Career Paper March 20, 2008

My career choice is to be a pharmacist. Pharmacists prepare medicines for patients, supervise their technicians, and provide helpful information to the patients about their prescription.

There is a lot of education needed to become a pharmacist. If you choose any kind of career in the health field, they recommend to take many math and science classes. Most schools require students to have 2 years of pre pharmacy, including the completion of prerequisite math and science courses. Once you receive acceptance into a pharmacy school, you start a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, which takes about 4 years to complete.

There are three levels on the pharmacist career path, with different earnings. The first level is a Pharmacy Intern, who earns around $10 to $14 and hour. They are required to have completed 2 years of a pharmacy program. Their responsibilities are to provide information to patients about their medication, maintain records on all drugs, and prepare and dispense medication under the supervision of a licensed pharmacist. The second level is a Staff Pharmacist, who earns roughly $60,000 to $90,000 a year. They are required to have completed a Doctor of Pharmacy degree (PharmD). Their responsibilities are to counsel patients, communicate with physicians, nurses, and other health care professions, perform some administrative duty, and fill prescriptions. The third level is a Pharmacy Manager, who earns $75,000 to $110,000 a year. They are required to have completed several years as a pharmacist, and possibly had some business or management training.

There are a many jobs that are related to a pharmacist. These jobs include: Anesthesiologist, Chemist, Doctor, Medical Lab Tech, Microbiologist, Naturopath, Nuclear Medicine Technologist, Nurse Practitioner, Pharmacologist, Pharmacy Technician, and a Technical Sales Representative.

Through reading these articles, I learned about the third level of the career path of becoming a pharmacist.

You have to go through a lot of hard work to become a pharmacist, but it’s worth it and it pays off in the end.

March 17, 2007

The profession that I am most interested in is #30 (Pharmacist), which needs 8 yrs of college (2 basic years, 2 pre pharmacy years, and then 4 yrs of pharmacy school), and you get paid roughly $100,000/ yr. The pay all depends on what kind of pharmacy you work in.