In 2008, only one student was still seeking work when the university surveyed the graduating class by 2012, that number had grown to eight students, and by 2013, to 12. These days, the range is from one to three offers per graduate. In 2008, graduates got up to eight offers in 2009, up to 12. By and large, the numbers are impressive-from salaries to unemployment statistics. Purdue University, whose pharmacy school is ranked as one of the best in the nation, makes employment information about its graduates publicly available. The days of signing bonuses and vast job choices were over. Slowly, the numbers began to even out, and 2009 marked a turning point: The number of jobs available was roughly on par with the number of pharmacists searching for work. No matter where in the country a young pharmacist wanted to settle, the number of jobs available far exceeded the number of people qualified to fill them. Nicholas Popovich, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy, tells me that, “Some signing bonuses even involved a car, that type of thing.”Īt first, graduates found work easily. Even as the economy struggled in the mid-aughts, pharmacy graduates easily found big salaries, 9-to-5 jobs, and the respect that came along with handling medications. A predicted shortage of pharmacists over the last decade, combined with an expected expansion of the pharmacist’s role in medical care, made it a lucrative career path. Pak’s mother was not alone in urging her child to pursue this career: All across America, teenagers were making similar calculations. John’s University, and began his degree there the following year. He was admitted to the PharmD program at St. Though he had originally wanted to study acting, Pak agreed that pharmacy was the more responsible choice. His family had struggled financially during his childhood, and his mother, an immigrant from South Korea, had heard about the career’s upsides: prestige, a professional degree, and a six-figure salary, all before his 25th birthday. Steven Pak was 17 when he committed to six years of pharmacy school in 2010.
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