Can a licensed pharmacist take a job as an intern or even technician to get their foot in the door?

Started by Nelcovp
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Nelcovp

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Forgive me for not using the search function. Just posting what is on my mind is easier.

I'm currently looking for employment in compounding. No one is hiring pharmacists. However, I see plenty of ads looking for pharmacy technicians. Is it possible for a pharmacist with an active license to apply for a technician position to get their foot in the door? I know this is probably weird at best. But, from a business standpoint, getting a pharmacist for technician salary would seem like a score. And personally, you are not only gaining experience but also in a full time job interview for when they do need someone. Thoughts?
 
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A smart employer will only do it if they expect to have a pharmacist position for you soon. Otherwise, they know you're going to jump ship ASAP.
 
If you couldn't be bothered to search for this commonly asked question then I'm not surprised you lack the tenacity to get out there and find the job you want.

It's a bad idea, no one would ever hire you, and it may not be allowed depending on your state's rules.

Could you even imagine being that annoying tech that lets everyone know they are actually a pharmacist? Could you imagine working with that technician? What a nightmare.
 
gwarm01 said:
If you couldn't be bothered to search for this commonly asked question then I'm not surprised you lack the tenacity to get out there and find the job you want.
Click to expand...

Commonly asked question, huh? I just typed in my question into the search field and found nothing related to my question. Tell me Mr. Tenacious, how would you go about landing a job in a subfield of pharmacy that isn't looking for pharmacists? This I'd love to hear.

Oh, and I didn't say I couldn't be bothered to use the search function. I said it was easier to simply ask the question. Which is exactly what I'll do if I have another question in the future. In fact, I hate the search function. I'm really not interested in posts and replies from 2011 of how a pre-vet can get in the door.
 
Nelcovp said:
Forgive me for not using the search function. Just posting what is on my mind is easier.

I'm currently looking for employment in compounding. No one is hiring pharmacists. However, I see plenty of ads looking for pharmacy technicians. Is it possible for a pharmacist with an active license to apply for a technician position to get their foot in the door? I know this is probably weird at best. But, from a business standpoint, getting a pharmacist for technician salary would seem like a score. And personally, you are not only gaining experience but also in a full time job interview for when they do need someone. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Cut me some slack people, I'm just doing some outside of the box thinking here. If you have any (worthwhile) suggestions, I'm willing to listen.
 
Honestly, if that application came across my desk, my first question is, "Why is this person damaged goods?/ Why is this person unhireable as a pharmacist?" Job market is not a valid excuse to me (but does play into why the OP is in this predicament, I acknowledge).

That said, the liability of having a licensed pharmacist on your staff as a technician and subject to different training requirements and not under the purview of our clinical manager opens a whole different can of worms internally that I just don't want to deal with it. My worst case scenario is this overqualified technician with a pharmacist license conversing with someone on the floor and dispensing advice that ultimately kills someone, and the investigation yields that this person was not held to internal standards of training that our staff pharmacists are held to.

Probably won't happen that way, but I don't care.

You better surrender that RPh license & scrub your resume of your PharmD if you want to be a technician, basically.
 
Nelcovp said:
Cut me some slack people, I'm just doing some outside of the box thinking here. If you have any (worthwhile) suggestions, I'm willing to listen.
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Sorry but some truths are hard to hear. If this is what you really want to do then you either open your own compounding pharmacy or you go on a nationwide job search until you get what you want.
 
Most state boards won't let a licensed professional impersonate another role. So if you're a pharmacist and you work as a tech, I hope you have a tech license for the state. (It's hilarious isn't it, you can't work as a tech when you're an RPh since you are not a registered pharmacy technician?!). You'll have to work as a pharmacist practically, but in terms of pay, that's not the board's business, that's between the two of you. If you want to accept lesser pay for the opportunity to work there, that's capitalism at work.

And no, the idea isn't as farfetched as it seems. A lot of clinical faculty started out as $0 (without compensation) volunteers at the university, got the way the bureaucracy worked, and after a while, either we invited them on as paid faculty or parlayed it into the ask. It sometimes happens with a retail pharmacist who is going into institutional where they volunteer their time with the place in order to get the retraining and the director doesn't want to go for pay.

