Pharmacist from Italy (soon abroad?)

[piccolochimico]

Hi everybody,
I am an italian pharmacist, i have a degree in pharmaceutical chemistry and technology and i am looking for informations (and a new job).

After 12 years, i am still working in the same retail pharmacy (a community pharmacy) for 14 $/hour (GROSS!).
I am getting close to the 40, so i have decided to look for something better abroad, because italy is an old men country.
It takes time and money to get my license recognized by NAPLEX, so i am wondering if i could be hired as pharm tech in the first ime and to apply later for the licensure as pharmacist.
I have also the license for the United Kingdom, but i am definitely more attracted by your country

I have seen that the hourly salary for a newbie pharmacy technician is even better than mine, so i am really thinking about this opportunity.

It would be a first step to get in touch with your reality.

The hospital environment seems to be the most interesting and stimulating, with likely the best salary; may someone advice the best city/state in which to look for?

Every time i apply for a job, i define my qualification as bachelor, but i would like to figure out how good is the level of my education: my course lasted 5 years, 30 exams all related to the main subject (organic chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, analytical, biochemistry, physiology, toxicology, etc).

Any other advice will be appreciated.

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[Dred Pirate]

Hi everybody,
I am an italian pharmacist, i have a degree in pharmaceutical chemistry and technology and i am looking for informations (and a new job).

After 12 years, i am still working in the same retail pharmacy (a community pharmacy) for 14 $/hour (GROSS!).
I am getting close to the 40, so i have decided to look for something better abroad, because italy is an old men country.
It takes time and money to get my license recognized by NAPLEX, so i am wondering if i could be hired as pharm tech in the first ime and to apply later for the licensure as pharmacist.
I have also the license for the United Kingdom, but i am definitely more attracted by your country

I have seen that the hourly salary for a newbie pharmacy technician is even better than mine, so i am really thinking about this opportunity.

It would be a first step to get in touch with your reality.

The hospital environment seems to be the most interesting and stimulating, with likely the best salary; may someone advice the best city/state in which to look for?

Every time i apply for a job, i define my qualification as bachelor, but i would like to figure out how good is the level of my education: my course lasted 5 years, 30 exams all related to the main subject (organic chemistry, pharmaceutical chemistry, analytical, biochemistry, physiology, toxicology, etc).

Any other advice will be appreciated.

I am shooting from the hip here, so don't take my word for gospel - but you have to have a pharmD or equivalent - but there is a year that if you graduated before, that is not required - I think 2005 - but others can chime in.

You could get hired as a tech prior to becoming a pharmacists - I would try that, because that might be your only way to get a foot in the door in our tight job market. The chances of a hospital job for you are slim without any experience - just sayin

Also, it will be very difficult to get a visa sponsership - will that be required for you?

 

[piccolochimico]

I am shooting from the hip here, so don't take my word for gospel - but you have to have a pharmD or equivalent - but there is a year that if you graduated before, that is not required - I think 2005 - but others can chime in.

You could get hired as a tech prior to becoming a pharmacists - I would try that, because that might be your only way to get a foot in the door in our tight job market. The chances of a hospital job for you are slim without any experience - just sayin

Also, it will be very difficult to get a visa sponsership - will that be required for you?

Thank you for your reply.

Most of the time there is the famous question: will you now or later (later??) require a VISA sponsorship ?

It seems a tricky question because i take it for granted that i MUST get a visa, to work in the US, and that's why i always flag YES.... but i am assuming it might be a filter question, so as soon as i flag, i am automatically rejected.

May i be hired without VISA and ask it by myself or is mandatory for the employer?
I have already carefully checked in the US custom website and it seems so, but there is a list with specs, even the searches on internet did not give any useful feedbacks, so i have decided to ask here.

 

[CMUchicka]

I am shooting from the hip here, so don't take my word for gospel - but you have to have a pharmD or equivalent - but there is a year that if you graduated before, that is not required - I think 2005 - but others can chime in.

You could get hired as a tech prior to becoming a pharmacists - I would try that, because that might be your only way to get a foot in the door in our tight job market. The chances of a hospital job for you are slim without any experience - just sayin

Also, it will be very difficult to get a visa sponsership - will that be required for you?

Agree! Honestly what's up with people coming in from other countries trying to steal our jobs. Jobs markets is pretty insane right now and we need to employ our own people!! To OP here, pharmacy is no longer lucrative career as it used to be in America.

 

[piccolochimico]

Agree! Honestly what's up with people coming in from other countries trying to steal our jobs. Jobs markets is pretty insane right now and we need to employ our own people!! To OP here, pharmacy is no longer lucrative career as it used to be in America.

