Positions Available? I Think Not

As if this economy isn't doing bad enough already, it has come near impossible to find a job opening these days. To make matters worse, a job opening is even harder to come by when one aims for one particular position. Think I'm lying? Try going around and asking for an availiable spot for a pharmacy technician. I can guarantee you that you will not find one in all the pharmacies within a 10 mile radius of your house. The end of today concluded my third day of job hunting for a spot in any pharmacy as a pharmacy technician. It's not even like I'm starting from the very beginning like some hired pharm techs are. For example, once CVS hires you as a pharm tech, they train you for an estimated 9 months. Of course there are people who finish much faster, but that is the designated time. In that time, they teach you how to work the CVS pharmacy system and also train you in part to take the PTCE (Pharmacy Technician Certification Exam). Once you take it and pass, you are certified to work as a pharmacy technician in the state you took the exam. I studied for this exam myself using one book for about 2 weeks and I ended up passing. Therefore I don't need that portion of the training for that big pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens require. However, the sad fact is, those people who got hired and were trained by CVS or Walgreens before taking the exam have a job waiting for them when they finish it. As for people like me, we are jobless with a pharmacy technician license. Heck, I even applied for a pharmacy technician position at CVS back in March during spring break and I never heard back from them til this day. A little outrageous don't you think?

Moving on, the number of pharmacies I went to these past few days definitely rises to over 10. None of them said they had an opening besides this private pharmacy I went to today. However, they are looking for a full-time pharmacy technician, meaning a lot of hours, but also meaning that they want someone during the school year also. I'm still a student in a different state for college, so that might be a bit difficult. Not to mention that they want to pay minimum wage. But that's not a big deal to me. There's still hope. That's the closest I've gotten to getting a job these days. It sucks to see other technicians in the pharmacy when I go in to ask only to find out that there are no openings. I always ask myself "If there are almost never any openings, then how come there are so many technicians working in each of the pharmacies?" What's the answer? I'd like to put all my money on CONNECTIONS. When I asked the pharmacist in Target about job openings there, she replied, "Oh I'm sorry. Most of my students come back to work during summer and breaks so I don't think there will be any openings soon." Say what??? Even if your students are there right now you are saving a spot for ALL of them? Seriously woman, give some other people a chance sometime. I'm not even asking for a lot of hours, I just want some experience. That was just one example, but I know plenty of pharmacy technicians who got their spot from connections. Connections don't even always work out! One might think that because my dad is in the pharmaceutical industry business that he could help me find a job as a pharmacy technician through his connections. Wrong! He is in a different side of the pharmacy field. There are many many different fields of pharmacy. Even his connections in the retail pharmacy field aren't even helping. After asking a lot of his connections, he just barely found a "job" for me on mondays, tuesdays, and fridays at a private pharmacy. He had to ask his coworker to ask his friend. Even after all that work, I'm not even sure that I'm going to get paid, but I don't mind that much. Get this though, the work place is over an hour away from my house. Redunkulous! I have to drive 25 miles to the owner's house (~30 minutes away) by 7:45 AM. Then he's going to drive me to the work place (another hour). After all this, I will be stuck there for the whole day, not getting back to my house until 8 PM. yes, I will be gone for over 12 hours AND I probably won't get paid for it. This is all for the experience though.

My point is, finding a specific job, let alone a job, in this economy is freaking hard. You can run around to so many places in one day and not get the slightest hope of getting a job. Looks like connections do take you very far in this world. Makes me wonder how those people with no connections ever get a job. Enough of my whining and complaining. It's about time for me to hit the bed since I currently have only 5 and a half hours left to sleep. Hopefully there will be good news tomorrow, but I will most likely be dozing off for the majority of the day tomorrow - maybe crushing a few pills with my forehead while im at, if you get what I mean.