What I'm surprised at is how few pharmacists volunteer their professional time directly in altruistic activities as it's rather valuable to everyone. I volunteer at a 340B clinic because the patients really are in need, are working poor, and not on the dole, the pharmacy could use another pharmacist, and I keep in tactile practice where my day job doesn't usually allow me for that (I do get malpractice insurance and a liability waiver since it is a 340B clinic, so I'm not risking my license here). It'd be nice if pharmacists took a little time and did those sort of community health activities (health fairs, religious charity, etc.) once they are financially secure. It doesn't even have to be pharmacy, but after seeing all those angelic lines in the applications, it's rather sad to me that the volunteering and general altruism rarely persists once the credit is cashed in for the admission. Pharmacy has always done a terrible job is professional enrichment, the sort of growth past initial practice into something most would find personally meaningful.
 
Nelcovp said:
Forgive me for not using the search function. Just posting what is on my mind is easier.

I'm currently looking for employment in compounding. No one is hiring pharmacists. However, I see plenty of ads looking for pharmacy technicians. Is it possible for a pharmacist with an active license to apply for a technician position to get their foot in the door? I know this is probably weird at best. But, from a business standpoint, getting a pharmacist for technician salary would seem like a score. And personally, you are not only gaining experience but also in a full time job interview for when they do need someone. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

This a terrible idea, no.
 
Rukn said:
Lol this is what it's coming to now
Pharmacists taking jobs as technicians to find an entry into more desirable work
Click to expand...

No different than lawyers taking jobs as paralegals (other than the licensing aspect as someone else explained above.)
 
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WestTXisGr8 said:
If you're interested in a job, text or call me (preferably text to start, I work a lot). I need several retail pharmacists in North Dakota. We do some compounding. Pay is good, job is great! I'm a PIC and I love it!! My cell # is 806-205-3954

And it's not totally rural! All the towns we need pharmacists have a population of >20,000. So there is a decent amount of restaurants & stuff to do!
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who posts their cell number in a random forum - unless you are posting someone else's as a practical joke - which would be funny
 
North Dakotan innocents, that's probably a real number and I'll put real money that the writer is an NDSU/Montana grad that has worked a career in said remote area. That's how it works in the rural Midwest and especially those ND anti-chain pharmacists, where it's survival as well as camraderie. Rather different than the Californians that we're used to.

Owlegrad or some other mod, would you please force edit that post to remove that innocent's phone number and advise him/her to PM said person?

Dred Pirate said:
who posts their cell number in a random forum - unless you are posting someone else's as a practical joke - which would be funny
Click to expand...
 
gwarm01 said:
We have very different definitions of rural.
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She said "not totally" as in only 95% rural.

And coming from a town of ~10k, going somewhere with >20k is kinda like going into a "city". It's certainly less rural than the surrounding towns of less than 500 people with maybe one gas station and one bar/restaurant.
 
Nelcovp said:
Forgive me for not using the search function. Just posting what is on my mind is easier.

I'm currently looking for employment in compounding. No one is hiring pharmacists. However, I see plenty of ads looking for pharmacy technicians. Is it possible for a pharmacist with an active license to apply for a technician position to get their foot in the door? I know this is probably weird at best. But, from a business standpoint, getting a pharmacist for technician salary would seem like a score. And personally, you are not only gaining experience but also in a full time job interview for when they do need someone. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I did exactly this to get my foot in the door for compounding-took a job as a tech for a compounding pharmacy in NY and then when a pharmacist job opened up, applied for it and got the pharmacist job. I would say as long as you are truthful about your situation, there are employers out there that will understand and give you that chance. To my employer, they treated it as an extended interview and when I showed that I was able to do the job and when pharmacist position opened up, I was a natural candidate for it.