Yep, i am the fuc@@@@g immigrant who comes to your country to steal your jobs and rape your women....

 

[Caffeine QAM]

Agree! Honestly what's up with people coming in from other countries trying to steal our jobs. Jobs markets is pretty insane right now and we need to employ our own people!! To OP here, pharmacy is no longer lucrative career as it used to be in America.

I don't care what country someone is from, as long as they're licensed and they do a good job. Yes, the job market is terrible, but anyone entering it has nothing to complain about if they did their research and still decided that they wanted to compete. It's not new that the job situation is poor...people have been saying it for years.

 

[piccolochimico]

I don't care what country someone is from, as long as they're licensed and they do a good job. Yes, the job market is terrible, but anyone entering it has nothing to complain about if they did their research and still decided that they wanted to compete. It's not new that the job situation is poor...people have been saying it for years.

I am not the guy who believes your grass is greener; i would like to improve my work, for what concerne my salary and career.
italy is definitely a third (maybe fourth) world country, no respect for qualification (i hold a degree, not a puppets' diploma) neither for the commitment, so i have only one choice: to leave my country.

I am already looking for jobs in the UK and i have found more infos, while for the US is a bit more difficult.

The forms are quite funny, especially when i am asked if i suffer from schizophrenia and other mental illnesses...every Equal Opportunity Employer is also asking for the race, sexual orientation; may i assume that it's a politically correct way to dump quickly some applicants ?
Latins used to say : excusatio non petita, accusatio manifesta

i am totally agree that veterans should get an advantage because of their commitment for your country, that's why i really respect US.
@CMUchicka: i beg your pardon if i will steal your job, but during my courses i have studied (and learnt) so many things, from belousov–zhabotinsky reaction to the HPLC method development, thus resulting i likely could be the perfect employee for someone

 

[jblil]

May i be hired without VISA and ask it by myself or is mandatory for the employer?

OP - you do need to get a visa that allows you to work in the US. Right now, you can enter the US under the Visa Waiver Program (since you're a citizen of Italy). However, that visa does not allow you to hold a job in the US. Employers will not go through the financial hassle of sponsoring you for a visa, since pharmacists are in ample supply in the US. You cannot apply for such a visa yourself, it has to be done by the employer. I regret to say that it is practically impossible for you to come to the US and work as a pharmacist.
Source: I deal a lot with immigration (USCIS) as a volunteer for a non-profit so I am very familiar with this subject.

 

[Dalteparin]

: i beg your pardon if i will steal your job, but during my courses i have studied (and learnt) so many things, from belousov–zhabotinsky reaction to the HPLC method development, thus resulting i likely could be the perfect employee for someone

I'm sure you could be a great employee for somebody, but I'm a little confused as to why you think HPLC method development or the belousov-zhabotinsky reaction has anything to do with the practice of pharmacy. It sounds like your degree was very research focused. Did you do anything in school relating to pharmacokinetics? Vancomycin, aminoglycoside or warfarin dosing? Drug metabolism via the CYP450 system? If not, your degree probably won't meet the FPGEC requirements. I highly encourage you to go to NABP.net and read more on the foreign graduate licensing process to see if you qualify. Good luck!



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[piccolochimico]

Thank you, i will reply later...now time to work

 

[gwarm01]

I have worked with foreign graduate pharmacists before. Not sure how you can get Visa sponsorship, but usually you'll have to work a full year as an intern before you can take the Naplex. Do you have any family in the US? Maybe you can live with them until you find a job?

 

[Sine Cura]

It is a difficult road for people with pharmacist training overseas especially with qualifications 15+ years ago since the focus of those pharmacy programs may be quite different than current pharmacy education in the U.S.

I recently interviewed someone for a tech position (who did not have a tech license after all...) who has been in the U.S. for over a decade with overseas pharmacy training from the early 2000s but never utilized this in the U.S. (and of course this person did not have open availability...) so I had a chance to consider the hurdles in front of this person.

Of all the hoops to jump through (FPGEC/FPGEE, TOEFL, state internship license, ~1500 internship hours, NAPLEX, and CPJE in California), by far the hardest part is getting the internship hours to qualify to take NAPLEX. For a naturalized citizen it is already difficult because companies in urban areas have no incentive to hire a pharmacy intern with foreign credentials when there are plenty of U.S. pharmacy students who can work as a pharmacy intern. This leaves independent pharmacies or locations in rural areas. Independents might not even pay you, so there is the possibility of having to relocate temporarily to an undesirable area and/or work for free.

