Avalaunch Media, Author at ShiftPosts.com

March 30, 2023March 29, 2023

Growing Your Career as a Pharmacist

Three pharmacists looking at a clipboard overlayed with a cityscape.

When choosing a pharmacy career, your first thought may be about how much a pharmacist makes. Once you’ve established yourself in the industry, you might wonder how to enhance your pharmacist career path. At ShiftPosts, we’re here to shift the conversation around pharmacy work by empowering pharmacists like you to take more control of their careers. That’s why we’ve gathered some valuable tips for growing your career as a pharmacist, ensuring you can make your career everything you want it to be.

8 Tips To Grow Your Career as a Pharmacist

As a pharmacist, there are a lot of opportunities to grow your career, but it can be easy to fall into a rut and feel stagnant. Here are eight tips to help you grow your career as a pharmacist and reach your full potential.

1. Avoid Comfort Zones

One of the biggest obstacles to your pharmacist career path is staying in your comfort zone. We are all creatures of habit, so staying where things are familiar and comfortable is easy. However, doing this can slow your career growth and limit your potential. Instead, find ways to push yourself out of your comfort zone. You can do this by learning new skills, taking on new responsibilities, and working at different pharmacies with ShiftPosts.

2. Set Realistic Goals

If you don’t have a plan for your career growth, it can be challenging to make things happen for yourself. As you are working as a pharmacist, start setting specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely goals for your career. These goals could include skills you want to learn, certification courses you want to take, or an amount you want to earn. Make the goals easy enough for you to actually do them but challenging enough to push you to grow.

3. Find Your Weak Spots

We all have areas where we can improve, and pharmacists are no different. Once you identify your potential weak spots, you can start working on them. Whether improving your communication skills, learning new technology, or developing your clinical knowledge, taking steps to improve your weak spots can help you become a better pharmacist, which could lead to more growth opportunities.

4. Be a Constant Learner

One of the best ways to grow while working as a pharmacist is to be open to learning opportunities. The healthcare industry constantly evolves, and pharmacists must stay current on the latest research, technologies, and practices. Find continuing education opportunities, attend conferences or workshops, and read industry publications to stay informed and expand your knowledge. With a learning mindset, you can stay ahead of the curve and position yourself as an expert in your field.

5. Be Flexible

As a pharmacist, you know that every day on the job will be different. Various issues will arise, patient needs will change, and you’ll need to be able to adapt to things as they come. By being flexible, you can easily change your approach to different circumstances or accommodate various situations. Additionally, being flexible with your work schedule shows that you are a team player and makes you a valuable employee at your pharmacy, which can also help grow your career.

6. Be Unique

To make your pharmacist career path work best for you, you need to stand out against other pharmacists. Find what makes you unique and how to use it to boost your identity in the pharmacy. Maybe you are passionate about improving patient care or have different ideas for expanding community outreach. Whatever it is, highlighting the unique attributes you bring to the workplace can help you find new opportunities within the field.

7. Dream Big

To make the most of your pharmacy career, don’t be afraid to dream big! Do you want to open your own pharmacy? Are you interested in creating a bigger impact in your community? You can make it happen! Let yourself dream those big dreams for your pharmacist career, then set goals to help make them happen.

8. Improve Networking

Networking is essential to any career, and it’s especially important for pharmacists who want to grow their careers. If you want to enhance your pharmacist career path, start by improving your networking opportunities. You can attend industry events, join local and professional pharmacist organizations, and connect with industry leaders to help expand your network.

March 9, 2023March 1, 2023

How Much Does a Pharmacist Make?

According to the Canadian Pharmacist Association (CphA), there is a national pharmacist shortage across the county. This shortage has led many people to realize there are more job opportunities in the industry, and they have started considering a career as a pharmacist. With such a high need in the field, many people wonder how much pharmacists earn in Canada to help determine if it’s a good career option.

Read on to learn about the average salary of a pharmacist in Canada and how — with ShiftPosts — you can earn more.

