Anyone successfully leave IT and start a new career? (1 Viewer)

[Mike Graham]

David Williams:

While I'm sure this is true somewhere, but my own familial experience says otherwise. I have 2 uncles and an aunt who are pharmacists, and they work their butts off! They routinely work 50+ hour weeks due to the shortage of trained staff. A lot of the time they have to work through their lunch hour because they don't have another pharmacist on hand to take over. It's not a very full life for them, but YMMV.

I worked in a pharmacy for a year, and saw first hand how these people have to work; they routinely saw 12-14 hour days for most of the week, and their lunch break was something like 5 minutes long if they were lucky. However, the money they were paid was very, very good, leading one to retire early. Also, if you're a pharmacist in the store, you're more then likely a co-owner or at least some kind of manager of it. The extremely hard work is paid off with money, if its worth it to you to work those hours for most of your career.

 

[Colin Dunn]

Mike - Because I live in Austin, I looked at the University of Texas Pharm.D. degree requirements. That particular program requires 2 years of a pre-pharmacy curriculum (heavy on biology and chemistry), then a 4-year pharmacy curriculum (one of those years is a full year of internship work).

UT pre-pharmacy curriculum

UT Pharm.D. curriculum

Perhaps I should talk more with a guy I know who works as a pharmacist (he has worked in that field for about 20 years). From what I already know from previous conversations, he seems to meet his financial needs working purely on a part-time basis (about 25-32 hours per week).

He lives comfortably. He can rent an apartment close to work, and also make payments (if he doesn't already own outright) for a house where his daughter lives (rent-free). Unlike many of my other acquaintances, he just doesn't have any financial worries despite maintaining two households.

Maybe it's just that there are too many people vying for EVERY job in Austin if pharmacists here aren't being forced to work 12-hour days without a lunch break... (EDIT: I noticed all the posts about overworked pharmacists are from residents of Canada. Maybe the work situation is different in the USA?)

I would think if there is a pharmacist shortage, that many pharmacists would not tolerate that kind of treatment from their employers. Wouldn't they just walk out and instantlyn find work down the street in better conditions?

 

[Mike Graham]

Colin:

I would think if there is a pharmacist shortage, that many pharmacists would not tolerate that kind of treatment from their employers. Wouldn't they just walk out and instantlyn find work down the street in better conditions?

My only guess is that a store requires a lot from the people they're paying so well; perhaps its just my area (the Atlantic provinces of Canada) that has this kind of situation. Either way Colin, best of luck to you, and hopefully the decision you make will be a successful one.

 

[David Williams]

I noticed all the posts about overworked pharmacists are from residents of Canada. Maybe the work situation is different in the USA?)

As much as Canada (and some cooler weather) appeals to me right now, I live in O-kla-homa! (where the wind comes sweeping down the plain) and so does one uncle pharmacist. My others live in Arizona. It's pretty much a universal problem to my knowledge, since there is a shortage of qualified professionals in the field right now (that's what my OK uncle tells me). Part of the situation may also be chain stores... all three work for one (2 Wal-Mart, 1 Mays). A locally owned pharmacy is bound to treat their staff better. But sometimes a chain is all there is in smaller, rural areas and one can't be as choosy with their employers.

 

[LDfan]

Pharmacists are paid well here in the DC area. It is common to start out around 90k or so but the problem is the pay doesn't go up too much throughout the career.

Jeff

 

[Topher]

I work IT for a very large chain, which will remain nameless, and the Pharmacists do start very high, around 80-90k, but most of what I hear leads me to believe they all put in a lot of hours. This is all up and down the east coast.

 

[David Brown Eyes]

Hau Collin. Long time no talk or in this case type. How is the heat and humidity down in Texas


Anyway this is how I see your situation. Stick with IT but start working towards a specialization in the healthcare industry. There might be some weekend/short time schools that offer healthcare technology courseware.

There are many jobs being sent overseas, especialy in the tech support feild, however there is now and always will be a need for on site technical staff. You have a job and that is more than alot of us other techies have right now but take it from me, things are getting better by the day.

I am currently working as a computer tech at Pfizer, so healthcare is the way to go and it can be mixed with your current hard earned knowledge.


Enjoy the skeeters.

David

 

[Colin Dunn]

David Brown Eyes -

The heat and humidity are pretty miserable in Texas this time of year. But I'm comfortably ensconced in my air-conditioned palace that would have cost $500,000 in Denver (but which I got for $204,000 here).

The weather will be better in about a month when the heat breaks. And Austin is very nice during February, March, and April ... the absolute nastiest time to be in Denver...

