is NOT primarily a supermarket or a grocery store, its some kind of conglomerate that sells everything, like Target, maybe even Costco. Grocery stores that later added pharmacies include ralphs, albertsons, and vons/safeway plus others depending on the state. If these stores drop their pharmacies it'll be fine because they are mainly grocers. That's the point the other person was trying to make.
I don't need to do research to know what category walmat lies in and I think most people in the US would agree with me that it is not your average grocery store. If walmart holds a different position in the UK that's different but were talking about the US here...

Its classified as a discount or department store.

 

[lamasacrerx]

The bigger concern I see in the current system is the lack of respect to the profession. George Paz ESI´s CEO just said the other day in a conference call ¨ NEXIUM is NEXIUM, LIPITOR is LIPITOR, drugs are drugs and it shouldn't matter that much [who is] counting to 30." I don´t blame him, as he problably never was inside a pharmacy line reviewing or verifying doctors orders. I blame all the big chains that accepted ESI terms knowing that the company is being run by people like Mr. Paz.
I think that we should keep educating the public about the importance of having a professional behind a pharmacy counter. We are still filling medical orders, we are not McDonals or a Burger King. The worst you can get from a bad burger is vomiting or diarrhea. On the other side we are dealing with pharmaceuticals that has a potential to put the patient health at risk. An overdose of methadone may lead to respiratory arrest, a little to much of warfarin may produce internal bleeding, meperidine in large dosis may produce seizures etc...just to say a few.
When I see patients complaining because it is taking a longer than expected to prepare their medications, I always remind them that it is for their own safety.
I keep reading in the big financial media that the medicines are soon going to become a commodity. Really? Tell that to the father of one of the child that was a victim of the most recent CVS escandal of the TAMIFLU missfilling.
It is all about to get back the respect for the profession.

 

[Hello2000]

Ok, I accept wal-mart is not primarily a supermarket. Point taken.

Anyway, your employment laws and gun control laws still suck lol :-D

Sent from my iiPhone

 

[MountainPharmD]

The bigger concern I see in the current system is the lack of respect to the profession. George Paz ESI´s CEO just said the other day in a conference call ¨ NEXIUM is NEXIUM, LIPITOR is LIPITOR, drugs are drugs and it shouldn't matter that much [who is] counting to 30." I don´t blame him, as he problably never was inside a pharmacy line reviewing or verifying doctors orders. I blame all the big chains that accepted ESI terms knowing that the company is being run by people like Mr. Paz. .

He is correct. It doesn't matter who counts the pill be it a machine, technician or the janitor. It matters that there is a pharmacist there to supervise and to provide the patient with the proper counseling. No one from Mr. Paz to Joe Public cares. Mr. Paz cares about getting a product out as cheaply as possible to maximise his companies profit. Joe public cares about getting the product as fast as possible for the cheapest price possible.

I think that we should keep educating the public about the importance of having a professional behind a pharmacy counter. We are still filling medical orders, we are not McDonals or a Burger King. The worst you can get from a bad burger is vomiting or diarrhea. On the other side we are dealing with pharmaceuticals that has a potential to put the patient health at risk. An overdose of methadone may lead to respiratory arrest, a little to much of warfarin may produce internal bleeding, meperidine in large dosis may produce seizures etc...just to say a few. .

They do not care. They want it thier way right away. You can educate all you want. In the end they have no idea what we do, could care less, and will never understand why it will take 15 minutes to fill thier script on a busy Monday when all you have to do is walk over to the shelf and put a label on it.

I keep reading in the big financial media that the medicines are soon going to become a commodity.

You are a little late to the party because prescription medications are a commodity. Its all about the delivery of a product as quickly and cheaply as possible.

 

[Shnurek]

Anyway, your employment laws and gun control laws still suck lol :-D

I think they are awesome. The best kind of laws are the ones that do not exist. You can't make blanket laws for everything. There are exceptions and gray areas to almost everything in life.

