Friday, September 18, 2009

Pull Your Head Out of your Ass

The last few days I've been reading up on the various pre-pharmacy/pharmacy support forums out there. I first stumbled upon them when looking for advice on the PCAT last fall and have been following them ever since. Rarely do I post at any of them as I just like to sift through them from time to time.

I decided to take a few days off from pumping out applications to get caught up on a few of the larger forums out there. After a while I realized I was rather disgusted with most of them. A lot of the individuals there are extremely conceited and full of themselves.

And I see a lot of you guys come to this blog, so I'll give you a little word of advice.

Pull your fucking head out of your damned ass.

You are not the greatest person in the world because you got a 98 on your PCAT. Just because you chose pharmacy as a career does not justify the fact you think you are better than everyone else. You're really no different than anyone else in the medical fields.

And don't talk down to someone with a lower GPA than yourself. Sure, you got a 4.0, but that doesn't mean you're smarter than the kid who got a 3.0. There are extenuating circumstances that prevents some from reaching their full potential in college. Many don't have mommy and daddy's money to fall back on when times are rough.

The cockiness needs to go as well. So you have your 98 PCAT score, your 4.0 GPA and you worked at Wal-Mart for a year as a tech or clerk. Whoopdy fuckin' do. I'll give you a little word of advice, you don't learn shit at a place like Wal-Mart. Anyone that has ever transferred to our stores from Wal-Mart could count and that was really about it.

Granted the Tier 2 techs are slightly better, but you still don't know shit. You may be certified, but that test is a fucking joke today anyways (future post coming on that) and it really doesn't mean anything now. A drunk monkey with one eye could pass the exam.

For some reason these people seem to be mainly located in the California region of the country. Damn good thing I'm not applying to any school in that state.

Am I being cruel? No, I'm not. Leave your egos at the door. Stop talking as if you're Superman. Act human for Christ's sake. Is that too much to ask?

9 comments:

Pharmgirl said...

So true, so true! I stopped visiting StudentDoctor.Net years ago because of bullshit like that.

Anonymous said...

I have noticed this cockiness in the traditional students. No worries. They are only book smart. First time they are out in the real world as the pharmacist and not some tech/clerk/intern hiding behind the pharmacist, it will hit them. I saw this happen first-hand with an intern who recently graduated.

You just hope that they don't end up being that bitter pharmacist 5 years down the road who obviously hates his/her job. THOSE are the ones that scare me. When you start to hate your job, you don't pay particular attention to detail anymore.

was1 said...

funny how you have such an air of superiority when talking down to those 98PCAT scores and 4.0GPA's that talk down to you. i get the feeling that patients would think that you're a wonderful pharmacist but your peers would think you're and asshole.

The Cynical Intern said...

Phathead could be the biggest asshole in the world, and if he worked half as hard as he claims he does here, his peers would have no room to complain, and if he worked a tenth as hard as he claims, he'd be ten times better than the "I'm an intern and hot shit, counting and register duty are for lesser beings" fuckers that I had to work with before I got in and he's likely describing in this post.

And I'm curious what makes you feel that why, because I've never gotten that impression.

Phathead said...

Was - I do have a an air of superiority over them. You know why? It's called humility.

I have just grown weary about how individuals with that kind of resume think they are far better than anyone else trying to get into the field. They're not any better than anyone else, they were just able to get good grades, whoopdy freakin' do.

And my peers do not consider me an asshole nor do I see how you would come to that conclusion. I will be stern with some of them (like the individual yesterday who returned a bottle of Amlodipine 10mg into the Amlodipine 5mg robot cell) but I like to have fun at work. Only way to survive the day.

Anonymous said...

Fuck em. They honestly probably won't get in anyway...the only thing a 4.0 gpa and 98 PCAT tells anyone is that they have NO life. I've said it before and I'll say it again, you will have absolutely no problem being accepted. One of the things I focused on in many of my essays was the fact that maybe my grades and PCAT score weren't as superior as some of my peers, but the fact that I am a well rounded person pretty much over rules it. It takes a lot more than being book smart to be a good pharmacist, and I honestly think admissions boards realize that. I just started this year and my classes PCAT average was a 71. 71! Just goes to show that even though pharmacy is becoming more competitive, grades aren't everything.

Good luck with everything, but I honestly don't think you even need to worry!

The PharmD Student said...

Well no shit they're cocky. Don't you know how important it is to know Boyle's Law and how to name organic compounds when you're a pharmacist? This shit is critical ya know. Who needs people skills when you can explain to people the difference in Lexapro and citalopram? Because the average person will understand that. (It's all in the way those fuckers rotate light because of the way those groups bind to that chirality center)Duh, dude. Come on. They'll be great pharmacists, because, I mean, come on, look at that transcript baby! In my experience, high numbers on pieces of paper = better pharmacist.

was1 said...

interesting... you have an air of superiority because of your humility. well, i'm more humble than anybody. i guess that makes me the best.
and for better or worse we need ways to measure people. a 4.0 says you are smarter than a 3.0. that's how the world works. get used to it.

Pharmer Jane said...

I got a 99 on the PCAT...does that make me the greatest person in the world? lol.

The only reason I even know what I got on the PCAT 9 years ago is that my mother has the results on a bulletin board in my old room at her house, and I just visited.

PCAT scores do not predict what kind of pharmacist you will be, or how well you will handle the coursework in school. There has to be some sort of numeric measure of candidates, however; personally, I think a World Poker Tournament would be fantastic, and only slightly less arbitrary.