Walgreens: Pharmacy Technician
While it’s all good to reach for the stars and the high paying jobs, like it has been said in class many times there are just not that many job opportunities for us inexperienced students. Walgreens is a national chain that offers a variety of career, but the one most relevant to public health would be in the pharmacy field. Their careers working in the pharmacy is not just limited to pharmacy students, and unlike other employer such as target that require you to be certified or registered to work there, Walgreens has its own training program for newbie’s. The good thing about this employer is that there is a Walgreens everywhere. For the pharmacy technician position the only requirement is that you be 18 or older, it is also preferred to have a high school diploma. The training for this program is paid and also hands on. It is great for those more into the medical side of public health. You have the ability to combine two aspects, community work, because there will probably be repeat customer and you can get to know them on a semi-personal level. Also you will be aware of new and upcoming drugs that can cure/relieve certain symptoms/illnesses. It also involving some epidemiology, with the diagnosing counter you may notice people coming in reporting the same kind of symptoms or requiring the same kinds of medicines and encourage them to visit a physician to be properly diagnosed.
I think it is a great that you listed this job as a potential career for less experienced or even inexperienced students. It's funny because I actually had a friend who went through a job shadowing program to be a pharmacy technician at CVS. I know that's a different employer, but still it's the same concept. It's decent money for a high schooler or someone fresh out of high school. Nowadays, he's a full-fledged pharmacy technician. I think he may later on decide to go all the way and become a pharmacist, but for now he is happy. You get hands on training, work with customers and the local community, and you are constantly learning new information related to the field. I, myself am interested in epidemiology, so reading this actually made me interested in looking further at this as a possible current job. It's a way to get my foot in the door, and like you said, you learn on the job, so you don't really need more than brain and a high school diploma. Thanks for posting this as a possible career!
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