Let me know if you're interested in the NY area and I can share some contacts that can help. Good luck
 
lcow2004 said:
I did exactly this to get my foot in the door for compounding-took a job as a tech for a compounding pharmacy in NY and then when a pharmacist job opened up, applied for it and got the pharmacist job. I would say as long as you are truthful about your situation, there are employers out there that will understand and give you that chance. To my employer, they treated it as an extended interview and when I showed that I was able to do the job and when pharmacist position opened up, I was a natural candidate for it.

Let me know if you're interested in the NY area and I can share some contacts that can help. Good luck
Click to expand...

This is pretty interesting. Whenever this topic has come up in the past, often people stated it wasn't allowed to work as a tech if you were licensed as a pharmacist. Perhaps this is state to state, but does the NY BOP allow this?

It also brings other things into question. If you work as a technician while licensed as a pharmacist, how did you handle differentiation of duties? Would you ever verify things on your own, or did you have someone who was being paid as a pharmacist do it? It's kind of interesting, because, despite your job title at that particular employer, you are a licensed pharmacist. I could see it creating conflict where you are capable and legally authorized to perform certain duties, but are not being employed to do such. I could also see situations where your employer would want you to act as a pharmacist while still being paid as a technician.
 
gwarm01 said:
This is pretty interesting. Whenever this topic has come up in the past, often people stated it wasn't allowed to work as a tech if you were licensed as a pharmacist. Perhaps this is state to state, but does the NY BOP allow this?

It also brings other things into question. If you work as a technician while licensed as a pharmacist, how did you handle differentiation of duties? Would you ever verify things on your own, or did you have someone who was being paid as a pharmacist do it? It's kind of interesting, because, despite your job title at that particular employer, you are a licensed pharmacist. I could see it creating conflict where you are capable and legally authorized to perform certain duties, but are not being employed to do such. I could also see situations where your employer would want you to act as a pharmacist while still being paid as a technician.
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It's also an age thing. Prior to 2005/6 in AZ, you could work as young as 12 as a pharmacy tech before they instituted tech licensing. I still am somewhat against tech licensing as what the hell kind of an education are you really verifying? The reason why tech licensing came about was chain pharmacists complained that the corporations (and the Big Three in Phoenix: Walgreens, Osco, and Kroger) threw and rotated dumb cashiers instead of actual people who had some investment in the skills, and the Board agreed. To the argument that it's revenue generating for the state, the AZ Board has all these dumb headaches as techs have more interesting lives than us squares. But currently, you can't do tech work unless you're a tech licensed in AZ even if you are an intern or a pharmacist. (And specifically in AZ, you are not allowed to retain a conflicting/overlapping authority license for the Pharmacy Board, so you can be a pharmacist, an intern, or a tech, but not more than one of the three at a given time. This does not apply to multiple licensing with the other health boards as I know quite a number of RPh/MD, RD/PT/OT/RPh, and even RN/RPh).
 
Nel, i created an account to say i know you in person and i can tell you it's because of your attitude and how you approach people. There are jobs here. I was offered a compounding one this week. Something to reflect on.
 
gwarm01 said:
If you couldn't be bothered to search for this commonly asked question then I'm not surprised you lack the tenacity to get out there and find the job you want.

It's a bad idea, no one would ever hire you, and it may not be allowed depending on your state's rules.

Could you even imagine being that annoying tech that lets everyone know they are actually a pharmacist? Could you imagine working with that technician? What a nightmare.
Click to expand...

if anything I think the will to work as a tech or intern while being a licensed pharmacist indicates the OP possesses some quality of tenacity.
 
babybull said:
if anything I think the will to work as a tech or intern while being a licensed pharmacist indicates the OP possesses some quality of tenacity.
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It indicates to more desperation than tenacity. But I guess there could be a little overlap.
 
