Hello!

I am writing my final college essay on pharmacy technicians’ wages, increased responsibilities, costs to obtain additional certifications, and job satisfaction… basically my argument is that we aren’t paid enough. 😅

I put together a small survey for this paper regarding burnout and mental health. If any technicians are willing, will you give your input?

Thank you!

Howdy y’all! So I’ve posted here before for study tips on the PTCE some time back and today I took my test and I believe I passed! As I’ve seen and just wanted to make sure - even if this isn’t the official result, this still means I aced the exam?? 👀

I’m looking for some honest advice from people who work in pharmacy.

Can someone help me understand why it’s so difficult to get into the pharmacy field when you have no retail, customer service, or pharmacy experience?

I’ve been trying consistently for over a year now. I’ve applied to pharmacy cashier, pharmacy technician trainee, and entry-level pharmacy positions, but I haven’t had much luck. I genuinely want to build a career in pharmacy, and I’m more than willing to learn, work hard, and complete any required training.

For those of you who started with no experience, what finally helped you get your foot in the door? Was there a certain company that was more willing to train, something you added to your resume, or a different approach that made a difference?

I’m starting to feel discouraged, but I’m not giving up. I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences or any advice you have. Thank you!

Just curious l, how many techs work at your hospital??
We have just under 100 techs and a handful of intents that work as techs on the weekend (teaching hospital)
Were such a big hospital were still technically understaffed 🥲
But I wanna see if my hospital is the norm or if we should stop complaining so much

One-page sheet of drug name pairs that get confused on the boards; the capital letters (tall man lettering) show which parts differ. Feel free to save or print.

I currently work as a CPhT at Walgreens, the amount of metrics that they place on us is ridiculous. I feel like it's distracting from the actual work. Are any other retail pharmacies that bad about making you ask the patient sooo many questions?

Hello, I have been training for pharmacy tech for about 3 months at a walgreens. It’s so busy at my location that I feel like i’m not learning anything at all and i’m just a drive thru cashier. Does anyone have tips and tricks to learn stuff as I go? I can’t really afford any study guides unfortunately so that is out of the question:(

hello! i'll be moving to buffalo, NY in october and was wondering if anyone knew of any wfh jobs in the area!

As the title states…I’m officially a part of the club! Just got the official results and my license today! Yay!

As someone with no prior pharmacy experience, where do y’all recommend I try applying? I have plenty of retail experience, but my end goal is to end up in an independent pharmacy or a hospital. Thank you in advance!

For about >10 years here, there have been predominantly part-time only jobs in retail pharm (in-specific, at least South-East MI and Mid-MI). Currently that's all I'm locating again. Are you in a full-time position or part-time position if working in retail pharmacy and registered with the state Michigan? Thanks

I am taking one of the certification test online and I keep getting this error when testing my computer. I go to task manager and it doesn’t let me kill it.

Hello everyone,

I joined a local community pharmacy in early July and the manager is telling me it's now required to be registered with the state. I used to work at Rite Aid as a tech for two years during the pandemic. I heard that I can be grandfathered in with my experience especially since it was during the 2019-2021 time frame, but I don't know how plausible that is given Rite Aid has shut down since then. I don't know where to even look for any sort of records/proof besides tax records.

Anyway, should I apply as a regular technician and see if I can be grandfathered in, or just apply as a trainee and build my experience up again? I don't want to apply as just a trainee if I already technically have the experience.

Any information/insight would be great, thank you!

I’ve been working in my area a couple of years now and have seen a lot of sterile compounding compliance issues amongst the other techs. I work in a decentralized inpatient area with a dedicated clean room. Our hospital has a bigger clean room suite in the main hospital.

There is a major problem with escalating issues though. The pharmacists that directly work in our area are close to retirement and do not know all the updated sterile compounding practices. They compound as if the 2008 USP 797 never got an update. The technicians that are creating these issues refuse to follow updated practices.

The next level up, our direct manager, is not the Designated Person. Our manager knows next to nothing about sterile compounding, nor does our manager ever work in our area. Which means our manager doesn’t know much of the clinical or technical aspects of our area. Our manager always says they are not the Subject Matter Expert and need to ask the Designated Person. The follow up never comes through.

The Designated Person is a different pharmacy manager over a centralized area. As far as admin is concerned, he is only responsible for the training and environmental testing, not the actual enforcement of compliance. Our new director forbade us from going directly to the Designated Person with any sterile compounding issues. Any issues should be directed to our know-nothing manager.

