A pharmacy technician works at a pharmacy and performs, as the title implies, the more technical tasks related to the pharmacy’s operation. This normally involves mixing chemicals to produce medications, as well as operating various machines used in the process. Pharmacy technicians may also be required to perform servicing and basic maintenance on the equipment they work with, and they may additionally be hired in teams in order to cover a specific task more efficiently. Usually, pharmacy technicians work under the close supervision of actual pharmacists.
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Getting hired as a pharmacy technician doesn’t require a high educational degree in most cases, though some pharmacies may require their candidates to have at least a Bachelor’s degree in a technical field such as engineering. However, once again, this isn’t a strict requirement in most cases and the job can be easily obtained without any high qualifications, as most pharmacies offer training courses to teach the basic skills required to perform the job properly.
Pharmacy technicians are paid the lowest out of all the employees in a given pharmacy, receiving an annual salary of between $15,000 – $27,000. The job, however, doesn’t have so many duties attached to it and can be performed mostly with ease, which is part of the driving force behind its low salary. Additionally, the working hours of a pharmacy technician can be more flexible than those of other employees too, due to them being required less frequently.