[diver pharmacist]

Originally Posted by Zoggite

It depends on where you'd be living- housing costs in some parts of the country are a lot higher than in others, and salaries don't always mirror that.
£32k is the absolute minimum I would expect a junior, inexperienced, pharmacist to be offered; but to be tied down to a particular High Street chain of pharmacies for 2 years' time in unacceptable. Ask yourself why these companies are going to such lengths to fill their vacancies: it's because no-one in the UK wants to work there... They are aften the busiest "problem"-shops, with insufficient/underqualified support staff, or a high staff turnover... and if You have signed for 2 years, you cannot vote with your feet!

Salary required to earn £22.5k after tax: if you had no other source of income, you would probably need to earn about £35k per annum as an employee to have £22.5k take-home, I reckon. This is perfectly achievable as a junior pharmacist, even without going through a company-run relocation & mentoring scheme! It is not like in the U.S. or Australia, where you have to be "sponsored" by a local resident/company to obtain a Work Permit: if you have an EU nationality, you have the right to come and live & work here. You could just turn up at Heathrow and walk into a pharmacy saying "hello, my name is XXX, do you have a job for me?". Or send some CVs off to a few pharmacies picked out of the Telephone directory (not just the large companies!) and see what they say? That's what I did when I moved to the UK from Belgium...
Who dares, wins!

Nice input about the working conditions. It doesn't take a lot to get the picture. Im glad I joined this forum!

Many thanks!!!