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!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I'm unsure with the knowledge that so much will change with OPT how one could navigate forward on this. Have you talked with the international student office at your institution, presuming they may be able to advise you and similar students?