Advice for a 15 year old

[jIM_Ohio]

How do you become a pharmacist? What is the time and schooling involved? What are the majority of classes in? What is it that should interest you and should you be good at to be a pharmacist?

4 year bachelors degree is my guess, with lots of classes in chem and bio type fields, similar to pre-med.

I'm an engineer, so not sure on details.

[Broken Arrow]

Yeah this caught my curiosity as well, so here you go.

[jIM_Ohio]

Yeah this caught my curiosity as well, so here you go.

that was interesting.

One thing to think about is Pharmcists need to work when Pharmecies are open (weekends and holidays). My BIL is a store manager for Sam's club, and makes much more than I do (he clears 6 figures easy). He works 10-12 hour days this time of year, which included being AT work at 3:00 am the day after Thanksgiving. He has to work xmas eve and misses some other family events, and also misses seeing his kids on Saturdays because he works then too.

In my case, when I leave work on Friday, I don't even think about it again until Monday morning.

You have to decide lifestyle along with occupation.

[Scanner]

JimOhio,

I know a pharmacist who went to chiro. school with me. Because the chiro. market is so rough right now, he had to go back into pharmacy (he just didn't have the small business mindset and risk tolerance).

I keep in contact with him every once in awhile and I often say,

"Well damn. . .what's so bad? You had a great career to fall back on. Okay, yes, you wasted those years but at least you aren't ruined."

But he's miserable (maybe just reflective of the person he is - he's divorced - this isn't necessarily a career thing).

He says, "I go into work as a pharmacist. Day in. Day out. Same thing. Same B.S. No thanks. No appreciation. Not even an 'attaboy'."

I just don't get it but you are right - happiness in career is so relative.

It's the same thing with my nurse patients. I can't think of any profession more in demand right now than nursing.

But all of them in my practice seem to be the most miserable people in their jobs you'd ever want to meet. . .and some of the highly specialized ones make more money than me, I'm sure of it.

I'm not sure if it's a female issue - being pulled away from kids (guilt for working).

What a balance it is to strike - you don't want to just blindly follow the advice of "Golly gee. . .do what you want to do. Be an artist or musician."

But at the same time, if you just let the market decide everything, it seems to lead to some level of misery.

It was so taboo to talk about differences in male and females in the 80's. Feminists assumed females were the same as males. But that seems to be changing.

This is why I asked the gender of the Original Poster. If she's female - I would recommend doing something that will be "family friendly" as someday, it is likely you'll be pregnant.

Okay, feminists strike me down for saying this now

[zetta]

I'm a female software engineer, and I would caution against a 15 year old girl choosing her career based on what is currently "family-friendly" -- the heavily female careers tend to be lower-paying.

Instead, choose a career based on your skills and passions. Spend college and 7-10 years getting really good at what you do, making a reputation for yourself, and saving money. Then you will be in a position to either take a couple of years off when your kids are small, negotiate part-time status with an employer who values your skills, or retrain and switch careers (with a big chunk of money from your higher-paying career already saved and invested.) Employers may well offer better work/life balance options in 15 years than they do today, so don't necessarily settle for the lower paying "family friendly" jobs now.

[jIM_Ohio]

I'm a female software engineer, and I would caution against a 15 year old girl choosing her career based on what is currently "family-friendly" -- the heavily female careers tend to be lower-paying.

Instead, choose a career based on your skills and passions. Spend college and 7-10 years getting really good at what you do, making a reputation for yourself, and saving money. Then you will be in a position to either take a couple of years off when your kids are small, negotiate part-time status with an employer who values your skills, or retrain and switch careers (with a big chunk of money from your higher-paying career already saved and invested.) Employers may well offer better work/life balance options in 15 years than they do today, so don't necessarily settle for the lower paying "family friendly" jobs now.

Passion is GREAT advice. My passion is soccer, and it's tough to make a living at it... but after coaching for free for around 6 years, I now take home close to 20k per year coaching.

So when choosing a college and choosing a major- follow what is close to you- something you are good at and something you enjoy. They might be different things, but grow BOTH of them.

I am quite good at math and some engineering things- that skill pays my salary.

I love soccer and that keeps me busy (when I am not posting here) and also provides extra income.

