Hey everyone, I've found myself in a bit of a predicament and would appreciate some advice. Here's some background: I recently graduated and plan on taking a year or two off to work and get some much needed clinical experience. The problem is that I haven't decided whether I want to pursue a career in pharmacy or medicine. I have the prereqs for both and have only taken the PCAT. With my GPA and stats, I have a much better chance of getting into pharmacy school and would probably be applying in the next cycle whereas I would probably need to invest a couple more years to do post-bac work if I decide to pursue medicine. Anyways, I planned to work part-time both as a medical scribe and as a pharmacy tech to help me determine which path is right for me.
I recently interviewed and shadowed with an ophthalmology practice and I'm pretty sure they will offer me a job since they asked me to get a background check. However, it's a full-time position, which would prevent me from working as a pharmacy tech due to a conflict in scheduling. Additionally, they have told me that I will probably start off taking OCTs and that they constantly switch around job responsibilities for employees (pretty much training you to do everything). It seemed like it would be a while before they would be training me to scribe (the scribe that I spoke to has been working there for years). The doctors were also suggesting that they expected me to stay with them for a couple of years because they would invest a lot of time and resources into training me, which totally makes sense. There is no doubt that I would get valuable learning experience from this opportunity but the fact that I would not be starting off with the job that I actually applied for and the fact that it is full time is steering me away from accepting the position (if and when they offer it to me).
With that said, I've also been applying for pharmacy tech positions as well as for scribe companies and currently have an interview lined up with a pharmacy. If I were to get hired by a scribe company, I would most likely be working in a hospital meaning that I could work day shifts at the pharmacy and night shifts at the hospital. While this is probably the ideal situation for me, there is obviously no guarantee that I'll land either jobs. I also have met with the doctors at the practice that I mentioned earlier and they seemed very open to teaching and mentoring me in addition to letting me just work there while I'm not sure if I would be able to work as closely with the doctors in the ER. Should I just accept the position at the ophthalmology practice or wait to see if I could find a scribe position that will let me start off as a scribe while also allowing me to work as a pharmacy tech?
I recently interviewed and shadowed with an ophthalmology practice and I'm pretty sure they will offer me a job since they asked me to get a background check. However, it's a full-time position, which would prevent me from working as a pharmacy tech due to a conflict in scheduling. Additionally, they have told me that I will probably start off taking OCTs and that they constantly switch around job responsibilities for employees (pretty much training you to do everything). It seemed like it would be a while before they would be training me to scribe (the scribe that I spoke to has been working there for years). The doctors were also suggesting that they expected me to stay with them for a couple of years because they would invest a lot of time and resources into training me, which totally makes sense. There is no doubt that I would get valuable learning experience from this opportunity but the fact that I would not be starting off with the job that I actually applied for and the fact that it is full time is steering me away from accepting the position (if and when they offer it to me).
With that said, I've also been applying for pharmacy tech positions as well as for scribe companies and currently have an interview lined up with a pharmacy. If I were to get hired by a scribe company, I would most likely be working in a hospital meaning that I could work day shifts at the pharmacy and night shifts at the hospital. While this is probably the ideal situation for me, there is obviously no guarantee that I'll land either jobs. I also have met with the doctors at the practice that I mentioned earlier and they seemed very open to teaching and mentoring me in addition to letting me just work there while I'm not sure if I would be able to work as closely with the doctors in the ER. Should I just accept the position at the ophthalmology practice or wait to see if I could find a scribe position that will let me start off as a scribe while also allowing me to work as a pharmacy tech?