Anyway, I've heard stuff about bioinformatics and the health-care industry, but I've been watching to see if it's just a flash in the pan or a real up-and-coming field. There are software companies that support health-care operations ... but they are too prone to put their software on junky hardware to get the low bid. (A $399 Dell Celeron desktop as a "server?" You've got to be kidding me...)

 

[Devin U]

Being in healthcare myself, I would say that would be a good place to go. If you want avoid patient contact, avoid retail pharmacy. You will have to counsel customers on over the counter drugs, and explain possible side effects and benifits on scrips.
X-ray tech may be a good match for you, especialy having a computer background. Alot of hospitals have or are going to electronic imaging. Sound tech knowlege will really help you out. And as far not being a job fitting for someone with a master's degree, I would really have to disagree with that. And with your advanced degree, with a couple of years of clinical experience under your belt in the field, you would definetly be a outstanding canidate for management positions in radiography departments. And radiography is alot more than taking X-rays. Since alot of healthcare institutions work employees in 12 hr shifts, if you want to work alot, it would be easy for you to take a full time position (3 days/wk) and pick up some extra money doing pool work, registry, or on call work another 2-3 days a week. I know alot of radiographers that make about $40.00/hr. on pool and registry jobs.
Also in health care, look into becoming a Physician assistant. With just a year or two of prerec's, you could get into a master's level PA program. But again, there is alot of patient contact.
I myself am a respiratory therapist. I enjoy my work, love helping people, and my favorite part of the job is interacting with people. I have extensive traning in cardiopulmonary physiology, and manage life support systems. I am constanly fielding calls from recruters for positions all over the nation, and Im not even looking for another job. But once again, working with people is a big part of my job.If you dont interacting with and helping people, healthcare may not be for you.

 

[JonZ]

Funny to see this thread.

I do Tech Support at I*M and HATE HATE HATE my job. Ive been here for 3 years, been working for the company for 6.I dont make enough money,theres bullshit powerplays with all the oldtimers (who need to to just retire),and I basically hate the work now.

My g/f has been on my ass about going to school, but the problem is I dont know what I want to do.

I really dont want to go back for computer classes:frowning:
I dont have any college,as I learned this stuff on the job. I went to art school but dont really want to draw for a living.

I have absolutley NO IDEA what to get into, but I dont want to do IT anymore.

 

[Sujeet Patel]

Have you ever considered bartending? I know many bartenders who make well over $50K/yr, and have a ball doing it. Not to mention much of it is tax free.

I'm an IT guy as well, have been in the field for about 10 years now, and was originally laid off in Oct 2001. Got another job in May of 2002, and it only lasted until Feb of 2003. I do a bit of everything, but mainly did desktop/network support, with a 3-year stint as a programmer in between. Now I'm working as a project manager on a part-time basis, with the hope that it goes full-time in the next month or so. Sadly, I'll make less as a PM today than I made as a developer back in 2000, because of the market. It sucks, but I'm happy that I made most of my expensive purchases (house, Porsche, etc) when I was making the good money.

It does seem that the market is turning, somewhat. I'd say try to do some consulting work to get by in the meantime, until something solid comes up. Good luck!

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> I know alot of radiographers that make about $40.00/hr. on pool and registry jobs.

What is a registry job?

 

[AjayM]

I'm semi-sort of in the same boat, although for different reasons. I've been on the network admin/management side of the IT biz for a long time now (ugh..10+ years), and I'm trying to figure out how to broaden my horizons. I'm not so much worried about the IT market, there will always be a need for qualified IT people in the states, in a couple of years the market will have re-adjusted itself back to pre-bubble levels, a lot of the overseas jobs will have come back here (there is a HUGE difference in the quality of work between there and here, and it hasn't changed in the past few years).

I've been seriously looking at an MBA as well, with that much real-world work experience and a good business degree you can start getting yourself past "middle-management" positions fairly easily, maybe even land yourself in a VP/CTO/CIO level position for a smaller company. And in your case getting the MBA would probably be a cake walk as you mentioned. Hell I'd even try and apply at some of the top schools (Wharton, Harvard, MIT, etc) and deal with the school loan thing providing I could get in (graduates of those schools get REAL good recruitment right out of school with some healthy paychecks).

Just my $0.02 worth.

Andrew

 

[Devin U]

What is a registry job?

It's kinda like a temp agency for health care workers. I dont know why they call them registries. They can pay much higher wages because they offer no or few benefits, and have low overhead (many are operated from home).