Infographic about how much more money can be earned by using ShiftPosts

Pharmacist Average Salary in Canada

As a pharmacist, networking is an important process for future success, and avoiding it is a huge career mistake. Not only is pharmacist networking the highest source of new employment, but it can also help you achieve your pharmacy career goals. You’ll be able to obtain advice, additional information about your career, and new opportunities in your field. Frequent networking can also boost your confidence and improve your communication skills.

Glassdoor reports that the average salary for a pharmacist in Canada is $105,925 a year, including benefits.

Salary Range

The possible salary range for a Canadian pharmacist is between $87,000 and $190,000. However, a more likely range is between $97,000 and $139,000.

Experience Level

One way to boost how much pharmacists earn in Canada is through experience. The longer you’ve been in the field and the more career experience you have, the more you are likely to get paid. On average, more experienced pharmacists can make about $5,000 more per year than entry-level pharmacists.

A team of pharmacists meeting around a whiteboard.

Job Title

How much does a pharmacist make based on job title? It varies depending on your position. Here are some of the average annual salaries for common pharmacy roles.

Retail pharmacist — $104,786

Pharmacist manager — $127,289

Pharmacist assistant — $45,240

Pharmacist Salaries by Location

Location also influences how much money a pharmacist makes in Canada. More populated areas like Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, and British Columbia tend to have better-paying jobs for pharmacists than less populated areas. However, there is still a decent pay range from province to province.

Province Pay Rates

Here’s how much a pharmacist makes, based on the median average, per province:

Alberta — $111,536
British Columbia — $98,725
Manitoba — $110,436
New Brunswick — $98,894
Newfoundland and Labrador — $97557
Northwest Territories — N/A
Nova Scotia — $93,743
Nunavut — N/A
Ontario — $101,646
Prince Edward Island — N/A
Quebec — $112,199
Saskatchewan — $109,108
Yukon — N/A

City Wages

Pharmacist wages vary from city to city, just like they do between provinces, and smaller cities tend to have lower wages, even if they are located in a higher-paying province.

A team of pharmacists with a city in the background.

According to Indeed, these cities have the highest-paying jobs (per hour) for pharmacists in Canada.

Calgary, Alberta — $52.11
Windsor, Ontario — $51.40
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan — $51.32
Ottawa, Ontario — $51.04
Nanaimo, British Columbia — $50.57
Edmonton, Alberta — $49.87
Victoria, British Columbia — $49.56
Brampton, Ontario — $44.55
Toronto, Ontario — $43.28

Education Degrees

As with any career, your education level influences your average salary. Pharmacists need, at minimum, a bachelor’s degree to enter the field in an entry-level position. For those who earn a master’s or doctoral degree, their pharmacist salary will be more.

Other Factors That Influence a Pharmacist’s Salary

There are additional factors that can increase how much pharmacists earn in Canada, including:

Bonuses — These are often awarded based on performance, though some pharmacists who are involved in generating revenue can get bonuses based on the pharmacy’s annual revenue.
Hourly wage — Hourly wages directly impact how much a pharmacist makes per year, meaning the higher the hourly pay, the more the annual salary.

How Much You Can Make Using ShiftPosts

At ShiftPosts, we help connect pharmacies with relief pharmacists to fill open shifts across Canada. Thanks to our innovative platform that lets relief pharmacists and pharmacies set their pay per shift, relief pharmacists can make just as much — if not more — than traditional pharmacists and can do it in less time!

Let’s look at some examples of how ShiftPosts influences how much pharmacists earn in Canada.

A traditional pharmacist working 5 shifts a week for 50 weeks, with a 2-week vacation, can make an average salary of $105,925 in one year.

A relief pharmacist using ShiftPosts has more options.

Relief pharmacists can earn an average of $525.75 per shift. This means that, to match what a traditional pharmacist makes, a relief pharmacist only has to work 201 shifts in 40 weeks to reach the same annual salary. That’s 12 weeks of vacation, and the same pay, compared to the traditional work schedule.

As another example, let’s see what happens when a relief pharmacist works the same schedule as a traditional pharmacist.

A relief pharmacist working 5 shifts per week at $525.75 an hour is making $2,628.75 a week. Add that up for 50 weeks with a 2-week vacation, and this relief pharmacist is making $131,437.50 a year.

What if a relief pharmacist only wants to work one relief shift a week? That’s still $27,560 a year, which is excellent for only working four or five days a month!

