I work as a department manager in retail, and I make 35-40k a year, working 40-45 hours. I get around two weeks of vacation days, which allows me around three decent breaks a year. I had a long post written, but I'll just sum it up: I work hard. I work too hard, sometimes. One winter while visiting my family (after New Year's, because retail guys like me can't see family during the actual holidays), my dad gave me a CD by Todd Snider, and this song was on it: I still work hard. I still probably work too hard. But this summer, my girlfriend and I are taking a vacation - the first one that isn't a trip to see family. And I make enough money that I can go see a movie if I want to, or buy a good book. And I am kicking ass at my job, and am up for a promotion, that will take me off the sales floor and give me a salary.
Since apparently I can't rep you, I'll just post it here because it's relevant to this thread anyway. I don't know why everyone isn't wanting to become a pharmacist. Comparatively less schooling than to be a doctor or lawyer, but with a comparable salary. And unlike attorneys, the market for pharmacists isn't drying up faster than Cher's twat. Plus, you can reduce your hours without exponentially reducing your pay grade. And you don't have to go through decades of med school and residency. I went to an undergrad that had a big nursing program, and if I could do it over again I would have spend some serious time at least considering the pharmacist route. Instead I chose a degree in public speaking. And the only I learned is that I have a remarkable talent of making small talk with anyone.
If I had to do it over again, I would also consider the pharmacist route. My girlfriend and I have several friends who are in pharmacy school or are pharmacists. Their job is exponentially better than anything I hope to have after law school. They have fairly interesting stories and much better hours than lawyers. No work to bring home, no briefs to write, and a much better job market. Why the fuck didn't I major in something that enabled me to go to pharmacy school?
At my new gig I work about 45-50 hours and pull in mid 40s. It's busy as hell and very stressful, but all in all, I doubt I can complain. I'm the in house accountant for a small property management and investment firm. If I worked for a large accounting firm (Big 4/McGladrey/etc) I'd probably be working double the hours I am now and not making a whole heck of a lot more than I am now. That being said. If I'm able to put in a year or so at the current gig and finally nab my CPA license, I wouldn't be completely against working at a large accounting firm. I doubt I'd go career with it. People who do that, in my opinion, are fucking bonkers. You can probably go corporate, work half the hours and still make great money. And with a top tier firm on your resume, you'd have an easy time finding a gig like that. Uhh, have you tried Sales? That's probably one of the only professions where you don't need a college degree and can do ridiculously well. My brother in law flunked out of college and probably pulls in pretty close to six figures. Granted, he works and travels constantly, but not bad for a guy in his early thirties.
Oh, I agree. My wife went to one of the best Pharmacy schools in the nation, and when she graduated she had three different job offers before the ink was dry on her doctorate. There are also all kinds of different options in terms of what you can do according to what you like. Retail generally has the most people and good pay, but at the same time it is also one of the most stressful. I hear about some of the shit my wife deals with and I understand why she wants to go to part time. Hospital is slightly less stressful (no directly dealing with patients, not dealing with drugged out junkies trying to scam for meds), but the hours tend to be much worse (overnights, weekends), and the pay isn't as good. Then there are the pharmacists that actually develop drugs or work in clinical pharmacy. They do require residencies and things like that. I know my wife opted for the retail route because she didn't want to do a residency, but I guess for her graduating class, the vast majority went on to do residencies. Her program was 6 years, although they recently expanded it to 8 years. In talking to her, she said her only real regret is that she wishes she'd pushed harder to find a hospital job, because she really liked hospital work, but she also doesn't want to work overnights, which are the only hospital pharmacy openings around here. She does bring up a good point, though. She basically spends her day getting yelled at because people don't understand how insurance works ("What do you mean I have to pay for this drug!" "Well, you've had to pay for it the past four times you got it, why are you just getting mad now?"), dealing with junkies trying to fill their scripts too early ("No, you just filled this Xanax at another pharmacy. Yes, we can see that. No, we can't give it to you."), and giving out free medical advice to people who, in turn, yell at her for stating the obvious (i.e. "you should go see your primary care doctor if you're coughing up blood, or, you know the ER"). How many other people with doctorates in health care give out free medical advice? A medical doctor charges $100 for about 3 minutes of face time (and that is probably cheap). And how do I know all this? Because every night she comes home and explains it all to me, and every day she has a new story of insanity. The above are just the most generic examples I can think of. Also, I tried to read a few of her pharmacy books. I got two sentences in before I went cross-eyed. That is some serious shit they have to know. The wife studied something like 3 or 4 hours a day, even more before big tests. School was a 50 to 60 hour a week job for her back in college.
