Advice needed: Pharm Tech or Intern.

[Tuquyen10]

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Hi everyone! I’m a Pre-PharmD student at MCPHS (international, F-1 visa with limited work time under OPT rules). Next fall will be my sophomore year, I’m trying to decide how to best use my allowed Pre-OPT time for off-campus work (Just plan ahead ).

Here are some options:

Option 1:

• Work as a pharmacy technician (CVS, etc.) during my sophomore (pre-professional) year
• Then do one pharmacy internship (hospital/community) during my P1 or P2 year

Option 2:

• Skip the tech job now
• Instead, do two pharmacy internships — one in P1 (community) and one in P2 (hospital)

Option 3:

• Stick to only one job title (either pharm tech or intern at one place) throughout my P1 P2 year.

Option 4:

• Save all my OPT until I get the Bachelor's degree (after P2 ) then intern during P3 P4 (PhD).

Option 5:

• Your insight!

Note: My school program is a direct entry for PharmD since freshman (2+4 program) and will cover the IPPE and APPE hours for licensure through the curriculum. These outside jobs are just extra experience/networking.

If you’ve gone through this, or have thoughts on what looks better to employers (early experience vs later internships), I’d love your input. Especially if you were in a similar visa/OPT situation.

Thanks in advance!