 

[psychoandy]

Ok, I accept wal-mart is not primarily a supermarket. Point taken.

Anyway, your employment laws and gun control laws still suck lol :-D

Sent from my iiPhone

Good thing this is America and if you don't like it you can get out (and go back to your home country where they ban everything except kitchen knives).

Agree about labor laws though, the culture of the US is stupid in that it's almost frowned upon to take vacation days, even when you only get 2 weeks/year. Thankfully this attitude isn't too prevalent in pharmacy.

 

[Hello2000]

Even kitchen knives are restricted for sale in UK to over 18 years, but you can buy a beer in a bar at 18 though.

I think the annual murder rate in the whole of the UK is less than that of a weekend in say DC or Detroit, you yanks are obsessed with guns and shooting and blowing up everything that moves. I think I prefer our gun laws, we still do get the odd lunatic going berserk with a gun but nothing really on the scale and frequency you guys seem to get it.

==============================================================================

Yeah the minute we start a new job we ar asked " when do you want to take your vacation (holidays in English)?". We get 5 weeks straight off plus 12 statutory days (Xmas, Easter, summer long weekends etc) all paid for by the company :-D

 

[Shnurek]

I think the annual murder rate in the whole of the UK is less than that of a weekend in say DC or Detroit, you yanks are obsessed with guns and shooting and blowing up everything that moves. I think I prefer our gun laws, we still do get the odd lunatic going berserk with a gun but nothing really on the scale and frequency you guys seem to get it.

Its mostly blacks that commit the killings:

Source: http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/race.cfm

And they usually kill other blacks. In states where it is predominantly white the gun laws are very lax as whites don't kill as much but in areas such as where I live in New York City where it is like 20-30% black it is highly restricted to own a firearm. So ya, not all "yanks" are obsessed with blowing up everything that moves but a sub-population. Except when it comes to saving you Euros from obliterating each other like in World War 2. Then its all good, you are glad to have us over

 

[confettiflyer]

oh and we ensure the survival of the British Imperial System of units, so you're welcome. Enjoy your time in the US and have a PINT of beer

 

[pezdispenser]

Hello Hello2000, how would you describe the standard of living of a pharmacist in the UK? Can you afford things like nice housing, luxury car, go on lavish 'holidays' in your 5 weeks off?

 

[Hello2000]

Hello Hello2000, how would you describe the standard of living of a pharmacist in the UK? Can you afford things like nice housing, luxury car, go on lavish 'holidays' in your 5 weeks off?

Pharmacy in the UK is pretty much in a similar state to that in the US in that it is dominated by the multiples, Boots and lloydspharmacy are our equivalent of wags and cvs, very few independents left plus we have strict control on the numbers of new openings of pharmacies so it is nigh on impossible to open an independent pharmacy of your own, the multiples have it sewn up.

There has been a rapid proliferation of new pharmacy schools over here as well leading to the same glut as you have. Jobs are becoming rarer than hens' teeth too.

I spent most of my days working as a locum pharmacist, I think you call it per diem or prn pharmacist in the US. I am an independent contractor and just go in and cover anywhere that needs me when the regular pharmacist is away at meetings, off sick, vacation time etc. I have always been pretty much in demand but have noticed things slipping recently.

Same Probs are seen here too, short staffing, no breaks, long hours, lots of stress, very busy and district managers on your back for results.

Yeah we locums all made good money but I have seen it slipping as well recently. I have travelled all over the world on vacation. As I am a self employed contractor I can take as much or as little time off as I want and last winter I spent 4 months in South Beach, Miami lazing in the sun.

A gallon of gas is over $10 here, which is mostly tax, which pays for our free social healthcare system.

 

[Shnurek]

A gallon of gas is over $10 here, which is mostly tax, which pays for our free social healthcare system.

Wow. I'll take my $3 gas thanks.

