If you like to work with people and have a very strong attention to detail, a job as a pharmacy technician may be for you. Pharmacy technician salary is quite good, about $14 an hour on average across all levels of experience, and it’s also a job that has a pretty good job outlook.
What do you need to do to be a pharmacy technician?
To be a pharmacy technician, it’s not always required that you have previous experience, although it’s preferred. In most cases, you also don’t need certification, although some states are now requiring it; you can get certification through one of two professional organizations, the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board or the Institute for the Certification of Pharmacy Technicians. Check with your own state’s requirements to determine what you need to do to become a pharmacy technician.
Beyond a basic level of education and/or experience, other main skills you’ll need to have as a pharmacy technician are a strong attention to detail and extreme organization. You will need to be responsible for receiving and filling prescription requests from hospitals, doctors and nurses, under the supervision of a pharmacist. You may also do clerical work such as preparing insurance claim forms, maintaining inventory (especially for over the counter medications), and answering the phone. You’ll also be handling money (such as when patients pay for medications), and maintaining patient profiles.
You can see that despite its relatively modest title, the job of the pharmacy technician is very important indeed. In addition to the above skills, you’ll also need to like working with people, since you’ll be dealing with people on a daily basis. And of course, you’ll need to have good math, reading and spelling abilities, and be good at following directions. You also cannot work as a pharmacy technician if you have a history of drug abuse.
Does a pharmacy technician salary increase with experience?
A pharmacy technician salary does increase with experience, with those just starting out making about $19,000 year; those in the upper 90th percentile, those with the most experience and/or the most responsibility, can make as much as $40,000 year. Therefore, even though it doesn’t have the cachet, necessarily, of a pharmacist’s job, the job of a pharmacy technician can certainly be rewarding and even lucrative.
If you find the job of a pharmacy technician intriguing, and you think the pharmacy technician salary is adequate, check with your local community college or technical school to see what courses are offered.
Job outlook
Fortunately, the pharmacy technician’s job is going to be more in demand in the coming years; that’s because many relatively rudimentary tasks traditionally done by pharmacists, nurses, and other medical professionals are going to be assigned to pharmacy technicians, so that nurses, doctors, and pharmacists can turn their attention to other more advanced job duties. Both the increase in demand and the importance of the pharmacy technician’s role mean that the average pharmacy technician salary will be only looking to improve over the coming years.
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