If you NOT a naturalized citizen, then you need to be able to obtain an H1B work visa, but realistically only pharmacy chains like CVS would sponsor that. If they do want to sponsor, they would want to sponsor only those with recent pharmacy education and place you in the middle of nowhere where it is hard to staff pharmacies. More realistically they will do H1B sponsorship for a foreign student who matriculated at a U.S. pharmacy school... and put them in the middle of nowhere

These are just some things to consider...

 

[piccolochimico]

May i be hired without VISA and ask it by myself or is mandatory for the employer?
......
I regret to say that it is practically impossible for you to come to the US and work as a pharmacist.

This is the kind of informations i needed.

I'm sure you could be a great employee for somebody, but I'm a little confused as to why you think HPLC method development or the belousov-zhabotinsky reaction has anything to do with the practice of pharmacy. It sounds like your degree was very research focused. Did you do anything in school relating to pharmacokinetics? Vancomycin, aminoglycoside or warfarin dosing? Drug metabolism via the CYP450 system? If not, your degree probably won't meet the FPGEC requirements. I highly encourage you to go to NABP.net and read more on the foreign graduate licensing process to see if you qualify. Good luck!

Most of my academic education has no practical use in the daily job: customers do not ask me to calculate the free energy of a reaction or what kind of metabolizations process the drug is going to undergo, but i am proud of it, i have tried to understand what i was taught.
I spent my last year at the university working in a analisys lab, leraning from the professor and their assistant how to develop new methods, basically dealing with CNS drugs such as antipsichotics, antidepressants, trough herbals till the cathecolamins.

It is a difficult road for people with pharmacist training overseas especially with qualifications 15+ years ago since the focus of those pharmacy programs may be quite different than current pharmacy education in the U.S.

I recently interviewed someone for a tech position (who did not have a tech license after all...) who has been in the U.S. for over a decade with overseas pharmacy training from the early 2000s but never utilized this in the U.S. (and of course this person did not have open availability...) so I had a chance to consider the hurdles in front of this person.

Of all the hoops to jump through (FPGEC/FPGEE, TOEFL, state internship license, ~1500 internship hours, NAPLEX, and CPJE in California), by far the hardest part is getting the internship hours to qualify to take NAPLEX. For a naturalized citizen it is already difficult because companies in urban areas have no incentive to hire a pharmacy intern with foreign credentials when there are plenty of U.S. pharmacy students who can work as a pharmacy intern. This leaves independent pharmacies or locations in rural areas. Independents might not even pay you, so there is the possibility of having to relocate temporarily to an undesirable area and/or work for free.

If you NOT a naturalized citizen, then you need to be able to obtain an H1B work visa, but realistically only pharmacy chains like CVS would sponsor that. If they do want to sponsor, they would want to sponsor only those with recent pharmacy education and place you in the middle of nowhere where it is hard to staff pharmacies. More realistically they will do H1B sponsorship for a foreign student who matriculated at a U.S. pharmacy school... and put them in the middle of nowhere

These are just some things to consider...

I know that would be a step back, but even some pharm techs earn much more than me, so to my wallet is still an appealing job, remembering that i hold degree an i am registered pharmacist, both in Italy and in the UK.

Of course i would never leave my job for 14$/hour (the offer i have rejected) but it seems that this career could be an alternative way to get into your world, but i assume all my wishes will be stopped at US customs.

I would like to thank all of you for the help and the suggestions,now i have clear that is unlikely to get hired into US

 

[Caffeine QAM]

I've worked with a foreign pharmacy graduate in the past. She needed the 1500 intern hours before she could take the licensing exams (CPJE, NAPLEX), so she worked for an independent pharmacy for a year. As mentioned, independent pharmacies needing technicians/interns probably offer the best chances to get those intern hours. We were paid $11/hour as interns. No benefits, of course.

 

[piccolochimico]

I've worked with a foreign pharmacy graduate in the past. She needed the 1500 intern hours before she could take the licensing exams (CPJE, NAPLEX), so she worked for an independent pharmacy for a year. As mentioned, independent pharmacies needing technicians/interns probably offer the best chances to get those intern hours. We were paid $11/hour as interns. No benefits, of course.

I am already almost working for free, but at least i own my house (thanks to my parents).
I won't leave here to get into poverty, dreaming a better career.
To improve, bearing in mind pro & cons

 

[Dred Pirate]

I know several foreign pharmacist who first went to canada - I know the visa issues are less cumbersome