Being a pharmacist is going to depend on the perspective of the pharmacist you talk to. Many who are stuck in the grind of retail pharmacies that are pushing larger workloads with fewer staff pharmacists may feel burnt out. Luckily for me, that is not a career burden I had to endure. Certainly, new students who are about to graduate may be stressed out about the residency they feel like they have to get into to get the job they want. I felt like that for a time as well. However, I ended up not taking that path and instead of going into the workforce without a residency.

I started in a mail-order pharmacy and moved into the organization that showed me the whole other side of what a pharmacist could do which meant a business-related role. My path lead me down the e-prescribing path that meant I was able to work with many health IT companies and organizations. That has let my career growth and my network expand vastly. I now enjoy my days of working from home working on business development and product innovation.

I have also taken my skills and created a business helping patients understand how to save money on medications as a side hustle. My career has been diverse and has been so much more than just the day in and day out of a retail pharmacy job. Most students don’t understand there are so many roles like this available to pharmacists. The best part is we don’t have to have a residency to qualify for this type of career path.

I have always also kept up with my clinical knowledge by working in an inpatient hospital pharmacy as a moonlighting job. The great thing is that job helps me keep my perspective on how much more freedom and opportunity I have in my business role. The staff pharmacist job is fine but can be overwhelming with more and more duties being added all the time.

Physical Therapist Aide – Jasmine Marcus

I was a physical therapist aide for over a year before going to PT school. Now I am a physical therapist. As an aide, each day was slightly different. … Read More