With ShiftPosts, you can make more money while working less and still enjoy a full-time salary.

Ready to Become a Relief Pharmacist?

If you’re already a pharmacist and relief shifts sound like a perfect fit for your life, download the ShiftPosts app to get more flexibility in your career — and salary — today.

January 5, 2023January 12, 2023

Tips for Perfecting Your Pharmacy Technician Resume

As a pharmacy technician, your job is in high demand. This is excellent news for your job security, but it also means you’ll face stiff competition in the job market. You may end up competing with dozens of applicants for the same position. What’s more, hiring managers at large organizations, such as hospitals, often only have time to glance at pharmacy technician resumes or use an applicant tracking system to scan for relevant keywords.

That said, you have a limited opportunity to make a lasting impression. You need to synthesize the most important, relevant, and impressive pieces of information about yourself and format your resume strategically to highlight your skills and talents and set yourself apart from the competition. We’re here to help you create the most impactful pharmacy technician resume possible with these tips.

Focus on Key Pharmacy Technician Skills

The skills section of your pharmacy technician resume is critical to get right. When hiring a pharmacy technician, the hiring manager looks for specific skills on your resume. If you don’t include those skills as keywords within the skills section and throughout your work experience, you may be immediately counted out for the job in question. A high-quality resume with critical pharmacy technician resume keywords increases your odds of getting the job.

“A high-quality resume with critical pharmacy technician resume keywords increases your odds of getting the job.”

You can determine the skills they’re looking for by reading the job description and picking out the strengths the ideal candidate should have. Even if you haven’t worked as a pharmacy technician yet, you likely have skills that pertain to the position. For instance, if you’ve worked in any retail or warehouse position, you know how to manage inventory. If you’ve worked at a call center, you have customer service experience. These relevant skills should be included in your resume.

Soft Skills for a Pharmacy Technician Resume

General skills, such as customer service experience, are in high demand for pharmacy technicians. You are tasked with collaborating effectively with the general public and medical teams. For these job responsibilities, vital soft skills to list include:

Effective time management

Flexibility

Ability to be a team player

Empathy and compassion for others

Attention to detail

Interpersonal communication

Hard Skills for a Pharmacy Technician Resume

Hard skills are equally as crucial for your resume as soft skills. Here is a non-exhaustive list of some position-specific hard skills that pharmacy managers will be looking for:

Inventory audits

Compounding

Prescription filling and labeling

Ability to label and re-package medications

Knowledge of inventory control practices

Ability to read and interpret physician’s medication orders

Counting prescription medications

Confidentiality maintenance and HIPAA compliance

Coordinating prior authorizations

Medication and supply purchases

Patient insurance processing and third-party billing

Math and computer proficiency

Familiarity with pharmacy information systems

Knowledge of brand-name and generic drugs

Come Up With a Strategic Format for Your Resume

The way you organize your pharmacy technician resume matters more than you may think. When a hiring manager can quickly get a feel for who you are and your greatest strengths and career achievements, they’re more likely to continue reading.

In formatting your resume, use one-inch margins. Be respectful of the hiring manager’s time by keeping it to one page and being concise. You may have more skills and work experience than can fit on one page, but your resume should be tailored to the job and trimmed down to the most relevant qualifications that make you the best candidate for the position. Make your work experience more digestible using bullet points to break up the text. Avoid the use of icons and images.

infographic on how to format your resume

The best way to lay things out is in reverse-chronological order. Employers care more about your most recent experience than your job from seven years ago. So, listing your current or last employment will ensure that the most relevant and up-to-date information is at the top, where employers can easily see it.

Include a Summary or Objective Section at the Top

It’s great to list work experience, but it’s better to explain how your work experience makes you a good employee. An objectives section is one of the first sections of a resume that provides a short description of the work you’re seeking and how you would add value to the position you want. If you’re an entry-level candidate or transitioning from another industry, an objective section is appropriate to include in your pharmacy technician resume.

“An objectives section is one of the first sections of a resume that provides a short description of the work you’re seeking and how you would add value to the position you want.”

