Pharmacy Technician University

I think it’s important that you know not only about the good things about being a pharmacy technician – but also the bad things.

Many of these are my opinion.  Some seasoned technicians may disagree with them.  Also, I’ve addressed some of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from techs.  Some of those I disagree with.

Pharmacy Technician Pay

You’ll never get rich being a pharmacy technician.  Plain and simple.  However, I would think most technicians would understand the economies of working in a pharmacy.

Here is what generally happens: they get their first pharmacy technician job.  Start working.  End up doing a lot of the grunt work.  Don’t get paid as much for doing some of the same work as the pharmacist and the other technicians.  Complain.  Get bitter.  But, refuse to quit or find better paying work or better themselves.  The road goes on forever.  The complaining never ends.

This is a nasty cycle for a technician to get into.

Let me say one thing.  Technician pay scales vary widely.  I know techs who make at the bottom of the scale – $20 to $25K per year.  I also know techs who make upwards of $50K per year.

The difference isn’t experience.  There’s a lot of disgruntled, long-tenured pharmacy technicians.  The difference – and it’s a factor of two – is the value that that particular technician brings to the pharmacy.

Most technicians don’t think they can become this valuable.  They can.  It isn’t easy.  And it takes some time.  But it can be done.  Come in early.  Stay a little late.  But, most importantly, learn everything in the pharmacy better than all the other techs.  The computer system.  Billing.  Patients.  Charge accounts.  Make yourself indispensable – or make the pharmacist feel like you are that way.  Pay then becomes less of an issue.  As I said above, you won’t get rich but you can be more comfortable.

The most common complaint I hear (sometimes inadvertently) from pharmacy technicians is “I do everything the pharmacist does but he makes 3 times more than me.”

Please don’t fall into that trap.  Yes, technicians do all the same technical things that a pharmacist does.  In some cases, they do it better.  But, if something goes out of that pharmacy wrong – and harms somebody – and a lawsuit ensues … they ain’t coming after you.  They are coming after the pharmacist.  Even if he didn’t catch a mistake the technician made.  You’re not lying awake at night wondering if you sent that Zyrtec prescription out with Zyprexa instead.

Technicians are a pharmacist’s best friend … if they are good.  You’re critical to a pharmacy running smoothly.  I depend on my technicians every day.  But, until you have your pharmacy license and are taking on the responsibility every day of what I just explained above – you won’t get – and don’t deserve – that kind of pay.

Other Female Pharmacy Technicians

OK, this one is mine and I know I’m probably stepping on a landmine by mentioning it.  But, based on my experience, most technicians are female.  Most pharmacies require a number of technicians to operate.  That means more women working together in a closed space.  That means more fights.  Women are notorious for this.

Men fight too.  They just seem to get over it quicker.  Enemies one day.  Friends the next.  Or at least, they can operate the next day.  Women … that’s another story.

I’ve seen it again and again and again at every place I’ve worked.  And yes, I’ve talked to my techs about it.  The ironic thing?  They agree with me 100%.  I’ve had my female technicians tell me that women are – “petty, caddy, backstabbing, jealous, brutal” and a whole host of other unflattering adjectives.

The point is – it can be an unpleasant atmosphere to jump into.  It may not be politically correct to say it.  But, even female technicians agree with my statement.

There are other disadvantages to working as a pharmacy technician.  But, they are all fixable in one way or another.  And frankly, not a huge issue.  For example, some technicians have told me they don’t like the hours.

Well, if you’re in retail go look for a hospital job.  You’ll probably like those even less.  Or, maybe there’s a nursing home hiring.  The point is you have options.

Other technicians talk about lack of benefits.  Where I work – benefits are equal between pharmacists and technicians.  If you work for a place that lacks benefits you have one of two options: continue and learn to live with them or move on.

By the way, I think the trend with all employers will be to continue to try and scale back benefits.  You can’t blame them.  With lowered employee retainment it becomes very expensive to give benefits to employees who may be gone in six months.  Of course, most employers are far from loyal anymore.  Simply the way of the world.  You can lament that or deal with it.  I hope you choose the latter.

