to land a retail pharmacy job if you have no prior pharmacy experience or if all your pharmacy tech. experience has been in a hospital?? and does it affect your start pay if you have no retail pharmacy experience???
How difficult is it..........
- Thread starter CuriousPharmD
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Are you a PharmD? Did you do any ambulatory clerkships? Did you do all your intern hours in a hospital?
If thats the case.....why do you want to seek retail now?
And...yes....the lack of experience would probably hold you back some.
If thats the case.....why do you want to seek retail now?
And...yes....the lack of experience would probably hold you back some.
Around here there are two qualifications for landing a job as a retail pharmacist:
1. licensed
2. breathing
1. licensed
2. breathing
sdn1977 said:
I'm starting my 2nd year (PS-2) in September and I just landed a pharmacy tech. job in a nearby hospital. I didn't specifically look for a hospital pharmacy tech. job. I just wanted to get any type of pharm. tech. job since I had no prior experience working in a pharmacy. But now it seems like I should have waited to land a retail pharmacy tech. job because that is where I most likely would like to work after pharmacy school since that's where the money is. Will my lack of experience of working in a retail pharmacy affect my starting salary out of school since all my pharmacy experience will be in a hospital????
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CuriousPharmD said:
Curious.....you've asked lots of questions recently. You don't seem to know really what you want to do after you finish. Why not just stay where you are in a hospital & see what kind of experiences you have? Even hospitals may have varying practice settings. My advice is to sit tight & see what comes of this opportunity.
You can always pick up a retail position later for a few days a month or on vacations. Retail is always looking for vaction or holiday relief.
Your salary when you get out of school will reflect your experience, but it won't be far off what the going rate is in your area. It equalizes very fast, so I wouldn't worry too much there.
Good luck!
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In my experience it's easier to find positions earlier in the school year.
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Hi - I'll be a P1 in the fall, but I've been a retail tech for almost 6 years, so I can comment on the retail side. I totally agree with bananaface's comment - the worst time of the year to get a tech job is probably the March-June time frame - we get calls almost daily then from students who just want to work in the summer. You might be more successful finding something in the late fall - early winter time frame. Even if you could only commit to a few hours a week at that point, you would at least get some experience and then you and your pharmacy could plan for how to get you more hours during the summer when you are off. I will also confess that I have a personal strong bias (having worked with all sorts of bad and good floaters, interns, new Rphs, etc. in the last 6 years) that you owe it to yourself to get some sort of retail pharmacy experience before you decide to go get a retail pharmacy job for the money. You really need to know what the retail setting is like - it's not for everybody, and I think it would be very difficult to be thrown into a pharmacy with your brand new license if you didn't have any experience beyond your 8 week rotation or however long your school requires.CuriousPharmD said:
However, I also agree with sdn1977 here - in many ways, there is more variety in practice settings within the hospital, so I think it is definitely worth working there some so you can see what that is like and what opportunities are there.
rxlynn said:
Another thing is I will be starting rotations in the summer next year, so I won't have the summer off to work full-time in a retail setting. I guess I will just talk to classmates to see if anything will be available during the school year.
Does anyone else have any other advise on this topic???? Thanks.......
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I've been working for Rite Aid for over a year now, and I love it! Easy-to-use computer system (at least I think!) and they pay the most (student-wise) in my area (northeast PA). I'd be happy to work for them as a pharmacist.