A summary is typically used by individuals with at least 10 years of experience; it’s used to highlight job history, personal qualities, top pharmacy technician resume skills and qualifications, and interest in the role. It should be customized for the position you are applying to. As a rule of thumb, try to condense your top selling points into four sentences or less. Be sure to include high-impact keywords and avoid being generic. Your summary should highlight what makes you unique and memorable, so customize it accordingly!

Objective and summary sections should be listed at the top of the resume after your name and contact information but before your work experience. They are often written in the third person in the past tense using strong action verbs. If you choose to include these sections in your resume, take time to craft it carefully. If you lazily type something up without giving it much thought, you risk making a poor first impression on the hiring manager, and they may not continue reading your resume beyond that section.

Provide Hard Numbers to Prove Your Value as a Pharmacy Tech

In your work experience section, it’s important to focus on your achievements on the job rather than just the responsibilities of the position. Coming up with an example of how you’ve used your skills to benefit your company shows what you are capable of and how you can contribute value to the next company you work for. Achievements are most impactful when described in metrics, as they help you quantify your contributions and back up your words with data.

For example, pharmacy technicians are responsible for providing excellent customer service. See if you can dig up some numbers about customer acquisition and retention that you were responsible for — i.e., how many new customers per month did you help to acquire? Of those people, how many that you regularly worked with have your retained since then? Other numbers of interest could include:

The size of your team

Number of customers served or acquired

The number of people you’ve managed (if applicable)

Number of orders you can fill in one day

Years of experience

How quickly you can work without sacrificing accuracy or quality

Tailor Your Resume to the Type of Pharmacy Job You’re Applying For

Each pharmacy runs a little differently and has unique needs. Having a unique resume for each job you apply for might sound like a daunting task, but we don’t mean that you need to rewrite your resume from scratch for each position.

Tailoring your resume simply means adding and replacing details here and there to match the requirements of a particular role listed in the job description to prove you’re the right fit. Candidates most often adjust their summary/objective sections to discuss their interest in the company and role, as well as the pharmacy technician resume skills and work history sections to show how their work experience fits the pharmacy’s needs.

Creating an Entry-Level Pharmacy Technician Resume

As an entry-level pharmacy tech, you’ll need to create an attention-grabbing resume demonstrating how your past work experience has prepared you for the pharmacy field. Jobs in child care, retail, customer service, food service, and more involve skills that translate well to pharmacies. If you don’t have any work experience, focus on applicable volunteer work, hobbies, personal projects, or educational qualifications and accomplishments that have led you to this position.

Tailoring a Hospital Pharmacy Technician Resume

If you have experience working in hospitals, highlight this in your resume. Describe the capacity in which you’ve worked in a hospital before and how your experiences there will make you a great pharmacy technician for the hospital setting. Discuss your experience with drug misuse surveillance, medicine distribution to patients, and answering patients’ questions and concerns about particular drugs.

Tailoring a Pharmacy Technician Resume

Hiring managers seek out pharmacy techs who are trained and certified with the right pharmacy technician resume skills to match. Make sure your resume includes certifications required by law, or you may not be considered for any position. Those applying for a pharmacy technician job tend to have several years of experience, and if this is true for you, it’s probably okay to skip the objective section.

Tailoring a Long-Term Care Pharmacy Technician Resume

Working in a long-term care facility involves working with nurses and serving the elderly. Your resume should highlight your communication and collaboration skills, ability to plan, implement plans, and evaluate, and dedication to treating senior citizens with compassion, dignity, and respect.

Tailoring a Registered Pharmacy Technician Resume

Being a registered pharmacy technician means that you’re certified by your province and have a working understanding of medicine brands and medical terminology. This is a big accomplishment, so don’t forget to include “Registered Pharmacy Technician” as your job title at the top of your resume. You should also mention the province where you’re registered and your licensing/certification details on the side or at the bottom.

You’re Ready to Apply for Pharmacy Tech Jobs!

All that’s left to do now is design your resume for the job you’re looking for using the tips above, and you’ll be well on your way to landing your dream job. Be sure to run your resume through an online checker that can provide additional pointers on improving it. You can also compare your resume against a winning pharmacy technician resume example online to see how you can mimic those strategies in your resume. Good luck!