Pharmaceutical

Despite the recent economic downturn, the pharmaceutical industry is still going strong, with positions available nationwide, and paying higher than many careers requiring comparable education.

There are many different types of positions in the pharmaceutical industry, meaning that if you are interested in working with pharmaceuticals, there is a job that is perfect for your strengths and specializations. In this industry, jobs are usually with pharmacies, such as in a grocery store, drugstore, or hospital, or with a pharmaceutical manufacturer.

Pharmacy technicians are the most basic jobs in pharmacy, and they provide a challenging, fast-paced environment with room for advancement. A pharmacy technician helps pharmacists dispense prescriptions, as well as fill them. They interact with doctors, surgeons, and nurses that have ordered prescriptions, as well as the patients that pick them up, so friendliness and social skills are a prerequisite for this job. A technician creates prescription labels, counts and dispenses medication, measures, weighs, and mixes medications, and selects prescription containers. Other job duties can include entering patient data and filing insurance claim forms, answering phones, working the cash register, taking inventory, ordering, and stocking over-the-counter medications, and knowing about the newest medications and their availability.

Pharmacy technician positions generally require an associate's or bachelor's degree in pharmacy, as well as state certification, which can be earned on the way to a degree. With a bachelor's or master's degree, other positions become available in pharmaceutical sales, which involves working directly with medication manufacturers and physicians in order to ensure that doctors are aware of the latest and most helpful medications. A doctorate in pharmacy is required to become a licensed pharmacist, who is in charge of operating a pharmacy, training pharmacy technicians, dispensing and filling medications, compounding medication combinations that are requested by doctors for specific patients, informing patients of the uses, side effects, and precautions related to their medications, and ordering prescription medications.

If you are interested in a career in pharmacy, the best starting point is to take an aptitude test online. You'll learn more about the details of pharmaceutical jobs, and this career assessment will show you what skills you'll need to possess. Strong math skills, a knowledge of biology and pharmacology, a willingness to work with others and a dedication to customer satisfaction are all needed for a career in the pharmaceutical industry, but the most important requirement is to want to succeed.