Given that I am Canadian - and Ontarian at that- I would hesitate to recommend pharmacy as a profession right now. Wages are going down; sadly, people don't recognize what pharmacists do for health care and are indignant that a job with high liability and educational demands should dare offer a healthy salary as compensation. Community can be a really shit job, with 12 hour shifts where you are lucky to get so much as a bathroom break, let alone lunch. Hospital is a different beast, but the irony is that it demands a much higher level of knowledge with less pay. Yes I'm sure most people didn't know pharmacists did much in hospital, but having seen quite a bit myself I can say that a hospital that doesn't utilize its pharmacists is probably not a hospital I want to be a patient in. Me, well, only a few people here actually know what I do. And if I did tell you, most of you would say "Woah, pharmacists can do that?" and then "what, YOU do that?". Fuck yes I do. Most of my classmates are highly jealous of my job and what I get to do. Until they hear about the downside: uncompetitive pay and serious personal instability. I moved to Ottawa after school at the end of 2011 and about half of my time has been spent away, both domestically and abroad. Very often on short notice. I am moving again in July, after having already been put on notice that I was going to move last year, which fell through. Joy. But, I have a job to be proud of and I know from the feedback I have gotten that my coworkers and patients alike recognize and appreciate the efforts I make for them. So if I cant brag about my salary, I can brag that I contribute things others don't, and thank god I don't work for walmart. Edit: and for that matter, I work in two languages. I could be a monoglot and not earn any less. Calice!
This can be done in under 15 minutes if I had access to the raw data. Focus: I've been working 60-65 hours a week for the past two years. I do it because I have to, not because I want to. Right now I'm in the middle of jumping over to another job doing roughly the same thing for about $15k less but with guaranteed raises, benefits, and actual time off. If I stick around here I'll be making 60K a year doing the same thing working only 40 hours a week. Stagnating or having no ambition is not something that bodes well with me so I likely won't be here past 2 years if the projects I have in the works take off (over 100K a year). Also, this is sad. I was reading most of this on a phone screen and wasn't even looking at the screen names and could tell who 80% of the members were just by what they wrote.
Damn, y'all are some hard working motherfuckers. With low living expenses. I am officially at the office for 37.5h/week, but it's actually closer to 33. I do actual work for maybe 10 of those. I earn just north of $80k, and am currently working on paying off a credit card which I tend to run up on stupid shit. I also earn the least out of all my friends, and I'm 28. That said, my fortnightly rent (1 person) is $472, and bills probably average out around $200/month. Apparently there are big differences in both wages and living expenses between the US and Aus right now.
Both me and my wife both have great jobs. I just recently got mine, and good timing because she is off for medical maternity leave, because of where she works. We both work exactly 40 hours per week, but it usually is a little bit less, got to love unions where you take a little bit longer coffee/lunch breaks and go home a little bit earlier. There is option for over time in both jobs. My wife's job(she is security/first aid at a grain elevator) is a lot nicer for over time, if they require her to stay over(4 hours at the end of the shift) she gets an extra 10 hours pay, if there is a tie up or a let go of a ship is gets paid 3 hours of double time even if they work 30 minutes, if they go over 3 hours it goes up. I work at a container port, I am the union warehouse person. There is no overtime needed for me in the warehouse, but once i get up in time/seniority(it gets ranked by the amount of days works, so if i started after you, but worked more days, i am higher up in the list) I can go out and get shifts on my off days driving a bomb cart/reach stacker, or go out lashing. I hate saying what I we make, but we are both around the magic salary number and work 40h/week. So we are very happy and very comfortable.
Can we play a guessing game? 1: Blowjobs for cash. 2: Blowjobs for crack. 3: Blowjobs for charity. Or do you take pills out of big bottles and place them in little bottles?
That's Alabama rent. I look forward to paying that instead of 1600/month for a mediocre condo in an enormous building.
You know a fortnight is two weeks, right? That would qualify as average to slightly above average American rent.
I should clarify, there's 3 of us living in the house. That $472 is my share of the total, which is $1300/fortnight. I must admit I'm surprised you guys are paying similar rent but waaaay less for groceries. Either I'm a terrible shopper (possible) or you guys have much cheaper produce.
I've been on both ends of the hours worked scale. As many of you know, I was an attorney (I still am, in good standing, and licensed in NJ) and I practiced for 10 years. My first job out of law school was clerking for a judge in the criminal division in Atlantic County. I made 36K, and worked about 45 hours a week. Best job I ever had. My first real private practice job was for 42K. I worked about 50-80 hours a week, depending. I did that for 7 years. Missed holidays, no vacations, and a shitload of stress. I had vacation days, but I could never take them. Anyway, I did that until I got married, and took a vacation, and the economy crashed. Got moved to an hourly wage. Ended up making about 35 K that year (there just wasn't a lot of work for me at that point). Found another job in this shitty economy, paying 75K. Hours were about 60-70 a week. Working for a complete psychopath. And I left. I couldn't take it anymore. I missed too much stuff. So I got into bartending. It's been ok, but the money is not very good anymore (I hear stories of the halcyon days where bartenders made 60K-HA - now I hear stories about 'I used to work half the shifts and make the same money...). My wife and I made a decision. I would stay home, work part time (I work 20 hours a week) and take care of everything around the apartment. I cook, walk the dog, clean, run the errands, and basically run the house day to day. It's less stressful, but in some ways more rewarding. In sum, I make about 10K a year and work 20 hours a week. I'm changing jobs, so I hope to double the pay, without doubling the hours. I don't know, it's weird. I was trained to do a very professional job and now it's a distant memory. Basically, I just scramble, picking up what I can where I can.
Congratulations, you have the pharmaceutical skills of the average (t)rapper. Or did you think Jeezy was getting his bricks from his local Walgreen's?