 

[Hello2000]

Its mostly blacks that commit the killings:

Source: http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/homicide/race.cfm

And they usually kill other blacks. In states where it is predominantly white the gun laws are very lax as whites don't kill as much but in areas such as where I live in New York City where it is like 20-30% black it is highly restricted to own a firearm. So ya, not all "yanks" are obsessed with blowing up everything that moves but a sub-population. Except when it comes to saving you Euros from obliterating each other like in World War 2. Then its all good, you are glad to have us over

We do have black people in the UK too you know and our violent crime rate is still considerably lower than the USA :-O

 

[confettiflyer]

A gallon of gas is over $10 here, which is mostly tax, which pays for our free social healthcare system.

so it's not really free is it, hahah

i'm typing this as i'm streaming bbc radio 1

 

[rxlea]

that hello poster reminds me of this canadian I met in switzerland... He spent a whole dinner hour bashing america. I finally told him to stfu and that, without the us, canada would be nothing. we have significantly more people to care for in this country and a highly diverse population. our politics may be polarized and like any country we have issues. If we thought the uk was so much better we wouldn't have won our independence. we have come in to bail out other countries many times but when our economy falters or we have difficult social issues to deal with you're gonna gloat about how great your country is? Get a life. I don't agree with a lot of our politics and our leaders have made mistakes but I love my country. Our citizens just need to come together to change things. And yes, I'll keep my 3 dollar a gallon gas.

 

[Shnurek]

that hello poster reminds me of this canadian I met in switzerland... He spent a whole dinner hour bashing america. I finally told him to stfu and that, without the us, canada would be nothing. we have significantly more people to care for in this country and a highly diverse population. our politics may be polarized and like any country we have issues. If we thought the uk was so much better we wouldn't have won our independence. we have come in to bail out other countries many times but when our economy falters or we have difficult social issues to deal with you're gonna gloat about how great your country is? Get a life. I don't agree with a lot of our politics and our leaders have made mistakes but I love my country. Our citizens just need to come together to change things. And yes, I'll keep my 3 dollar a gallon gas.

Great post!

A lot of people all over the world dream about living in America. This is a great country where anyone can become somebody significant if they work hard. It is a country of extremes and great freedom along with low socialistic principles that allow this freedom. I'd rather take $3 gas and pay for my own healthcare than pay $10 gas to pay for everybody's health care. As we all know there are some people that use the healthcare system disproportionately so why burden all people equally?

 

[confettiflyer]

that hello poster reminds me of this canadian I met in switzerland... He spent a whole dinner hour bashing america. I finally told him to stfu and that, without the us, canada would be nothing. we have significantly more people to care for in this country and a highly diverse population. our politics may be polarized and like any country we have issues. If we thought the uk was so much better we wouldn't have won our independence. we have come in to bail out other countries many times but when our economy falters or we have difficult social issues to deal with you're gonna gloat about how great your country is? Get a life. I don't agree with a lot of our politics and our leaders have made mistakes but I love my country. Our citizens just need to come together to change things. And yes, I'll keep my 3 dollar a gallon gas.

America:world::California::USA

It's easy to bash and everyone has an opinion...but that's what's so funny about it, we're that important in the world that everyone has an opinion. You don't see people complaining about....liberia.

Where there's turmoil and issues, there is change, and where there is change, there is opportunity. I'll take my dysfunctional country any day if it means creativity is rewarded, not simply showing up for work.

 

[Hello2000]

Apologies, not trying to bash the USA, it's a great place for diversity and of course the FL weather lol. Just trying to highlight differences between our two societies. If I sounded like I was bashing it was also at my own country too. How can anyone gloat about paying $10 for gas, it sucks!!!!!

I've always said that we should have a more privatised health as system such as you have in the USA. Anything that is "free" to the end user always gets abused and we get people who visit their Doctor with the most minor symptoms like a broken nail :-o All the governments know it's a **** system we have but they also know that if they try to privatise our healthcare system they would lose the next election.