I only up this thread because I recently had this same discussion with someone considering surrendering their rph just to be able to work in a pharmacy again. Pretty sad twist of fate to have worked as a tech, developed a real interest in the field enough to complete an advanced degree, and then being unable to get a new job and/or return to your previous one. Obviously boxing yourself into retail or being dead set on one specific role is setting yourself up for failure in this case.. especially with the job market what it is right now

I think Ill tell my friend to drive an uber for now and learn some coding/programming for a career pivot
 
O.State said:
I only up this thread because I recently had this same discussion with someone considering surrendering their rph just to be able to work in a pharmacy again. Pretty sad twist of fate to have worked as a tech, developed a real interest in the field enough to complete an advanced degree, and then being unable to get a new job and/or return to your previous one. Obviously boxing yourself into retail or being dead set on one specific role is setting yourself up for failure in this case.. especially with the job market what it is right now

I think Ill tell my friend to drive an uber for now and learn some coding/programming for a career pivot
Click to expand...

Why would you want to work in a pharmacy as a tech other than as a stop gap? It seems like a lot of the new pharmacists don't have the human capital you'd expect of someone who graduated from a professional school.
 
Gombrich12 said:
Why would you want to work in a pharmacy as a tech other than as a stop gap? It seems like a lot of the new pharmacists don't have the human capital you'd expect of someone who graduated from a professional school.
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That was how bad the late 70's got. There were quite a number of "Assistant Pharmacists" that got tech pay while waiting for a permanent position to come open (this was in the days that floating had to be pre-approved by most Boards). PA really had that as a problem such that many of their new grads through the mid-90s were exports to other states rather than stay in the Commonwealth. At the state some of these grads come out, it actually might be more effective to have them work 6 months as an Assistant Pharmacist under supervision and with tech pay until they get a handle on the system.
 
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Nelcovp said:
Cut me some slack people, I'm just doing some outside of the box thinking here. If you have any (worthwhile) suggestions, I'm willing to listen.
Click to expand...
Do you have a license currently in your state. If you don’t and are still studying for MPJE, you can be a grad intern. I don’t think you can be a tech, that is illegal at least in Alabama, it is illegal
 
6 months ago I would have said no. Walgreens is using 2020 grads who are licensed pharmacists as grad interns and isn’t coding them as pharmacists. Until they “find them a pharmacist spot”
 
projektreverb said:
6 months ago I would have said no. Walgreens is using 2020 grads who are licensed pharmacists as grad interns and isn’t coding them as pharmacists. Until they “find them a pharmacist spot”
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Dang, they might be grad interns for life if there are no pharmacist spots
 
gwarm01 said:
If you couldn't be bothered to search for this commonly asked question then I'm not surprised you lack the tenacity to get out there and find the job you want.

It's a bad idea, no one would ever hire you, and it may not be allowed depending on your state's rules.

Could you even imagine being that annoying tech that lets everyone know they are actually a pharmacist? Could you imagine working with that technician? What a nightmare.
Click to expand...
It is a nightmare. I worked with a tech that was close to finishing pharmacy school. She just need her 4th year of pharmacy school. After working with her, I could see why they kicked her out and didn’t let her back in. I hated working with her cause she thought she knew everything and challenged me. It was the only time in my pharmacy career where I had to put a tech in her place.
 
Mambo#5 said:
It is a nightmare. I worked with a tech that was close to finishing pharmacy school. She just need her 4th year of pharmacy school. After working with her, I could see why they kicked her out and didn’t let her back in. I hated working with her cause she thought she knew everything and challenged me. It was the only time in my pharmacy career where I had to put a tech in her place.
Click to expand...
I must have been in a bad mood when I made that original post because that reads as very mean. Of course, it is true, but very mean.
 
Nelcovp said:
Forgive me for not using the search function. Just posting what is on my mind is easier.

I'm currently looking for employment in compounding. No one is hiring pharmacists. However, I see plenty of ads looking for pharmacy technicians. Is it possible for a pharmacist with an active license to apply for a technician position to get their foot in the door? I know this is probably weird at best. But, from a business standpoint, getting a pharmacist for technician salary would seem like a score. And personally, you are not only gaining experience but also in a full time job interview for when they do need someone. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

If you had gained experience prior to getting your license, why not open your own compounding pharmacy ?Compounds are one of the few items that people will pay cash for. You would have to know your market including competitors. You would also have to advertise your services to local prescribed some docs love compounds. Purchasing an existing indie would make you $.
 
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