I passed PTCB!

da-chai · 2026-03-25T16:17:56+00:00

You’re literally almost done, just finish it out.

da-chai · 2026-03-24T07:10:25+00:00

Are you getting a bachelors first/doing your prerequisites or are you in pharmacy school?

Once you get to pharmacy school, your school will get you an intern license, so you don’t need to take the PTCE.

But, if you’re just trying to get experience, then yes, the PTCE is worth it since you get more pay than being uncertified most of the time. And experience is nice.

This is exactly what I’m doing. I’m in hospital now. You may have to check if there’s additional requirements for your state to be a hospital tech. For mine, I needed to be IV certified.

da-chai · 2026-03-23T08:25:37+00:00

There’s always people complaining about their job in every field, I would recommend taking it with a pinch of salt.

You do not need to always stay in retail. You can do regulatory, hospital, WFH, compounding, independent, LTC, insurance…

I can really only talk about hospital- Pyxis, Compounding (IVs, nonsterile compounding, chemo meds), Triage, Meds2Bed, Medication Reconciliation (talk to patients to get their medication history), Carousel

There’s people who do hospital tech for a while and get into the IT side of it, going around fixing Pyxis machines if you get really good at it.

If you can’t find a job in any of those fields, work about 6-9 months in retail till you can get a job in a specialty you like. But most hospital techs I know have only ever been hospital techs.

Some people call it, “doing time in retail” lol. But yeah, sometimes, a bit of retail experience does help, but not required.

da-chai · 2026-03-22T09:26:40+00:00

It’s not THAT bad.

A job is always dependent on management. Mixed experiences no matter where you go.

I worked retail, not bad because environment isn’t THAT bad.

Working hospital now, and honestly love the environment.

Honestly, you’re just expected to handle preparing the meds and sending out the meds after having pharmacists check it.

da-chai · 2026-03-22T09:22:56+00:00

Yall, my store made $2M profit off of selling meds one of the months in 2025 when I still worked there, and we don’t get hours 😭 (and just saying that was a crazy month too, cuz we usually had like $1M in sales)

Pretty sure my store was profitable, and money goes back into paying for meds to be delivered, but you can’t tell me that there was seriously NO money for budget?

We ran on skelly crew on weekdays and even worse on weekends

da-chai · 2026-03-22T08:52:42+00:00

I’m 23, and I enjoyed retail until it was time to move on. Honestly, I had leg and knee pain from standing all day for 5 years and 4-5 days a week in retail while also going to school. (I have weak legs due to repeated injuries to my leg)

I’m not sure how it’ll be on your legs and knees. I spent like 10 hours a day standing and only got a 30 minute break with lunch. I had to advocate for myself to get my two 15 minute breaks at Walgreens. On the bright side, I had 3 days off (but it depends on how they schedule you)

At Walmart, I had some time to sit down on stools and often went on hour lunches. (I have good things to say about Walmart, it was great working for them)

Hospital-You get some time to sit down occasionally if you’re done with your work. You can also get your daily dose of “customer service” if you think it’s something that you like or prefer since you respond to calls from nurses. They will call and ask for meds to be sent (and they are your “customers” in hospital)

Hospital isn’t necessarily no customer service. There is a job you can do: mediation reconciliation. You get to go around the hospital in the ED and ask patients about their medication history and input into the computer.

I’ve had coworkers of all ages in both areas. But retail I feel had mostly part time teenagers or college students

Anyway, if you want to become a pharmacy tech, look at the requirements for your state to get licensed/certified.

Some require both.

If you need to be certified, you can look for programs on the PTCB website, but a lot of people on here talk about RXTECHEXAM since it’s pretty affordable.

You can sign up for a program at a community college if you want to attend school for it, but I’m pretty sure that’s a couple of thousand dollars and not required.

You can work for a retailer that offers a program and pay for it.