It is very possible I stop working and do soccer full time, or I stop working and do financial planning full time, once a few other wrinkles in life work themselves out by age 40.

[xdork4lifex]

How do you become a pharmacist? What is the time and schooling involved? What are the majority of classes in? What is it that should interest you and should you be good at to be a pharmacist?

Pharmacy is a second entry program, meaning you have to do some undergraduate work before applying to a pharmacy school. In the US, the degree you need is a Pharm.D or a Ph.d in pharmacy. I believe that most people who are in pharmacy school did 2-4 years of undergraduate work prior to getting in. Like someone mentioned, you have to be good in the sciences (pre-reqs are things like organic chemistry, physical chemistry, biology, physics) and I personally think it's important to have good verbal skills. In pharmacy school, we take lots of general bio courses like anatomy, physiology, microbiology, immunology and as well as more pharmacy related courses like pharmaceutics, medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, etc etc.

To the person who had a friend who hated pharmacy, I totally understand where you are coming from. I know tons of pharmacists who are burnt out and complain about not being "respected" but I personally think that respect has to be earned. If you show your patients that you are knowledgeable and genuinely care about them, they will respect you. Given how busy physicians are, pharmacists are often the only healthcare professionals that a lot of people have access to. If you are good at what you do, you can really make a difference in some people's lives. In addition, I live in Canada and in some provinces, pharmacists now have limited prescribing rights and are being reimbursed for performing cognitive services, such as medication reviews. I think that the profession is trying to take on a bigger role than just the traditional "count, pour, lick and stick".

Also, if someone is truly unhappy working in retail, they can work in hospitals where they take on an active role as drug experts. They can work in industry, doing R & D. They can get a law degree and work in patent law. They can do an MBA and work for a big pharmaceutical company. I think that your career will only be what you make of it, and sitting around and complaining won't make it any better.

I also think that someone else made mention of jobs that female dominated being inferior. I am female, and one of the main reasons why I chose pharmacy is because of the flexibility it provides. I was originally planning on going to medical school, but after the 8 years of schooling + residency, I would be over 30 before I could get a real job. This way, I'll be done school at 24 and will have the opportunity to focus on other aspects of life.

Hehe, I'm sorry for being so pro-pharmacy, but I just think there are a lot of negative conceptions out there about pharmacists so I just thought I'd add my two cents. I'll shut up now

[gackle]

My 2 cents of advise for choosing a career is choose something that you love to do. I think it's safe to say that more people than not that are financially successful are passionate about what they do. Work is no longer work if you love what you do; it makes it even better when a paycheck comes with it! I see people everyday at work in their own personal prison sentence because they hate their job. Who wants to drag themselves out of bed every morning to a job they hate? I would advise to go for a career that you can enjoy, but still earn a comfortable living. If it happens to be one of the high-paying careers, well then more power to you. What Color is Your Parachute is a great book to help you figure out what you enjoy and point you towards how you can make money doing it. Best of luck to you. You've got such a great head start on most of your other peers.

[myself]

Whatt differnt bank acounts should I open

Personally I'd have to suggest a savings account (like EmigrantDirect.com or ING Direct.com). Both have $1 minimum deposit so that shouldn't be too hard. A checking account (to pay your bills).

As for what to do with your earnings. Here's are 2 thoughts:

• 30% savings, which should be split between short term (i.e. savings account, money market), long term (i.e. laddered CDs, stock market brokerage account, investment properties).
• 5% fun money (movies, new gadgets, etc.).
• 30% housing expenses (even if you're staying at home, start saving a lot for your first house).
• 15% transportation costs (i.e. car, gas, insurance).
• 25% taxes (i.e. federal, state, local)

The 2nd thought (save everything and live off of investments):

• 25% taxes (i.e. federal, state, local)
• 75% investment (i.e. savings, CDs, brokerage, investment properties, etc.)
• If you were spending $500/month to spend, you'd have to save up $120,000 if you earned 5%, however if you had saved $120,000 and could earn 8% on it, you'd be getting $800/month in interest from it.

[myself]

As for the "what to do" as a job.

Wherever your passion is. If you're passionate about clothing design, go for it.
Whatever you do, keep pushing for your passion.