It’s been roughly three years since I graduated from pharmacy school and became a pharmacist and figured it was time for an update on my career as a retail pharmacist.

Looking through my archives, I’ve written only 3 total updates on my pharmacy career in the three years since I started this blog out of 76 total posts. It’s not that I have nothing to say on my career, but rather, I’ve really come to view my career as a means to an end. It’s my ticket to financial independence.

That’s not to say that I hate my career. While, yes, I did write a post on why I regretted becoming a pharmacist, I have to backtrack and say that I wrote that at a very emotional time very early in my career. I’m sure with any career, most people find themselves facing an adjustment period from being a full time student to a full time employee.

While I’m not saying that everything is now peachy perfect, I have to say that 3 years in, I think I’m actually in the best place I’ve been as a pharmacist. 

Looking at the big picture, over these 3 years, my views on my career have been  full of ups and downs. I was laid off 5 months after becoming a pharmacist, I regretted becoming a pharmacist 10 months into the career, I updated my status 1 year in, where I’ve found things I love about my career, and I went back to feeling burned out roughly 2 years into working at retail pharmacy. Needless to say, I had my share of ups and downs.

The Best

Hands down, the best thing to have happened since I stuck around in my career is seeing myself climb slowly out of my six figure $171,000 starting student debt. I saw myself getting out of six figure debt, to having $0 net worth, to having more assets than liabilities, and even on par to getting to my goal of $100k net worth by the end of this year. 

The biggest surprise is that I am still a retail pharmacist, which I think no one is more surprised than myself. 

If you had told a then-pharmacy-student me that 3 years into being a pharmacist that I’d be on my 3rd year of being a retail pharmacist I’d have called BS on that. During my first stint into retail pharmacy as a pharmacy student on her first rotation, I hated retail! I hated being on my feet all day, I hated being around people all day, and I hated the metrics we had to deal with all day.

But it just goes to show how adaptable we all are. The cynics will just say that I’ve gotten brainwashed and grown passive in my pursuit of getting out of retail. And while they’re not completely wrong and that I have gotten passive in my job search, it’s because I’m more picky about the job I am willing to take.

It’s because I’ve come to enjoy my work environment that I am not willing to settle and switch to another job unless I know it will be a better experience for me. I’ve even come to appreciate being on my feet all day instead of sitting as I’m usually able to get my 5,000 steps in during the workday.

Luck of course plays a huge part in this. I’m currently and have been a staff pharmacist in a low-medium volume store with a great team. I have a manager that actually likes to work night shifts and weekend shifts (unheard of!) which actually allows me to have most weekends off and an almost 9-6 shift every day. So that took care of the work-life balance that I thought wouldn’t be possible in retail.

My team, including my technicians, are not newbies and with all of us having worked with each other now for over 2 years together, most days we have a routine set in place. We know our duties and our roles, we know our personalities and quirks, and we know how to work together to get things done. 

That’s not to say I simply fell into this unicorn store. I had to work hard as a floater pharmacist to build good rapport that eventually allowed me to become a staff pharmacist. And since becoming a staff pharmacist, it has been and continues to be a work in progress to train new technicians to be where they are now and to build a system that works for us. 

We too, have had our shares of new hires to train and small issues working alongside each other that had to be resolved. But when I think about it, that’s what makes my job so hard to leave now. I came in for the pay, but I am staying because of the team.

Spending 8 hours a day with these people, they are like my second family now. I definitely spend more time with them than I do with my own family.

And as the months pass by and turn to years, customers start to become more than just a number. I start to recognize them and after consulting them regarding their medications, I start to remember their concerns and soon they become familiar faces. Before I know it, I’m invested in their health, acknowledging them by name and having conversations with them about their lives when they come in. Never would I imagine that I would miss my customers if I chose to leave retail.

Of course, everything I said in my 1 year update as a pharmacist still applies to balance out both the good and the bad. The unattainable metrics are still there, the rude/angry customers will never go away, I just won’t repeat it here since my sentiment since then has not changed since that post.

The Future

While my time in retail has now become manageable (and dare I say on some days, enjoyable!) and I no longer dread getting up in the morning for the day that is to come at work, that’s not to say, I never thought of leaving retail these past 3 years. Throughout these 3 years, I continued to apply for jobs that interested me and even went on a couple of interviews.

I came the closest to leaving as I mentioned in my March update. But it was for a part time position and they didn’t even know if they could offer me more than a day/week on some weeks which was too scary for me. I thought the  interview went well but I kept pressing them on to let me know how many hours they would be able to guarantee or if I would have a set schedule so I could coordinate working part time at retail. I think it was too much for them and they decided to go with another candidate. It was sad as this was the closest I’d been to my dream job but surprisingly I felt ok. 

I knew I had already secured a good job (for the time being) working 32-40 hours a week and didn’t want to risk anything during COVID-19 as job security may be a thing of the past.

We are all seeing hours cut at retail now which I can only imagine is the same elsewhere too. Starting this month, some weeks I’m only averaging 30 hours/week now which while I am bummed about, I realize could be much worse. At least I still have a job. It’s definitely an adjustment from my 40 hour/week I’ve been getting all year long.

I hope that once I reach $100k net worth, I will have more courage to pursue a different career path because although I have been settling quite nicely as a retail pharmacist, I still don’t see myself in it for the rest of my career.

While I am pursuing FIRE (financial independence/retire early movement), realistically that won’t happen for at least another 5 years (at best for lean FIRE!) and I cannot see myself staying in retail for another 5 years.

If hours continue to be cut and I am getting any less than 30 hours, I definitely won’t hesitate to switch boats if a better opportunity comes. While I have come to enjoy the team I work with, I am by no means deluded enough to think that I am anything else but a replaceable number to the company. So given the chance for a better opportunity, I won’t hesitate to take it.

I guess I’m just writing it here as a promise to myself that I will be more courageous the next time an opportunity comes knocking on my door. Until then… the grind continues.