Get a Pharmacy Tech Job
By Steve Gillman
Why consider a pharmacy tech job? Here are two reasons: Health
care is one of the fastest growing industries in the United States,
and one of the most accessible jobs in the field is that of pharmacy
technician. Many pharmacies do on-the-job training, and although
being certified can help you get better positions, it is not
always a requirement. Recent job openings at major hospitals,
listed on Monster.com, required only a high school diploma, although
some do say "certification preferred."
You get to work in a very clean environment, doing administrative
and clinical tasks such as filling prescriptions and dealing
with the public both in person and on the phone.
How Much Can You Make?
Hourly pay is between $12 to $18, and there are usually benefits
such as health insurance and vacation time as well. To make substantially
more, you may use a technician job as mean. Pharmacy technicians
make an average of $28,940 annually according to recent Labor
Department statistics, with 10% topping $40,000. Pharmacists
average $106,630.
Ways to Make More | Related Opportunities
| Tips
Certainly you can use your job as a way to determine if you
want to be a pharmacist. There are also some certified pharmacy
technicians who make good money working as expert witnesses in
court cases.
Try to find a job before you get certified, so you can have
additional months of experience on your resume when you apply
for better jobs.
There are some potentially interesting places to do this work,
like in national parks, foreign countries or on cruise ships.
See the resources below for a website that lists these types
of jobs.
Qualifications / Requirements
A high school diploma is about all you need, but as mentioned,
you will have more opportunities once you are certified, and
certification is likely to become a legal requirement in most
states eventually.
First Steps
It may sound silly, but it can't hurt to watch the pharmacy
tech workers doing their jobs at any local pharmacy, just to
imagine yourself in their shoes and so determine if it seems
like something you would want to do. The various drugstore chains
and retail pharmacies in grocery stores will sometimes have significantly
different pay scales even in the same city, so check a few of
them out before applying. If you start with no education or certification
in the field, aim to get certified at some point. This will open
up better jobs. There are companies that provide certification
by way of exam and colleges that offer programs as well. Remington
College, for example, has campuses in more than a dozen cities
and offers an 8-month course.
Resources
Pharmacy Technician Workbook and Certification Review,
by Press Prespective - Morton Publishing Company 4th Edition
2010 - Training manual and practice tests for getting certified.
The Pharmacy Technician's Pocket Drug Reference, by Joyce
A. Generali - American Pharmacists Association 5th Edition
2008.
http://www.rxrecruiters.com/non-traditional-pharmacy-jobs.htm
- Has listings of positions on cruise ships, national parks and
foreign countries.
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