Why I decided to switch career paths…
Tags: Pharmacy, Codingbootcamp, Career Change, Technology, Software Development

I have been working in retail/specialty pharmacy for over 12 years. During this time I had completed undergrad pharmacy pre-requisite classes part-time, while working full-time, with the ultimate goal of acquiring my Doctorate of Pharmacy in grad school. I was preparing to apply for grad school in the fall of 2019 when a coworker told me about coding boot camps. I was intrigued, as I had recently started having doubts about my career path. The pharmacy field has taken a sharp downturn in recent years. There’s a saturation of new grads and not nearly enough positions to guarantee full-time employment. This was in stark contrast to the pharmacy field ten years ago when there were an abundance of positions and a shortage of graduates. Graduates were head hunted and sign on bonuses were commonplace. Additionally, pay and benefits have significantly decreased with lower market demand. Retail pharmacy is bleeding because of the increase in mail order medicine, such as Amazon’s purchase of pill pack. Stiff competition and exclusionary pharmacy benefits are also major factors in the decline of retail pharmacy. I knew that grad school was going to add no less than six figures of debt to my student loan balance, and I no longer felt as comfortable with my career choice. All of these reasons helped to further my disillusionment with the pharmacy field as a viable option for my future.

I had always had an interest in the tech industry, and there were many times that I felt regret about not starting with that major right out of high school. As someone who graduated high school in 2005, it always felt as if I was part of an awkward time to begin adulthood. I was in the final year of Wood Working Class in middle school before it was turned into Computer Lab the next year. The internet was a luxury for most middle class people, and if you had it you were most likely only using it for chatrooms and funny websites brought to you by lightening fast 56k dial up modems. However, everything about technology and the internet fascinated me. My mom bought our first computer in 1997 and, with our floppy disk version of AOL, I was introduced to the internet. I’m naturally very curious, and I had to experience all of the new things the internet had to offer. Downloading Napster for the first time in 2000 blew my mind. As someone who grew up weighed down by my ever growing CD collection, this was a life altering experience. It only took thirty minutes to download that song I just heard on the radio that’s attributed to the wrong artist! Sign me up! I was playing Diablo online with my best friend and next door neighbor only to be yelled at for tying up the phone line for hours on end. Then, we began programming games into the TI-83 calculator to play during classes. However, by the time high school wound to a close there was no emphasis on how I could turn my love of technology into a viable career option. My business class in high school was still teaching us how to balance a checkbook, so teachers and parents weren’t seeing the value in software development yet. I was pressured into choosing a classic go-to career field like law or medicine, and since I loved science I chose medicine.

Anyway, I figured it was too late for a complete change in major having already spent so much time and money on pre-pharmacy undergrad. I felt sort of trapped. However, coding boot camp seemed to offer a feasible career change option without the stress of starting all over. Software development offers a chance to be creative, as well as, a sense of completion when you finish a project. These are two characteristics that really motivate and excite me. Sadly, these are not prominent characteristics of pharmacy. My motivation in pharmacy was driven by my love of science and aptitude at problem solving. That being said, I’m ready to be part of a more dynamic field that offers infinite room to grow and learn. I’m eager to not only consistently learn new technologies, but also have the opportunity to implement these new technologies. In summation, I’m equal parts intimidated and excited to make a major life change.

Thanks for reading!

Rick