The Happy PharmD Blog
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Six Points That Help Your Pharmacy Staff Achieve a Successful Pharmacy Inspection
Back in high school, I had several substitute teachers. In order to get out early, I sometimes set the clock ahead 10 minutes fast. It seldom worked. When it did, the teacher saw the clock, didn’t realize it was set fast, and let the class leave early. I always...
Be Happy and Be a Pharmacist: How You Can Become Both, Again
Prior to reaching out to The Happy PharmD for guidance, Shama was a compounding pharmacy supervisor at a fertility company. She learned a lot of great things at the beginning; it felt like a whirlwind with organizational things to accomplish and patients to take care...
The 2019 Pharmacist Salary Guide
Looking for the 2022 Pharmacist Salary Guide? Click here. It appears that 2018 brought some much-needed good news to pharmacists. Salary.com reports that as of October 31, 2018, the average pharmacist salary in the U.S. was $129,718, with a range between $121,998 and...
Many Paths of Pharmacy
Ultimate Guide to Pharmacy Career Opportunities Not all pharmacy career opportunities are created equal. If you have a PharmD degree, your career options are vast and varied. From traditional pharmacy jobs to non-traditional jobs outside of the industry, your hard...
How to Find a Pharmacy Job After Graduation
No one can guarantee you'll find a pharmacy job after graduation. In fact, if you're tracking the statistics, the supply of pharmacists has steadily outpaced demand for several years. As new graduates flood the marketplace every year, the competition for existing jobs...
4 Questions to Consider Before Firing Pharmacy Employees
Firing pharmacy employees has never been one of my favorite tasks but it has always been necessary as part of my job. I try to seek alternatives in place of firing people because I consider it the final measure. I’ve fired several people during my career, but only...
The Investment That Can Impact Your Entire Pharmacy Career
The 2019 pharmacy residency application process has officially opened. You and thousands of other fourth-year students must begin the difficult task of assembling a bulletproof residency application packet while you continue to do the day-to-day work of...
Six Simple Steps: How to Find a Pharmacist Job
In 2000, the US Department of Health and Human Services predicted a shortage of pharmacists. In a study titled, The Pharmacist Workforce: A Study of the Supply and Demand for Pharmacists, HHS pointed to an “unprecedented demand for pharmacists,” and an “increased use...
Get off the Fence: How a Career Coach can help you transition away from a Pharmacist position but remain in the pharmacy field
I recently sat down with my client Tracy Dabbs to discuss how the services we provide at The Happy PharmD helped her transition into a more fulfilling career. Tracy loves being a pharmacist and had worked in the pharmacy industry for more than 15 years before losing...
The Pharmacy Side Hustle: How to Turn Your Expertise into Income
Success Story: From Community Pharmacist to Pharmacy Consultant
From Unemployed to Employed Pharmacist in 4 Steps: What to do NOW to get the Job
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that the growth of pharmacy jobs over the next eight years would be slower than average. And no one should be surprised. It is no secret that pharmacy layoffs are happening all over the country at a time when there...
Understanding Pharmacy Job Trends and What They Mean For Your Career
The good news for pharmacists is that the job market appears to be holding steady, although many pharmacists don’t “feel” like opportunities are available. What I aim to show you is where the demand for pharmacists lie, where the over-supply is, and lastly,...
Most Valuable Takeaways From the FIP Congress in Glasgow
3 Facts About Pharmacist Shortages and the Current Surplus
The pharmacist surplus is an ongoing struggle for our industry. The surplus has existed for more than a decade, and it shows no sign of resolving itself. Everyone says, “There are too many pharmacists,” but I find this isn’t based on facts but subjective feelings...
Why Do So Many Pharmacists Experience So Much Stress?
Every job has stress. Given that the definition of stress is “strain or tension resulting from adverse or very demanding circumstances,” it isn’t a stretch to assume that work and stress almost always co-exist. While every job has stressful aspects, though, not every...
I Left My Traditional Pharmacy Job To Help You Do the Same
Personal Branding: Getting Started
Personal branding: where do we get started with this nebulous concept? Alex and I are interested in helping pharmacists create a personal brand that helps you: Stand out amongst the crowd in a way that does not compromise the authentic you. We want you to embrace your...
How I Left My Six-Figure Pharmacist Job to Hustle My Six-Figure Business
People ask me all the time how I made this transition, I suspect because they assume I had access to resources and help they don’t have access to. Many people are surprised to find that my story initially started the same way theirs did and that the key for me was...