If you want to know how to become a pharmacy technician there are a couple of different schools of thought. One says you should go to pharmacy technician school, study the books and then get certified (either before or after working in a pharmacy). The other idea focuses on working on the job for your training and then, when you reach a certain point, go take the technician certification exam.

I’ll give you the ins and outs. What my technicians do and why. And other points you need to consider before you make the leap.

First things first.

What are your long term goals?

At the risk of sounding like a self-development guru it really helps to know what you want out of being a pharmacy technician. Is it a short-term gig for you or can you see yourself doing it ten years down the road? The answer to that question will likely dictate your answer on how you should become a pharmacy technician.

Frankly, none of my technicians ever went to any sort of special pharmacy technician school or pharmacy technician certification program. Not that some sort of program like that wouldn’t be helpful. But I’ve never found that any of my pharmacy technicians needed it.

As an aside, my particular state doesn’t require it.

What they do require is that you be a certified pharmacy technician. How you get to that point doesn’t matter. As long as you can show competency on the technician exam you’re good to go.

Since time is of the essence, we’ve found the quickest way to get a pharmacy technician certified is with on-the-job training. But that is my state and my experience.

Do I know others who went through a pharmacy technician school? Yes, but to be honest they are the minority. Again, this is likely due to my states laws and requirements.

In short, here are my recommendations:

• First of all, find out your particular state laws regarding pharmacy technicians. If they require that you attend pharmacy technician school this conversation is over. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.
• Next, what is your time frame and money situation? Attending school or a special certification program isn’t cheap and it will likely take a year or more of your time. If you have that kind of time and money you may want to consider it. There are those advocates who say that those types of programs make for a better pharmacy technician. I think that’s an arguable point.
• Another option is to look into an online pharmacy technician course. You can take the classes online while still working at another job.

Pharmacy Technician Training: ROI

In the investing world there is something called ROI (return on investment). You’ve probably heard of it. Because I get a lot of pharmacy students and potential pharmacy technicians my way I get asked a lot about education and pharmacy technician schools. This has always been a good (I think) piece of advice that I don’t hear a lot of other teachers talk about.

Base your choice of whether or not to attend a certification program or school based on your return on investment.

What do you have to put into it and what will you likely get out of it? That’s as simply as I can put it.

Let’s use a very basic example just to illustrate. Say you want to get a degree and you have the option of attending a pricey private school with a great reputation or a moderately priced public school with a good reputation. My advice would be to sit down and talk to former students. Find out what their graduation rates are. What are their placement rates in their desired jobs. And then, when you have all the information you need sit down and run some numbers.

If the average pharmacy technicians wage in your area is $12.50 an hour you know that you’re going to take home (net) around $10/hr (just to make the math easy). So, if you have to pay $5,000 to attend a pharmacy technician school for a year that means you’ll have to work an extra 500 hours to pay for that school. At face value, that may not seem like such a great thing to do.

But, do the technicians in your area who have attended this program get easier and better placement in pharmacy technician jobs that come up? You can find out by asking the school…they should have these numbers.

If attending that school gives you an automatic extra $1 an hour raise then you’ve already paid for almost half of your school by doing the same amount of work that another technician who didn’t attend the school would do. Is it starting to sound like a better idea?

This is what I mean by sitting down and running numbers for your particular situation.

I can’t give a blanket answer that would work for everyone. Your situation is unique. Where do you live? Do you have to commute to attend pharmacy technician school? Can you work full time while attending classes? Could you opt instead to study on your own out of some quality pharmacy technician books? Could you attend an online pharmacy technician program that is cheaper and allows you to work from home and save money on gas? Or, maybe your state doesn’t require any sort of formal training to be certified. Maybe you can get on the job training and then take the pharmacy technician certification exam.

I will say this, overall I have found the best option in my area is to get trained while doing on the job work and then take the certification program. If you think about this, you are being paid to learn. That is the best of both worlds.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t attend a pharmacy technician school or any sort of online education program. Like I showed above, your particular situation may warrant that – especially if you are going to make more money out of the gate and recoup or even surpass you initial investment.

How to become a pharmacy technician is a individual and private decision that can only be made by you and based on your particular goals and personal situation right at this moment in time.