Predicament.

[Sulilina1]

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Ok.

I just received a phone call from my pharmacy manager. Well, first, here's the background. I've worked for Walgreens for a year in March. We got a new pharmacy manager like 4 months ago. I used to be a business major. I'm now a pre-pharmacy major and so when I started at Walgreens, all of my course work was done except the core prereqs. Now, I finally took the PCAT in October, and I applied to Nova. (I'm still waiting on a response from them.) At this point in the game, next semester I am finishing up my prereqs by taking Organic I & Lab (organic 2 in the summer), A&P2, Bio1/lab, and Calculus. Right now, my schedule is pretty rigorous, but nowhere like it will be next semester. With that being said, this semester my availability at Walgreens has been between 15-20 hours, but I'm not the only one. My pharmacy manager has been putting me on for about 12 hours a week. Then, as some of you know, Walgreens corporately cut everyone's hours. Now, my pharmacy manager went and decided to hire two new full time people when we really only needed 1 part timer. I usually work every single Tuesday morning, but she decided to call me today at the end of her shift to tell me basically that she didn't put me on the schedule because she has 2 new people and that they have hours she has to fullfill (I guess cause they're more flexible cause they're NOT in school). She told me she wrote the district pharmacists to call my cell phone if they need me. This is obviously insufficient, as I now have no permanent work schedule or "Home" store. Additionally, where my problem lies is that every single person in that pharmacy is either A. not in school. B. not a prepharm major and is taking like 1 class and working full time. or C. a FIRST YEAR prepharm major taking you know ENC1101 crap like that. And, there was one other kid who has been there for over a year who also got cut who is doing prepharmacy first year course work. Why would she cut someone who is trying to actually trying to get INTO pharmacy school finally. And WHY would she demand so much from me when my availability was already 15-20 hours. And, HOW does she expect any pre-pharmacy major taking rigorous coursework loads like I am and work full time at the same time and be flexible?

Now, she knows I just took the PCAT and studied my butt off for it. She knows I wanted to work more hours than 12. And she knows I'm waiting to hear from Nova. And, I know my store manager freaked when he found out I'm apping now to pharmacy school (he's a stingy money hungry jerk who hates to pay interns). Furthermore, since I'm not certified, I'm the one being paid the least in there.

I'm incredibly furious. What do say if I get an interview? I'm not technically "fired" but I'm pretty much unemployed. What do I do? I can't even find a pharmacy technician job out there in SFLA that doesn't ask for a bilingual and certified tech. I'm still looking but I'm absolutely freaking out. I'm incredibly upset and I'm worried.

Sorry for the incoherence I'm just freaking out here and I'm so upset. Any advice would help

Crystal

 

[Pharmpills]

I think alot of factors come into play here. i have worked for walgreens for over 2 years in miami and im not bilingual so that part of ur statement falls apart. yeah walgreens have been cutting hours i dont know whats wrong with this company bc there profit line is huge i think they just want to please shareholders and execs and dont care so much about the rest of the people (thats my 2 cents) anyways i think u shoulve been maybe in a better relationship with ur pharmacy manager or in other words get along pretty well so they wont have the heart to cut u. U should just apply to cvs or call the district manager. U need a good pcat score before u can start to worry about interviews. well gluck

 

[rxgales]

current stat..how were pharmacy schools selecting their applicants for the past years (not to name which school here) ...but didn't you know that most of the batch of pharmacy interns are probably dumb-er than most tech working right now...just ask around - Walgreens manager

 

[parabolic]

The time seems good to look for another job. You may not be certified (Side track: why aren't you? If you've been a tech for nearly a year, and are a pre-pharm major, you'll probably do well on the PTCE, plus Walgreens will pay for you to take it) but you are experienced and that counts for something.

Ask around--- bilingualism probably is not the be-all, end-all that every chain is looking for. And don't forget that there are hospitals, too. Write yourself up a resume and just start walking into places, asking if they are hiring technicians (only if it isn't busy at the time). Your situation doesn't sound like a good one, might as well start making plans to get out.

If you do have to stay for whatever reason, do you have any leverage at all with your store manager? You have seniority over the two new people and should get hours priority, no? Point out that being placed perpetually "on-call" is unacceptable, and if that doesn't sway them, see the first two paragraphs of this post. Good luck!

 

[Sulilina1]

Thanks for the advice.

I am talking to the district manager.. in fact, I'm waiting for her to call me back. I really don't want to leave Walgreens since I know their system and there is a new store opening so maybe I could catch a position there. It's just really scary when you're laid off like that out of the blue. Thank GOD I didn't use all my financial aid to pay off my private loan from business school.

On that note, I am looking into self-studying for the PTCE. I gotta look more into when the next test is but before that I just really need to have an idea of what direction I need to go in.

 

[omnione]

I notice that Nova's interviews are open-file meaning that your interviewers will know stuff about you. I would address the issue indirectly when the "why pharmacy/what experience do you have working in pharmacy?" questions come up and downplay it while not making it a focus. It's not like you got kicked out for insubordination or misconduct.

More likely, your one year of experience in the pharmacy holds weight too.