5 Ways to Maximize Your Time Spent on LinkedIn
5 Ways to Maximize Your Time Spent on LinkedIn Is LinkedIn "just another social media platform"? "Is spending time on LinkedIn worth it?" "Where do I even start with LinkedIn?" I would argue that LinkedIn may be the most underutilized, inexpensive, and user-friendly...
5 Immediate Steps For Pharmacists Seeking More From Their Work
By most people’s estimations, you’re stuck. You’ve invested time and money into this pharmacy career that suddenly feels wrong; and you make such a great salary, walking away seems crazy. You can’t imagine staying and you can’t imagine leaving. I’ve been where you...
Pharmacist Suicide Risk: What We Know and Don’t Know
It’s no secret that pharmacists have work stress. What you may not know is the truth about pharmacist suicide risk. Anecdotally, I hear pharmacists saying, “burnout runs rampant through the pharmacy industry,” just as it does through other healthcare...
A Brief History of the Drive-Thru Pharmacy – Who Created It and How it Spread
Gary Clinton doesn’t think of himself as an innovator. He simply saw an opportunity to buy an existing space for his business venture, and he took it. The bank-turned-pharmacy building had a drive-thru window, so he incorporated the drive-thru into his pharmacy...
From Feeling Overwhelmed to Feeling in Alignment with Her Values
I recently sat down with Brittany to talk about what her experience with our coaching at The Happy PharmD. First, we started by reflecting on where she was as we started her journey. Brittany told me, “I felt very overwhelmed with my job.” While she felt trapped in...
The Ultimate Guide To Student Loan Repayment For New Pharmacists
You’ve worked hard to graduate from pharmacy school. Now, even though the hard work is finished, the challenges are just beginning. Somehow, you have to begin the process of paying off your pharmacy student loans. Given that the average pharmacy student accumulates...
Know Thyself: 7 Self-Assessment Tests To Take Before Your Next Interview
If you're in the job search, a few easy things that will make you stand out are 1) having strong self-awareness 2) fitting in with the team and 3) being about to tell others about your strengths as well as how you behave in typical work environments (note:...
How to Guarantee You’ll Hire the Right Pharmacist
Finding the right pharmacist for the right pharmacy position isn’t easy, but it’s crucially important. Lester Nathan, known as the Pharmacy Sage, understands the importance of the interview process because he has spent years helping pharmacists on both sides of the...
How One Pharmacist Launched Herself Into a New Career Trajectory
Recently, I sat down with my coaching client Liz to recap her story and journey through our coaching experience. Liz reached out to us at The Happy PharmD because she was feeling stuck in her career. "I felt like I had made all the wrong choices." She explained that...
Pharmacy Manager Proves You Can Manage Side Projects While Working Full Time
I recently had a conversation with Carlos Irula, a pharmacy manager with Kroger Pharmacy in Frisco, TX. Carlos graduated from the University of Louisiana at Monroe in 2014 and has since launched a side business called Care Commute. He’s a great example of how...
An Open Letter to My Future Self
Disclaimer: This is not a typical HappyPharmD post. It was inspired by something I saw and started thinking very deeply about what I would want to tell myself in the future. I hope you consider writing the same letter. 🙂 Dear Future Self, I hope this letter finds...
Pharmacy Students Develop Phone App to Improve Adherence
Medication non-adherence plagues pharmacists in all kinds of settings. Sometimes patients don’t fully understand their instructions because they’re distracted at the pharmacy. Sometimes they forget their instructions and simply need a reminder. In some cases, the...
How to Enter Pharmacy Informatics Without an Residency
This is a special guest post by YouTuber Brian Fung, PharmD. He made a video on the subject, and together we collaborated to make it into a wonderfully instructive article. Here's Brian's bio: Brian K. Fung, PharmD, BCPS is a Medication Management Informaticist...
5 Easy Ways to Start Using LinkedIn More Effectively
By now, you likely have a LinkedIn profile, you have occasional connection requests come into your notification box, you scroll through your newsfeed occasionally and "like" posts, and you update your LinkedIn profile when you make a career transition. Is this enough?...
Pharmacy Student Advice I Wish Someone Told Me
With great power comes great responsibility. A favorite (and overused) spider-man quote. Like something your mom has told you a thousand times. I love spider-man. He is my favorite superhero. Young, intelligent, and fresh to his new responsibilities. But in your...
How To Tackle Pharmacy Student Loans So You Can Experience Your Pharmacist Salary
20 Tips for Conference Travel
If you're like me, you love conference travel. If you're not like me, then this may be all uncharted territory. I'm currently at the AACP conference until Tuesday (and would love to meet up if you're here!) and have a bit of free time due to #13 (see below). If you're...
How Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Sparked a Unexpected Career Change
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu s a system of ground fighting concepts and techniques that enable a smaller, weaker person to successfully defend themselves against a larger, stronger assailant. Studying jiu jitsu can provide benefits for pharmacists beyond self defense; it can...
Relationships Over Network Connections – A Case Study
I'm a man who's committed all the networking crimes. I was a part of an MLM (oh boy, I won’t start with my mistakes)I sent unsolicited Facebook messages to inquire strangers if they were interested in my email newsletter. I sent LinkedIn connection requests without...
Why I Paid Off All My Debt Before Focusing on Investing
For pharmacists, deciding how to tackle massive student loan debt is daunting. There’s a unique financial balance between focusing on debt or investing. I learned at a very early age that investing in the stock market was ideal for everyone. My grandfather, who had...
The Pharmacist Salary Guide 2018
Looking for the 2022 Pharmacist Salary Guide? Click here. 2018 Pharmacist Salary Of all the factors that contribute to pharmacists’ employment decisions, salary is one of the biggest. In simplest terms, a pharmacist salary is unique in that pharmacists often...
The Tough Lessons One Pharmacist Learned About Franchise Ownership and Failure
A Short Review of LinkedIn Premium
Anyone notice that little button in the upper right-hand corner of their LinkedIn main page that says "Upgrade to Premium"? I've thought about it before, I've received messages directly from LinkedIn offering this free upgrade, I've clicked through the benefits to...
Want a pharmacy job? Become the answer to a company’s problem
Pharmacist Resume VS CV – What’s the Difference?
Multi-passionate
As a multi-passionate, I find it difficult to narrow down just exactly what I want to 'do with my life'. Perhaps this resonates with you: I love many things. I love helping people. Many things help people. I want to do all of the things. A few tenets I've found to be...
The Your Financial Pharmacist Student Loan Course Review
Student loans create a self-made prison. For pharmacists, the problem is especially huge. Those who have $100,000 in student loan debt could be paying $2,000 a month to their loans, with half of that going to interest. Given that the average pharmacist carries...
The One Thing Your Resume is Missing
OK, let's say you're at a place where you are motivated to make a change from your current position and you've applied for many jobs online. Ten, twenty, fifty... who's counting? You've heard nothing back, at this point, of substance. ::Radio Silence:: What you may...
How the PharmD Unveiled the World of Financial Independence and Entrepreneurism
This is a guest post from Rineil Perez PharmD. He shares how his community pharmacy position lead him to jump into entrepreneurship outside of pharmacy. As far back as I can remember, I was always interested in earning money and building wealth. I was naive about...
Coaching Client Finds Courage To Pursue What Makes Her Happy
This Could Be The Only Thing Holding You Back
When I talk with pharmacists who reach out to us here at the Happy PharmD, many conversations lead to a common question: What's holding you back from making a change? If we really get deep into the conversation, if the person is ready to open up and be vulnerable with...
The Key Ingredient Necessary for Pharmacists to Use LinkedIn Effectively
The 2018 Pharmacist Salary Guide
Of all the factors that contribute to pharmacists’ employment decisions, salary is one of the biggest. In simplest terms, pharmacist salaries are unique in that pharmacists often walk directly into a 6-figure income after graduation. While that’s great for students...
Pharmacy Veteran Finds Freedom, Flexibility In New Real Estate Career
The Complete Guide to Creating Your Pharmacist Resume
3 Interview Mistakes that Stop Job Offers
Developing Well-Being and Resilience in Pharmacy
The National Academy of Medicine has launched an initiative that focuses on clinician well-being and resilience. Why? Healthcare providers are subject to burnout at alarming rates, including about 50% of physicians reporting symptoms of burnout, which include:...
3 Ways to Do Less and Accomplish More
As pharmacists, we tend to be people pleasers. We want to do everything, for everyone, all of the time. Quickly we may find we are doing less for ourselves by giving as much as possible to others. While I don't support curbing the amount of giving that you want to...
Why a Writer Sought Our Help To Improve Her Cover Letter
Before enrolling in my cover letter and interview mastery courses, this pharmacy student lacked confidence. She knew there were hundreds of students competing for residencies, and she knew the competition was fierce. So she did the one thing she knew would at least...
Hi! I’m Jackie – I’m new around here.
Hi! I'm Jackie Boyle. I've met some of you, but definitely not all of you - so I am excited to announce that I have recently joined the #HappyPharmD team as a fellow pharmacy superhero! Saving pharmacists from unfulfilling work or life situations and pretending to...