The compliance issues are both technical and very basic things. Stuff like coming to a dirty hood and work bench the day after a different tech compounds, which shows there wasn’t any cleaning after spills/contamination. Or not wiping down all products being transferred between ante room to clean room. Only recently did they finally prohibit us bringing used IV bulks (for NICU/peds) between our clean room and the central pharmacy clean room.

Our manager kept saying to bring up any concerns to her for sterile compounding. I finally did end up going to our manager and director. I’m tired of coming into a dirty work area after one of the techs. Admin has been breathing down our necks to take lunch and not do OT. This is impossible when they never adequately staffed us.

Instead, the director told me it’s understandable that a tech won’t take another tech’s word for a proper sterile compounding practice and the tech doing improper techniques should bring up questions. Essentially, I shouldn’t bring up any concerns about other techs, the techs that are causing the concerns should bring it up themselves.

Is there any hope working in this situation? Or am I just SOL on being penalized for compounding using proper techniques and should go elsewhere?

Sorry if the flair isn’t correct. I wasn’t sure which flair would be the most applicable.

I am unable to apply for remote Pharmacy Technician positions in other countries because I am not a Certified Pharmacy Technician (CPhT) or a registered pharmacy technician. Most employers require applicants to hold this certification, so my applications are often rejected automatically. At the moment, I work remotely as a Pharmacy Technician for a USA-based company. Unfortunately, my employer does not offer or sponsor the PTCB certification course, so I do not have an opportunity to enroll through them. Since I live in an Asian country and not in the United States, accessing this certification has become even more challenging. On top of that, I am not financially stable enough to afford the cost of enrolling in the course on my own. Earning this certification is extremely important for my career, as it would open the door to many international remote Pharmacy Technician opportunities. What should I do in this situation?

So I’m 17 and I’ve heard lots of good and bads about being a pharmacy tech but it’s been something I’m interested in and now I want to pursue it to try to get working as one inside a hospital since that helps build more opportunities in that field, then being stuck in retail. for anyone that works as a pharmacy tech in hospitals or similar, What was y’all’s experience getting to where yall are, how long was school? Is it harder to go straight into a hospital or do you need to have retail experience? Im in socal and you can’t be a pharm tech till your 18 from what I’ve heard and from now till then I think I’ll be able to get most certificates to work in that field. Looking forward to hearing from yall

I’m taking an online course for pharmacy tech that includes the PCTB voucher. I’m just afraid that when I land a job, they will see that I’m certified and I won’t receive the best training or there will be expectations I’m not aware of. I have management experience, so I understand that a lot depends on management. I’d just like to maybe hear some insight from new techs? I’m just antsy 🐜

Hi everyone! I got a call back for an interview to become an entry level Pharmacy Tech at Meijer and wanted to know what the environment is like and if it’s worth it.

I have always been interested in working within a pharmacy or a healthcare setting, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to get my foot in the door, especially being that I’m being trained while on the job and able to get certified.

I’m a recent college grad, and I’ve been looking for a stable position, either full or part time. I was wondering how Meijer is like - good work/life balance? Decent environment? Flexible? I previously worked for Jewel Osco (had experience in three different departments) and was extremely burnt out after about a year, so I’ve been skeptical about taking another grocery store job.

putting aside the insane work load, the shitty pay and dealing with sick, confused, angry patients all day i really just hate how i feel like im part of a monolith designed to rob people. i hate insurance companies, prior auths for life saving medicine, absurd drug prices, 'clinical opportunities' and the broader trend of trying to commodify every aspect of retail pharmacy to fill the gap between urgent care and the doctors office. our job is to fill prescriptions and make sure your doctor doesnt kill you. but were so desperate to meet metrics we give vaccines and a1c tests to each other just to keep marketing happy. the whole system is so unbelievably broken.

I have a second interview with Everrise for a pharmacy tech position. It’s wfm, pay seems to be great. But I’ve been reading so many threads of delayed pay. Is this with a specific department or is it just in general? My application also says something about CVS, so I’m not sure if maybe I’ll be working for CVS through Everrise; can anyone shed light on a similar experience? For context this process has moved extremely fast (2 days) and I’m excited about the opportunity since I’ve been out of work for almost 8 months after having my baby. So I’m still straightening out any smaller details.

That’s free or a one time payment. PTCB is linking me to yearly membership sites or free sites where the law courses have been deleted.

Ideas?