Which did you enjoy working for more retail? or in a hospital setting? I also applied as a pharmacy tech for a local hospital.
hospital. I did 2 years out of high school. I always felt more wanted for my skills in a hospital but they followed a strict seniority policy when it came to shifts. SO you always got the worst shifts, but eventually you'd move up. After a year or two, you got the nice cushy shifts. Oh the health benefits are way better, and longer lunches, etc. I always liked working in the hospital. They may not be as flexible in hours if you want flexible hours. I personally don't, i've learned it goes both ways (see below). Also, if you work outpatient, and you want to work inpatient, you will have first dibs on those jobs (internal transfer/hiring). If you work in retail, you will probably never get the opportunity to work inpatient (i.e. your skills don't transfer over, and/or hospitals don't want to hire you because you arent qualified). Do the hospital route, and try to get into inpatient. Inpatient is cushy. Its really cushy. You fill IV's all day long, in a air-conditioned environment, and pay is better. Outpatient, is just like retail, but you aren't pressured by corp. to do stupid things (i.e. walgreens gave us weigh counters..but we werent allowed to use them because techs were relying on them to much...lol..******s).
I worked for walgreens for 6 years, and they feed you alot of bull****. I was their fastest tech, their most experienced tech, which meant that I got the worst shifts, with the least amount of help, because "I could handle it" or "do it for the company". It made me hate retail. It was like they were working me to death or to quit (eventually i did quit). All they cared about is flexibility, and if you don't have it, you don't work (that isn't how companies should treat their employees). They don't do scheduling based on seniority, they schedule you based on something called flexible market scheduling (I call it favoritism). They told me that this system, allows the employees to have a fair system of scheduling, that nobody would work all nights, or all weekends. Thats not true, this scheduling gives the managers the flexibility to pull your shift to suit their needs. The flexibility is dictated by the store needs. So when Walgreens was losing money, they gave me hours I couldn't work, longer shifts, but less total overall hours. I walked out soon after that. As a college student, this made me lose alot of sleep. I may change my mind about walgreens, but for now they are in a crunch (thanks to cvs..lol).
I worked for CVS/Savon's for 2 years...i did enjoy them when they were savon's. I quit when they became CVS, mainly because I didn't know what to expect, and they were going through alot of problems during the change over. Also Walgreens was poaching techs from savon's, so I jumped ship. In retrospect, I shouldn't have left them. They did treat me fairly. They didn't change my schedule the night before. However, everything else is the same as any other retail pharmacy, prepare to work alot. What separates them from walgreens is that they were fair with the scheduling. As a college student, that was really important.
disclaimer: I truly dislike walgreens. So I am totally biased against walgreens.
After all that searching!! FINALLY!! but now that I landed the interview im kind of nervous about the interview itself... Can anyone give me some advice or anything I should know before walking into the Pharmacy on Wednesday for the Interview? Also, how is Wal-Greens compared to other major retail Pharmacies?