I have never felt scared or threatened in the many times I have visited the USA, even being drunk on the NYC subway on my own in the wee small hour of the morning. I find that the fear of crime in the USA is worse than crime itself. My cousin in FL won't leave the house at night without her handgun and she has a handgun in the glove box of her car at all times. Never once has she had to use either of them. She is just paranoid.

My point was that being able to buy handguns in a supermarket is totally alien to us Europeans. In uk it's not allowable to sell cigarettes or candy in a pharmacy as they are bad for your health.

God Bless America :-D

 

[pezdispenser]

whoa... I just want to thank Hello2000 for replying to my question. I didn't mean to provoke anyone.

 

[rxlea]

Apologies, not trying to bash the USA, it's a great place for diversity and of course the FL weather lol. Just trying to highlight differences between our two societies. If I sounded like I was bashing it was also at my own country too. How can anyone gloat about paying $10 for gas, it sucks!!!!!

I've always said that we should have a more privatised health as system such as you have in the USA. Anything that is "free" to the end user always gets abused and we get people who visit their Doctor with the most minor symptoms like a broken nail :-o All the governments know it's a **** system we have but they also know that if they try to privatise our healthcare system they would lose the next election.

I have never felt scared or threatened in the many times I have visited the USA, even being drunk on the NYC subway on my own in the wee small hour of the morning. I find that the fear of crime in the USA is worse than crime itself. My cousin in FL won't leave the house at night without her handgun and she has a handgun in the glove box of her car at all times. Never once has she had to use either of them. She is just paranoid.

My point was that being able to buy handguns in a supermarket is totally alien to us Europeans. In uk it's not allowable to sell cigarettes or candy in a pharmacy as they are bad for your health.

God Bless America :-D

The threats against women are much more than those against men. I don't blame her for having the gun, especially if she lives alone.

 

[BidingMyTime]

The threats against women are much more than those against men. I don't blame her for having the gun, especially if she lives alone.

Good point, and something that most men really don't understand.

 

[Lnsean]

I don't understand why everyone is flaming the OP.

Because it's not human nature to accept criticisms or the fact that you've been working hard all these years for a bleaker future than you had envisioned.

 

[Hello2000]

As I told you I love USA and here in UK we have some weird and wonderful laws too, but don't you think it is like taking a sledgehammer to crack a walnut?

Taking a gun out on the street and mixing them with alcohol is asking for trouble, I have no problem at all with your gun control laws, I just find them rather strange for a modern, westernised economy such as the USA.

Lack of gun control is usually associated with less developed and Arab or Muslim countries such as Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. You only have to watch the news at night to see people parading around the streets toting guns in these afore mentioned countries. And no the USA is not comparable to this but I see no need for guns on the street in any form of society.

But again it's your country and you can do whatever you like :-D

 

[Jackie B]

As I told you I love USA and here in UK we have some weird and wonderful laws too, but don't you think it is like taking a sledgehammer to crack a walnut?

Taking a gun out on the street and mixing them with alcohol is asking for trouble, I have no problem at all with your gun control laws, I just find them rather strange for a modern, westernised economy such as the USA.

Lack of gun control is usually associated with less developed and Arab or Muslim countries such as Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. You only have to watch the news at night to see people parading around the streets toting guns in these afore mentioned countries. And no the USA is not comparable to this but I see no need for guns on the street in any form of society.

But again it's your country and you can do whatever you like :-D

Depends on the state too. I live in CA (which this original post was about, lol) and we don't have gun culture here, people don't drive around with guns or carry it on them and I've never seen a gun or had a conversation regarding a gun, except when it comes to gun law talk like this post. Honestly I completely forget guns are legal in this country unless a foreigner brings it up...I studied abroad in France for a semester and that was the first thing anyone asked when I mentioned I was from the US. It was funny because I never even THINK about guns, and that's the only thing I got asked about! I guess it's the same when I tell people I'm from Los Angeles and they want to know how many movie stars I've seen....it's 0....lol....just stereotypes and hype.