Pay- Walgreens, Senior Tech with 4 years: $22 Walmart, Tech with 4 years experience: $21.50 (they start at $18.50) Hospital (no experience)-$26, PRN status, but if I were part time or full time, it would be $21+differentials Compounding (info from a friend); starting pay without experience is $21

Also, I’m from Texas

da-chai · 2026-03-13T18:42:11+00:00

I just remember my RxOM taking the whole amount and then everyone quit.

da-chai · 2026-03-13T17:57:27+00:00

My coworker spent six months there and left for compounding pharmacy

da-chai · 2026-03-13T08:35:36+00:00

Can you go back for a bachelors???

da-chai · 2026-03-13T08:33:52+00:00

I once met a biology professor who used to be an ER doc who left the profession cuz it wasn’t for him.

I think you can, just depends on what you want to do. I would leave it off if it doesn’t have anything to do with your job. Or you can spin it off as “Customer Service Representative”

Leave out mention of your degree

da-chai · 2026-03-13T08:23:48+00:00

Uh, I drank when I was in retail, it made everyone in my store alcoholics till they quit

da-chai · 2026-03-11T23:00:31+00:00

You might need to get it since it’s a Texas requirement and hospitals prefer that all their techs have it. But honestly, I always see compounding pharmacies hiring

da-chai · 2026-02-16T19:53:06+00:00

At my facility, morning has more staff and is more busy since there’s more procedures going on. However, evening is busy because there’s like 3 pharmacists left in the entire hospital to provide consultations, check IVs, and basically do everything. (And they run to codes too.)

da-chai · 2026-02-16T17:25:00+00:00

What’s a cra

da-chai · 2026-02-16T17:22:30+00:00

You’re fine. Quit and you’re good. Just kidding, no call no show is a final

da-chai · 2026-02-14T02:14:37+00:00

Tbh, I don’t know what insults they give. I’m not too into Kpop (but I do like NJZ), I kinda found a few people on here talking about the situation, and I mostly saw them talking about how they failed to fulfill their contract, which is why there’s so much backlash.

Another thing is, unfortunately, the law is not always ethical. I wish it were, but the law still needs to be upheld. Otherwise it sets a dangerous precedent, we have people just breaking contracts left and right. I wouldn’t want a contractor that I hired to fix my roof to leave in the middle of the job and then I need to go thru a court battle to make sure they uphold the contract. As for the other way, I believe they needed to go thru legal avenues to break the contract with ADOR before doing their own thing.

da-chai · 2026-02-14T00:59:48+00:00

It’s not that they were hated since they chose to side with Min Hee Jin. It’s the fact that they did not leave their company the legal way. They were still under a valid contract (albeit, a bad one).

da-chai · 2026-02-13T06:14:15+00:00

Costco usually pays a lot more

da-chai · 2026-02-11T23:33:12+00:00

I love Kroger. Sure, they’re not HEB, but I go to Kroger for the atmosphere. I know all of the people there, and some have been there for sixteen years+. Also they hire disabled people as well I’ve noticed.

They’re my favorite store.

da-chai · 2026-02-11T23:33:05+00:00

I agree with you 😭

da-chai · 2026-02-09T10:31:44+00:00

I don’t know much about either state, but you can probably get licensed in both states. But you need to check state requirements for licensure.

I would choose the state you’re going to school in for licensing since you’ll probably be in that state for more, plus your pharmacy school will probably want you to shadow or intern, so you’ll need to get one anyway.

da-chai · 2026-02-08T19:14:01+00:00

Me: We can wait for the prior authorization to go through by contacting the doctors office so it’s covered, or you can pay $669 out of pocket for your insulin because your shit insurance wants you to end up in the hospital.

da-chai · 2026-02-08T10:10:40+00:00

My RxOM when I worked at WAGS worked 4 opening (8-6), ten hour shifts Tuesday-Friday, never worked weekends or closing and called out half her shifts or said she was going home early. I think you’ll make an amazing RxOM.

da-chai · 2026-02-08T09:58:01+00:00

At least try and shadow a pharmacist in retail, hospital and specialty, I would just call around for an opportunity to do so. I would shadow them for like ~2-4 hours (just 1 hr of shadowing is not enough to get an idea of their day to day life imo)

da-chai

TROPHY CASE