 

[Shnurek]

Most people in America don't really own guns or think about guns. They just go about their lives without them. Although people in rural areas that use guns for hunting or sport or other purposes might be more exposed to them they are not usually the ones that commit the gun crimes. The crimes are usually committed by a sub-population of urbanites as I aforementioned. It is sad and a big problem in our society here in the U.S. Of course there are minorities of those individuals that contribute to society, a great majority continue not to care and just use social programs to abuse taxpayers money. That is why we limit socialist programs here. We know a great amount of people will just abuse them.

Degradation of American society: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IGfe2tAUbM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzspsovNvII&T=1m30s

 

[confettiflyer]

Lack of gun control is usually associated with less developed and Arab or Muslim countries such as Syria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan etc. You only have to watch the news at night to see people parading around the streets toting guns in these afore mentioned countries. And no the USA is not comparable to this but I see no need for guns on the street in any form of society.

Well you have to look at history as well. Our country was founded on distrust and distaste for government (oddly enough, your country's gov't at the time, haha) and we enshrined into our most basic legal rights the right to bear arms, right alongside the right the free speech and religious freedom.

gun rights and personal freedom are intertwined.

the idea that government should fear its people, not the other way around, is still alive here. one of the mechanisms to keep that relationship in check is to allow the population to maintain arms.

sounds barbaric, but it's something to think about.

 

[confettiflyer]

Depends on the state too. I live in CA (which this original post was about, lol) and we don't have gun culture here, people don't drive around with guns or carry it on them and I've never seen a gun or had a conversation regarding a gun, except when it comes to gun law talk like this post. Honestly I completely forget guns are legal in this country unless a foreigner brings it up...I studied abroad in France for a semester and that was the first thing anyone asked when I mentioned I was from the US. It was funny because I never even THINK about guns, and that's the only thing I got asked about! I guess it's the same when I tell people I'm from Los Angeles and they want to know how many movie stars I've seen....it's 0....lol....just stereotypes and hype.

QFT...i've never owned a gun and yeah sometimes i forget i can go out and buy one (pending background check). Granted I have better things to buy with my limited student funds.

Same with the death penalty...I forgot we have it, we execute so few criminals it's practically useless here.

 

[Ackj]

Well you have to look at history as well. Our country was founded on distrust and distaste for government (oddly enough, your country's gov't at the time, haha) and we enshrined into our most basic legal rights the right to bear arms, right alongside the right the free speech and religious freedom.

gun rights and personal freedom are intertwined.

the idea that government should fear its people, not the other way around, is still alive here. one of the mechanisms to keep that relationship in check is to allow the population to maintain arms.

sounds barbaric, but it's something to think about.

I always found that historical side interesting, because of how the Civil War turned out. "we support standing up to the government" "take that you dirty rednecks! that'll teach you to disagree!"

The other thing about "gun control" is that the majority of gun violence is committed by people who did not legally possess the weapon. I don't recall what the statistic is, but it kind of makes the law irrelevant if these criminals will be armed regardless of what the rules are.

 

[kevchen]

This is really scary actually... what other jobs would you suggest if I just graduated from college with a Bachelor's in Chemistry? This is really disappointing, but thanks for the heads up.

 

[Rph888]

This is really scary actually... what other jobs would you suggest if I just graduated from college with a Bachelor's in Chemistry? This is really disappointing, but thanks for the heads up.

hey its actually good...get head out of sand better late than never.

be a chem teacher, or science teacher.

read up on cal northstate rx school too.

 

[reggiesuerte]

The sorry facts are simple: there are NO JOBS at any salary! If you want proof, check out what people are writing on the web. Here is an example: http://www.indeed.com/forum/job/pharmacist/Lies-about-pharmacist-job-market/t264349/p3

OR, just do a search for pharmacist jobs in, for example, New York, NY. MONSTER.com lists 10 pharmacist positions in New York, NY, which is an area with a population of close to 12 million people. http://jobsearch.monster.com/search/pharmacist_5?where=New-York__2C-NY

So, think you will get a job? Good luck!